CME 2002 joins with Music Bridges
|
Observer Reporter
Friday, February 08, 2002
|
 |
| Alan Scott (right), founder of Music Bridges Around the World, chats with Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism and Sport Dr Wykeham McNeil (left), and Caribbean Music Expo chairman, Lloyd Stanbury. (Photo: JIS) |
The annual music convention and showcase, Caribbean Music Expo (CME) is seeking to take on a much bigger international profile, this year, as the organisers will be partnering with the internationally acclaimed songwriters retreat Music Bridges Around the World.
The third annual Caribbean Music Expo (CME 2002) will be staged in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, from March 20 to 24 and will again include a series of panels and workshops, exhibits and performance showcases.
California-based Music Bridges founder, Alan Roy Scott, himself a former staff writer with Motown Records, was recently in Jamaica to finalise details about the CME/Music Bridges collaboration. While here Scott had meetings with junior minister with responsibility for entertainment, Dr Wykeham McNeill, and officers of JAMPRO to discuss the project and secure local support. According to a release from Scott's office, Music Bridges Around the World has been held in several other countries, among them Germany, Cuba, Ireland, Indonesia, Romania and the former USSR.
Music Bridges Jamaica will run from March 16 to 25, with the writing retreat slated for the Dragon Bay Hotel in Portland from March 17 to 22. All international and local participants of Music Bridges Jamaica will then move to Ocho Rios from March 22 to 25 to participate in the CME.
To date several top international songwriters and performers have been confirmed to be in Jamaica for Music Bridges. These include 2001 Grammy nominee India.Arie, Wyclef Jean, Gerald Levert, Don Was, Michael Jackson producer Rodney Jerkins, Darius Rucker lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, Andy Summer, formerly of the Police, Jimmy Cozier, Chris Robinson of the Black Crows and Brenda Russell. In all, 35 overseas-based writers and performers are expected in the island to partner with 25 Jamaican writers and performers at the retreat.
CME chairman, Lloyd Stanbury, says, "local songwriters and performers as well as Jamaica's tourism product will derive significant benefits from the CME/Music Bridges collaboration."
In its 12 years of operation so far, Music Bridges Around the World has included such songwriting and recording luminaries as Burt Bacharach, Michael Bolton, Montell Jordon, Clady's Knight, Mick Fleetwood, Lamont Dozier, Beth Neilsen Chapman, Bonnie Raitt, Stewart Copeland, Jimmy Buffett, Cyndi Lauper, N'Dea Davenport, Meshell Ndegeocello and Joan Osborne. Music Bridges Jamaica will result in several new musical compositions being created by the participants, and will provide great opportunities for creative networking. On March 24, all Music Bridges participants will join on stage in Ocho Rios in a grand concert dubbed the Music Bridges/CME International Jam Session, where several of the new compositions will be performed. This concert will be staged at Chris Blackwell's new Island Village amphitheatre in Ocho Rios.
Several music publishers, managers and media representatives will accompany the group from the United States, and a documentary film of the project will be produced. All proceeds from the film and the International Jam Session will go to local charities. The Edna Manley School of Music has been identified as one of the beneficiaries.
CME and Music Bridges Jamaica are both supported by the European Union-funded Trade Development Project administered by JAMPRO.
|
|
| Related Articles |
| No
related articles were found |
| |
|
|
|
