John Legend

Surely, the song on most everybody's lips last year was Jon Legend's piano-laden ballad, Ordinary People from his debut solo album, Get Lifted. The gold selling disc, released on Columbia/Sony Music, also featured the singles So High and Used to Love You.

"Last year has been the best year of my life so far, " he says in classic understatement. "Everything I've worked for over the past few years has come together, it's been a dream come true." Legend is one of the acts billed to perform at this year's staging of the Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, which takes place in Montego Bay from January 26-28.

"I perform with a great group of musicians. All of them are very talented and dedicated to putting on a great show. When everything comes together, when our energy is reciprocated by the fans, it's a beautiful feeling. I can't wait to perform in Jamaica. I know it's going to be special."

Indeed, performing before an audience wasn't novel for him as he has been singing since childhood. "I used to watch Michael Jackson on television and I figured I could do what he was doing," said Legend.

Born John Stephens(the "legend" moniker came via a friend), his immersion in music began at home. "By the time I was eight or nine, I was playing in the local church for the choir. I always loved the feeling when people responded to my singing and playing so I was already making little gospel records in high school. I was ambitious and just loved being onstage."

While his early exposure was to gospel, John had developed a taste for the more secular material of Jodeci, Boyz II Men, LL Cool J and MC Hammer. Notwithstanding, he lists Stevie Wonder, Shirley Caesar, James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green(who is also featured on this year's Jazz & Blues Festival), the O'Jays and Lauryn Hill as his major influences. He applied to various colleges for a music scholarship but, oddly enough ended up an English major at the University of Pennsylvania. He juggled attending school and working part-time to support himself.

A lot of that "part-time" was spent making music, recording CDs with his collegiate a cappella group, performing solo at talent shows and directing the choir at a local church. Just months before work started on Get Lifted, Legend finally ended a nine-year tenure as music and choir director at Bethel AME Church just outside Philadelphia.

Being in the city of brotherly love in the late 1990s allowed John exposure to some of the artistes at the nucleus of the then burgeoning "neo- soul movement, including Jill Scott, Bilal, Musiq and The Roots.

He waited patiently to catch the ear of record company executives and it paid off: through his college roommate and collaborator, Devo Harris, he met Kanye West (Harris' cousin), who was emerging as a hit-making producer for acts like Jay-Z and Scarface and an artiste in his own right. "I first met Kanye after he came to see one of my shows," Legend recalled. He added, "It took a while for us to start working together. The first time was when he had me come in to sing hooks on a couple of the songs that eventually made the College Dropout album. Then he gave me some beats to write for my demo."

By late 2003, Kanye West had signed the multi-faceted Legend as the first artiste to his production company, KonMan Entertainment, and a deal with Columbia Records soon followed. After signing with the label, John began the task of sorting through the many songs he'd written over the years, finally narrowing it down to 40 songs.

Legend has already commenced work on his next album. No release date has yet been set for the disc. "I have started working on my next album. I'm very excited to start that process. I've been touring so much last year that I haven't had much time to create. I feel very inspired right now and I'm determined to make an album that's even better than Get Lifted."

Legend says music brings him closer to God. Now, the musical journey he began in the local church is taking him around the world, with Rose Hall, Montego Bay as his next stop.

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