THE business-like approach of the dancehall and alternative artistes at the final instalment of the Jamaica Reggae Industry (JARIA)-organised Reggae Rocking Wednesday series, held on February 24 at Edna Manley College, augurs well for this country’s popular music and is a clear indicator that perhaps, this part of our heritage will be left in capable hands. One thing became clear: dancehall artistes can behave, professionally when the situation calls for it. They are not animals.

This must be taken in the context of the fact that all the artistes and musicians who performed on the series of concerts in honour of Reggae Month, gave of their services free. Yet there were no unreasonable demands and none of the performers brought the customary large entourages. They adhered to the time constraints, attended all rehearsals and there was not a single no-show.

Interestingly, while the show did get a little adult at times, there was not one artiste who used profanity and the content was clean enough for the children to hear. In short, they left their egos at the door.

The artistes who represented the dancehall genre, such as LUST, Aidonia, Chino, Elephant Man, must be loudly praised for their behaviour on Wednesday night. Chairman of JARIA Freddy McGregor put it in context during a reasoning session on Friday. “They represented in a big way. We bash them all the time but it is only fair that when they do something good, at world standards, that we must praise them as well. It proves that dancehall really nice when them come right.”

It cannot been said often enough that the individuals who make up JARIA have been giving of their time, energy and talents, selflessly and have in no way profited from their efforts to bring some semblance of order and professionalism to our entertainment industry. Our mandate is to reclaim our musical paternity.

Wednesday’s event proved that shows can start on time — something that organisers of concerts for profit too often fail to achieve. Perhaps what we need in moving forward is the creation of a more structured atmosphere. We need to relearn the context within which we do business and produce a blueprint which could serve as a guide to others who wish to graduate into a professional mode and reap more financial success from this largely untapped resource.

Last night, the JARIA Honour Awards was the crowning moment of the month-long activities which served to bolster the image of all the forms of Jamaican popular culture of which reggae and dancehall are the most prominent. One of the lasting legacies of this event is that for the first time, many of our most popular tunes and songs now have written notes and arrangements done for full orchestra by our best arrangers, Jon Williams, Peter Ashbourne, Ibo Cooper, and Dalton Browne. The audience was treated to our music being performed by an orchestra composed of ten horns, nine strings and a seven-piece rhythm section.

The recipients this year were unsung heroes whose names are not usually on the lips of most music fans like the popular, front-line artistes. The mentorship honour award went to Sonny Bradshaw, lifetime achievement award to Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith and two posthumous honour awards to Desmond Dekker and Lynn Taitt. They were studio engineers. Errol Brown and Steven Stanley; musicians Tyrone Downie and Gladdy Anderson; producers Willie Lindo and Donovan Germain; artistes Errol Dunkley and Doreen Shaffer – Jamaicans who have worked behind the scenes for decades and have played an integral part in building our popular culture. The sound system honour awards were presented to King Stur Gav Hi Fi and Afrique.

I remain confident that we need to embrace the younger artistes. Musicians must take up the roles of modern-day griots, impart their vast reservoir of knowledge and know-how to dancehall and to whatever forms of music are produced by the younger generation. The generations to come will stand tall and command the attention of the world.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com