AMERICAN R&B, funk and soul music group Tavares has been added to the growing line-up for the 2011 Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival to be held at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium from January 27-29.

The group, which hails from New Bedford, Massachusetts, will be delivering the art of music to it’s many adoring fans as they rekindle memories with hits from their string of ’70s and ’80s collection such as She’s Gone, It Only Takes a Minute, Whodunit, Heaven Must be Missing an Angel and Penny For Your Thoughts.

The group is currently made up of brothers Perry Lee ‘Tiny’ Tavares, Arthur ‘Pooch’ Tavares, Antone ‘Chubby’ Tavares, and Feliciano ‘Butch’ Tavares.

They have produced 11 studio albums with various record labels, namely Capitol records and RCA. The group, which was once known as Chubby and the Turnpikes, signed it’s first major record deal with capitol Records back in 1967.

In 1973, they changed their name to Tavares and a year later they had their

first number one R&B hit with Hall and Oates’s She’s Gone. In 1975, the group had its most successful year chart-wise, chalking up a top 40 album (In the City) and it’s biggest hit, the top ten pop number one R&B smash It Only Takes A Minute.

The group continued to churn out music right throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s and it was in that latter part that it had it’s last major hit, the ballad Penny For Your Thoughts.

In 1984, Ralph Tavares stepped down from the group and Tiny left in the mid-1990s, however the other three brothers continued to tour. In early 2009, Tiny Tavares rejoined the group and is currently touring.

Come this January, Tavares will join Maroon 5, SWV, Diana King and Luara Izibor at the 2011 Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in Trelawny.

The event has grown from a modest 1,500 patrons to well over 25,000. Major sponsors for the 2011 edition are the Jamaica Tourist Board, Heineken, Baileys, Johnnie Walker and Flow.