THE Maxfield Avenue community is known for its contribution to Jamaica’s music legacy. Located in the gritty Kingston 13 area, it has produced artistes including Ryno, Twin of Twins, Singing Melody and Bunny Diamond of the Mighty Diamonds.

Eight-year-old Xylophone is adding her name to that list.

“I am always practising. I am, someday, going to be a big singer and a teacher,” she told the Jamaica Observer with confidence.

Maxfield Avenue was also the home of the legendary Channel One studio, which produced recordings that dominated the charts between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s.

Delroy Wilson’s It’s a Shame was Channel One’s first number one hit. Many others followed including the Mighty Diamonds’ Right Time, Have Mercy, I Need A Roof and Africa; The Meditations’ Woman Is Like a Shadow; Ballistic Affair by Leroy Smart and John Holt’s Up Park Camp.

Xylophone, whose given name is Le-Vein Moore, is a third grader of St Francis Primary in St Andrew. She was a featured act at the recent staging of Trench Town Rock and Reggae Praise during the Reggae Month concert series. She delivered on both accounts with a set including a rendition of Bob Marley’s Turn Your Lights Down Low and the spiritual Jesus Loves Me.

Her father, Andrew Moore, keeps a watchful eye on her progress to ensure her schooling does not take a backstage.

“Right now, I want her to focus on learning instruments… learning to read music properly. At least, she will have an understanding of what she is going into as it’s a dangerous industry,” he said.

“I’m never, never, never, going to give up singing!” quipped Xylophone.

Moore said that from an early age his daughter loved singing.

“I came from work one day when she was about one-and-a-half and heard her singing along to a song on the television. I turned to her mother and she thought nothing of it as she said casually: ‘Oh, she does that every day!'”

He said at three, she could attract a crowd at his gate. He has been since that time fostering her love for music.

“I love Whitney Houston for R&B songs and Bob Marley for reggae!” she said.

“She was groomed on the music of the greats,” he said, adding at home he plays foundation reggae and other genres.

And her vision?

“For my daddy to take me places I don’t know!”

— Cecelia Campbell Livingston