KINGSTON, Jamaica – Making music for the ages was the formula for most artistes back in the 1970s. It has paid off for many who are still in the music business.

Rhythm and Blues group Atlantic Starr are beneficiaries of that ‘timeless music’ policy which brought them a number of ht songs in the 1980s and 1990s. Those songs keep them on the road nearly 40 years after they formed in New York City.

“We never thought about trends when we were writing, we did things from the heart,” said Jonathan Lewis, one of two original members in the current line up. “A lot of acts today write for trends, so many of them end up being here today, gone tomorrow.”

Best known for hits like Always, Secret Lovers and Masterpiece, Atlantic Starr perform in Kingston Saturday at the Lime Golf Academy. Lewis told Splash that the group does an average 35 shows a year.

Most of those dates are in the United States, sometimes alongside contemporaries like the SOS Band, Midnight Star, Evelyn King and El DeBarge.

“We do a multiplicity of venues, from 10,000-seaters to intimate areas,” Lewis explained. He said Atlantic Starr’s biggest markets outside the US are in the United Kingdom, Asia and South Africa.

While acknowledging that much of contemporary R&B is disposable, Lewis admires some younger artistes. 

“I like Bruno Mars, he’s like a young Jackie Wilson. Beyonce’s a great singer but she’s not doing the songs that do justice to her potential,” he said.

Lewis’ brother Wayne, L’Jon Epps and Melissa Pierce are the other members of Atlantic Starr. 

Derrick Harriott, Ken Boothe, Cocoa Tea, Noddy Virtue, Nikiesha Barnes, Jodian Pantry, this year’s Rising Stars winner, T-Rizzy, Breezy McKenley and Roc Riva are also on Saturday’s show.