Art of Jamaica

Next up in our Unsung series is Gregory Isaacs. Gregory was born on July 15, 1951, in the Fletcher's Land area of Kingston, Jamaica. He entered several talent shows and was first noticed by Bryon Lee. Bryon brought him and Winston Sinclair to record a duet titled "Another Heartbreak" (click on the video below to hear this track). It has no success. Gregory then joined a trio called The Concords. They spent the next couple years recording and releasing singles but did not gain the interest of the Jamaican audience.  The Concords ended in 1970 and Isaacs went at it alone for the next couple years. Isaacs persisted despite his failures and set up his own record store and label, African Museum, in partnership with Errol Dunkley in 1973. Under this label, Isaacs released his first hit "My Only Lover." This is credited as the first lover's rock record ever made. To finance more recordings made by African Museum's label and shop, Gregory recorded...

Artwork by KavionArt - www.kavionart.com Peter Tosh was born Winston McIntosh Oct. 19, 1944, in Westmoreland Jamaica. Tosh had a rough childhood. Abandoned by his parents, he moved around from relative to relative. He fell in love with music early &  taught himself to play the guitar by watching others play. He moved to Trench town as a teen where he met two other aspiring musicians Bob Marley & Bunny Wailer in the early 1960s. The trio would form a group called the Wailing Wailers. Tosh was the key member in the group's early stages simply because he was the only one that knew how to play any instruments. Under the tutelage of Joe Higgs, the three developed their love for music. In 1964,  the Wailers had their first success as a group with the ska song  "Simmer Down". They would go on to record some of the first know Reggae songs.  The 1970s brought the Wailers a major record contract with Chris Blackwell & Island records releasing their...

Painting By KavionArt In 1920s,  Marcus Garvey said "Look to   Africa , when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand" .  It is this ideology that eventually led to the growth of Rastafarian. Though Marcus Garvey was not directly involved in Rastafarianism , he is considered to be one of the religion's prophet. Marcus Garvey teachings on black empowerment, black unity and Africa being black people's rightful home served as the foundation for the Rastafarian  movement. By the 1920s, he had almost had a million  followers and one could say Rastarianism developed as an outcome of overall black empowerment. However, the official comme ncem ent of Rastafarianism as we know it became came after Ras Tafari Makonnem was crowned the emperor of Ethiopia & became known as Haile Selassie in 1930. Many took that crowning as a materialization of Marcus Garvey's words in 1920 hence the "prophet".  This connection was made by...

T he National Gallery of Jamaica was established in 1974 & currently has two branches. One in downtown, Kingston & the other in Montego Bay, St. James. It is said to be the oldest & largest public art museum in the Anglophone Caribbean. Its first collection contained 237 paintings & 25 sculptures.   Currently, they have four permanent galleries at the Kingston Branch. These are: l  The Historical Galleries l  The Edna Manley Galleries l  The Kapo Galleries l  The A.D Scott Collection                                                                 INFORMATION ON THE PERMANENT GALLERIES The Historical Galleries portrays Jamaica from its original inhabitants, the Tainos through colonization. First the Spanish enslaved the Tainos  then th...