Beginning in June 2008, two of the greatest veteran artists in reggae will be touring North American – Daddy U-Roy and Cornel Campbell, along with Sister I-live the Dancehall Diva. This tour is slated to commence at the prestigious Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, on June 21st.  We are currently booking more shows in the western US and Canada.

U-Roy and Cornel Campbell are two of the most respected foundation artists in the reggae business, each with recording and performing careers spanning 50 years.  For all reggae fans and lovers of the old school sound, both young and old, this is a must-see tour package.  Daddy U-Roy is the originator of the world-renowned Jamaican deejay style.  Cornel Campbell has one of the sweetest, most legendary voices in reggae and a catalog of hits as deep as a bottomless pit.   Together, these artists have worked with almost every major producer, musician, and studio in Jamaica.  They perform regularly in Europe and Japan, and will be performing on this tour with their own band of world-class musicians.  Both of these high-profile veteran artists grace the stage with an ease and confidence that befits their stature.  They are also good-natured brethren with good senses of humor.  They are a joy to behold.  We are proud to be able to bring you this classic tour package.

Daddy U-Roy has been in the music business for 47 years, setting the trend for a whole musical genre coming out of Jamaica.   U-Roy’s influence on the course of popular music is immense and pervasive.  The roots of hip-hop style grow from the bedrock of Daddy U-Roy and the early masters of Jamaican toasting.   With Duke Reid and Treasure Isle in the late 60’s and early 70’s, U-Roy voiced some of the greatest rock steady rhythms in the golden era of the Jamaican sound. Then, with King Tubby’s new dub style emerging out of Waterhouse, U-Roy’s deejaying became the defining sound in reggae music.  His catalog of hits cover five decades and includes Wake the Town, Wear You to the Ball and Chalice in the Palace.  Currently he has out a new single that was just released in 2007 – Precious, featuring the rising star Alborosie. You can find out more about U-Roy at www.myspace.com/uroyreggae

Cornel Campbell is another one-of-a-kind legend of reggae music. His numerous classic hits, including Queen of the Minstrels, Starsand The Gorgon, count among some of the most requested year-to-year song titles in Jamaican music.  In 2006, he performed at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, and did a successful U.S. west coast tour. In 2005, Cornel appeared in California at the Trade Roots Reggae 20th Anniversary show at SOMA, San Diego, performing for 1,500 people along with Horace Andy.  Highly respected as a legendary singer amongst Jamaican artists, Cornel Campbell commands one of the best voices to ever come out of Jamaica.  With a new CD slated for a 2008 release – NEW SCROLL, on the Zion High label, Cornel Campbell is hitting the road with some fresh new songs along with his classic older material. You can find out more about Cornel Campbell at www.myspace.com/cornelcampbell

Sister I-Live is a crowd pleaser giving us the female perspective.  She is a lively performer who also comes with a good sense of humor, while still touching on some serious messages for the times.  All in all, this promises to be a great tour package. Sister I-live is at www.myspace.com/sisterilive

BIOGRAPHY: U-ROY

U-Roy’s musical career began in 1961 when he began deejaying at various sound systems, including an early stint with Sir Coxsone Dodd.  When he later joined with ace engineer King Tubby, who was then in the process of inventing dub music,  the course of Jamaican music changed forever.  With U-Roy as his deejay, King Tubby’s sound system set the standard for Jamaican musical entertainment.  In the course of time, the dancehall sound of rub-a-dub riddims with countless deejay versions would become the gold standard of Jamaican popular music. 

U-Roy’s success continued throughout the 1970s, perhaps most famously with the album Dread in a Babylon, produced by “Prince” Tony Robinson, and its iconic picture of him disappearing in a thick cloud of cannabis smoke while holding a chalice. Indeed, there was also a song called “Chalice in the Palace”, in which he fantasized about smoking with Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace. U-Roy had become one of the island’s biggest stars by the early 1980s, also garnering significant acclaim in the United Kingdom. His most recent album is called – SERIOUS MATTER.

U Roy was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on October 15, 2007 in Jamaica.

BIOGRAPHY: CORNEL CAMPBELL

Cornel Campbell, a.k.a. the Gorgon, started singing professionally in 1956 at the age of 8, when he recorded his first songs for the legendary

Coxsone Dodd. at Studio One.   He is best known for the series of  “Gorgon Rock” sides cut with legendary producer Bunny Lee and mixed by King Tubby.  As a teen, Campbell recorded a series of ska sides both as a solo artist and as one half of a duo with Alan Martin from 1964 to 1967.  He later worked for a time as a member of the rocksteady harmony trio The Uniques.  As the decade ended, he led the group The Eternals, scoring a number of Studio One hits for Coxsone Dodd including Queen of the Minstrel and Stars.  

In 1971, following a period singing with the Sensations, Cornel again went solo and  teamed with Bunny Lee, a pairing which spotlighted Campbell’s distinctive falsetto to stunning effect.  Despite earning acclaim for a self-titled lp issued on Trojan two years later, in 1975 he shifted from the lovers rock sensibility  to a more explicitly Rastafarian approach, with records like “Natty Dread in a Greenwich Farm” and “Natural Fact”- both of which developed into his biggest hits to date.  Later that year, Campbell and Lee also launched “The Gorgon,” a boastful smash, which yielded a series of hit sequels.  His 1977 hit “The Investigator” heralded a successful return to lover’s rock style.  Songs like “Boxing” and “Rope In”, both released by Joe Gibbs, proved that Cornel Campbell could again rule the dance hall as the up-tempo rockers era yielded to the rub-a-dub sound in the late 70s and early 80s.  Recording sporadically over the following decades, the Gorgon has resurfaced again and again to claim his rightful place in the pantheon of golden-voiced singers.

Cornell Campbell is still “the Gorgon.”

BIOGRAPHY: SISTER I-LIVE

Sister I-live was born and raised in the parish of Westmoreland in Jamaica.  Her first singing experiences began in her local parish church and school choirs.  She later became a participant in the local Youth Club concerts, where she was loved and accepted.  This exposure inspired her to start writing and recording her own compositions.

She and her friends would frequently go to the beach side with guitars and drums and chant music for hours.  Sister I-live loved to attend dancehall sessions in clubs by the ocean, where she loved to dance long hours to all kinds of music.  From an early age Sister I-live was interested in seeking a spiritual way of life.  At fourteen years old, she began visiting and reasoning with local Rasta brethren and sistren.  Sister I-live loved attending the Nyabinghi groundation gatherings where Rasta people chant together along with hand drums.  In 1973, she began to grow her dreadlocks and further her commitment to her faith.  When she was 22, Sister I-live moved from the Westmoreland countryside to Kingston, where she lived with her world-renowned cousin, Peter Tosh.  Peter was a mentor to I-live, and he encouraged her to continue singing.

In 1984 Sister I- live moved to California, where she started performing in the DJ style, toasting over the local sound systems.  Then, she began singing on stage shows, backing up local reggae performers.  In 1987, she got together her own band called the Chosen Few, with some of the best reggae musicians in the Bay Area.  In the 90’s and early 2000’s, I-live and her band performed consistently locally, and then spread out around the West Coast and Canada.  Sister I- Live’s first release for Out Of Many One, Jah Guide was released in 1989.  Her follow up release, Jealousy, (2002) was recorded and mixed in Kingston with some of the best reggae studio musicians in the world.  Her recorded music provides a strong foundation for her live show repertoire.  Sister I-live is a lively performer whose dancing infectiously moves her audiences. Her effervescent, bubbling, upbeat vibes are contagious as she sings and dances.