Dale Virgo's Blog » Music

Drake – Marvins Room

Dale — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 07:09:34 +0000

I saw Drake create this song at Geejam, it was crazy vibes. I knew it was gonna be a hit.

Mud Lane Family – Boys from Muirton Boys Home

Dale — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 02:59:57 +0000

These are some dudes that came into the studio and we gave them complimentary studio time at Geejam. They have alot of potential. These dudes are from Muirton Boys Home.

Mud Lane Family – Boys from Muirton Boys Home by dalevirgo

below are the instrumentals to listen to…

Dizzle Beats June 25 by dalevirgo

143 by Kane – I did this in my hotel room today

Dale — Sun, 08 May 2011 20:01:08 +0000

Jolly Boys in NY: New York Times Review

Dale — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:35:24 +0000

Albert reads the Jolly Boys review in The New York Times at the JFK International Airport on their way back to Jamaica.

Reprints

February 25, 2011

With Island Spice, and Years of Seasoning, Old is New Again

By JON PARELES

The Jolly Boys returned to New York City for their first public show here in decades like a Model T with a new CD player in the dashboard. At Hiro Ballroom on Thursday night, they had material few people would expect from a band that was started in the 1950s to play a style that was already decades old. The Jolly Boys have been entertaining people in Port Antonio, Jamaica, since then, often as a hotel’s house band, with a shifting lineup; Albert Minott, 72, recently stepped forward as lead singer.

The Jolly Boys cling to a Jamaican style called mento, a precursor to ska and reggae born out of older rural music. Mento is kin to old calypso and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms. But it has its own variant beats and its own cheerfully rickety instrumentation, including maracas, banjo and, instead of a bass, a rumba box: the player (Derrick Henry, a founding member of the group) sits on a box that’s like a supersized thumb piano, with wide metal prongs to plunk.

The Jolly Boys have been discovered before. From 1989 to 1997 they recorded four albums of their Jamaican songs for American labels. Only one member at the time, Joseph Bennett, is in the current band, on maracas.

At Hiro, the Jolly Boys turned to rock songs, but played two old mento songs: three-chord dance tunes that lurched and swayed their way toward potential singalongs. Mr. Minott sang with a hearty rasp; Lenford Richards, on banjo, switched between brisk, tinny rhythm chords and sauntering lead lines.

Then came songs from the band’s current album, “Great Expectation” (EOne Music). They were an unlikely assortment, trading Caribbean idylls and social commentary for alienation and post-punk self-consciousness. The set included the Stranglers’ “Golden Brown,” a song about heroin and lust; the Blondie hit “Hanging on the Telephone;” Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.”

Each song got a mento treatment, with its own swaying, ambling beat and prickly banjo counterpoint. Mr. Minott let loose gravelly shouts in “Blue Monday,” New Order’s bitter estrangement song; Lou Reed’s affectionate “Perfect Day” became a melancholy ballad with a whistled countermelody, and Mr. Richards translated the lead guitar solo of Steely Dan’s “Do It Again” into a jittery Jamaican banjo excursion.

The songs were thoroughly incongruous, but not quite as gimmicky as a description might sound. Musicians in Jamaica have a long history of applying their rhythms to hits from abroad. By wrenching the songs so far away from their original versions, the Jolly Boys (and the British producers behind “Great Expectation”) forced them to be heard afresh. “The Passenger,” an Iggy Pop song, became a gallop along the open road; the Johnny Cash hit “Ring of Fire” hinted at arson. Meanwhile, the band was pioneering something different in mento: angst. Still, since the Jolly Boys visit New York so rarely, more of their own material would have been welcome.

Jolly Boys: (Billboard Magazine Article)

Dale — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:25:01 +0000

Jolly Boys: Why GeeJam Recordings Launched with a Septuagenarian Jamaican Mento Band

March 11, 2011

By Patricia Meschino, New York

70-Somethings: Jamaican Mento Group the Jolly Boys, who now cover Amy Winehouse and Iggy Pop,once played For Errol Flynn

Eleven years after he sold his UK-based hip-hop label Gee Street Records to Richard Branson’s V2 Records, Jon Baker expects his recently launched GeeJam Recordings to successfully impact the US market with an unlikely flagship act: septuagenarian Jamaican mento group The Jolly Boys.

GeeJam, a full service label/management company with offices in New York and Kingston, has partnered with eOne Music for the Jolly Boys’ album “Great Expectation,” scheduled for release on May 3. Recorded at Baker’s GeeJam Studios in Port Antonio, Jamaica (utilized by Drake and Amy Winehouse, among others), his co-production alongside Dale Virgo, nimbly weaves mento’s defining instrumentation (banjo, maracas, thumb piano) into spirited, signature interpretations of contemporary hits including Winehouse’s “Rehab” and Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger,” and New Order’s “Blue Monday.”

Jamaica’s first recorded music, mento is characterized by topical, often risqué subjects addressed through artful double entendre, like its Trinidadian counterpart, calypso. “All Jamaican music, ska, reggae, dancehall, come from mento,” declares the Jolly Boys’ lead singer Albert Minott, 72. “My grandparents told me when the slaves were tired they would sing mento songs in the sugar cane fields.”

Detractors view Baker’s “modern mento” concept as gimmickry but he staunchly defends its significance in establishing the genre among a broader audience. “Mento interpretations of familiar songs opens up the entertainment factor,” says Baker. “Mento was once Jamaicans’ social-political mouthpiece with songs about everything from excessive rum drinking to corrupt politicians, topics that are heard in their modern repertoire and that’s an important linkage.”

A near capacity crowd of 600 heartily cheered mento’s modern and traditional strains when the Jolly Boys performed at New York City’s Hiro Ballroom on February 24, which commenced the US campaign for the Jolly Boys’ “Great Expectation.”

“People compare them to the Buena Vista Social Club: incredible musicians with an incredible sound; once people hear it, they dig it,” says Ed Micone of Paradigm’s New York office who is handling their bookings, which includes dates at nightclubs, casinos, performance arts centers and festivals throughout the US and Europe.
The Jolly Boys’ have honed their musical craft since the 1950s when they were called the Navy Island Swamp Boys performing at star-studded soirees hosted by American actor Errol Flynn in Port Antonio. Rechristened The Jolly Boys by Flynn, the group has existed in various configurations ever since, performing at hotels within Jamaica’s resort areas.

Their enduring career and mento’s historical importance steer the marketing for “Great Expectation” says Chuck Mitchell Vice President, Jazz, Classical and Adult Music at eOne.

On February 18 a five-track digital EP “Classic Mento From Port Antonio” was released on iTunes to acquaint listeners with the Jolly Boys’ roots and generate interest in the forthcoming album’s modern mento expression. “Great Expectation” will be serviced to triple A, alternative and world music formats, public broadcasting and non-commercial outlets,” says Mitchell, “and we’re looking into branding and licensing to get this music heard on television and in movies, associations that extend beyond the core world music crowd.”

Another enthusiastic partner is Chris Hutton owner of the Dublin, Ireland, based investment company Shamrock Solutions, which funds albums through capital raised by the UK’s Icebreaker Management Services. Shamrock has done over 100 album financing deals in Europe, says Hutton, and has now moved into the US market with Baker as their stateside representative. “This project has fantastic potential,” says Hutton. “My kids love the Jolly Boys and so do my 80-something year old parents which is indicative of their widespread appeal.”

With Baker’s 30 plus years in the music business, which includes an association with punk impresario Malcolm McClaren in late-70s London and running Chris Blackwell’s Island Jamaica imprint in the mid 90s, he brings a discerning eclecticism to the various Jolly Boys projects which include a forthcoming reality TV show and a docudrama about Minott’s life, “A Jolly Boy”.

“They are part of a greater narrative about Jamaica’s heritage that has been overlooked,” observes Baker. “This music is getting people’s ears as something that time almost forgot but is now reinvented in a more accessible way.”

Article taken from Billboard.biz, click link below to see original article

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/record-labels/jolly-boys-why-geejam-recordings-launched-1005070822.story

THE JOLLY BOYS JOIN SADE AS SPECIAL GUESTS

Dale — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:18:43 +0000

THE JOLLY BOYS JOIN SADE AS SPECIAL GUESTS

Following a personal invitation from Sade, Jamaica’s legendary and iconic The Jolly Boys have announced that they will join Sade on their European tour this spring.

The Jolly Boys, once the toast of Jamaica with their traditional ‘mento’ music, have after five decades been enjoying a remarkable revival.

It was the legendary film star Errol Flynn who, having purchased a small swathe of Northeast Jamaica, would stage wild parties at his home, and provide his favourite entertainment in the form of a local mento band, whom he nicknamed The Jolly Boys.

Mento originated as country folk music, with origins in African sounds, but with influences from European and especially Celtic music. It pre-dated and influenced everything from ska to reggae to dancehall. However, the electrification of Jamaica and its independence in the 1960s led to the decline of mento music and a new musical voice, reggae.

It was in 2009 when music producer Jon Baker suggested The Jolly Boys record a new album featuring some surprising contemporary cover versions,[1] that mento music and The Jolly Boys were re-introduced to both Jamaica and the world. The album ‘Great Expectation’ released last year went on to receive rave reviews.

Singles from “Great Expectation” Album by The Jolly Boys by geejamstudios

In their 60-year existence a changing cast of at least 18 members has come and gone but now, as noted by The Observer’s Sarfraz Manzoor, ‘The Jolly Boys are finally getting the respect they deserve. With a combined age of 382, they make the Rolling Stones look like the Jonas Brothers’.

Since the release of their album, the band has performed on the BBC’s Later with Jools Holland, as well as mesmerising audiences at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Secret Garden Party and The Big Chill. Now Sade’s audiences will experience The Jolly Boys’ special brand of Jamaican magic.

Sade Live plus special guests The Jolly Boys – full ticket information:
Friday 27 May M.E.N. Arena, Manchester 0844 847 8000

Sunday 29 May LG Arena, Birmingham 0844 338 8000

Tuesday 31 May The O2 Arena, London 0844 856 0202

24 hour credit card hotlines: 0844 847 2450, 0844 209 7352
Online: www.ticketmaster.co.uk www.seetickets.com

Additional ticket and tour information can be found at www.SADE.COM and www.marshall-arts.com.

For information on The Jolly Boys visit www.jollyboysmusic.com. Great Expectation is available to purchase now on PIAS/Geejam Recordings.
For further information, please contact:

Ben Martin @ Marshall Arts

ben@marshall-arts.co.uk / + 44 20 7586 3831

Emmanuel Road by The Jolly Boys (Classic Mento)

Dale — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:11:01 +0000

Emmanuel Road by The Jolly Boys,

Produced by Dale Virgo & Jon Baker

Recorded in the Geejam Studios

Emmanuel Road – The Jolly Boys by geejamstudios

BUY ON ITUNES!!!!!!!

RIP Craig C

Dale — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:51:08 +0000

almost 2 weeks has past, i still cant believe that craig is gone.

its in the star, on their website… darn… its true…

http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20110315/news/news12.html

Gospel artiste, Craig C, was shot and killed last night in a robbery attempt in Portmore, St Catherine.

The deejay, whose real name is Collin Chambers, was said to have been killed in the 7 East, Greater Portmore area in St Catherine.

Up to press time last night the details on the incident were sketchy, however, THE STAR learnt that Chambers and another person were shot during the attack.

When THE STAR contacted the Constabulary Communications Network last night, a constable said the police were still on the scene. They could not identify the individual who was killed in the incident.

A family member confirmed the artiste’s death. According to the source, the artiste was killed when he attempted to assist a family member who was being robbed.

Several friends and fans began leaving messages on the artiste’s Facebook page from late last night.

One friend, Damian Young, wrote: “Time goes by, going without you. Hope you know I’ve been thinking about you. I know, I know that they took you from your home. But you’re in my heart, so I’m never gonna be alone.”

Another comment left by Dale Virgo read, “RIP mi bredda … mi real bredda … gone too soon … can’t believe it.”

Just hours before his death, Craig C wrote on his wall, “Feels good and I want the world to know. I officially gave my life back to Jesus Christ, March 8, 2011. Grateful for His mercy.”

Craig C is known for his songs, Your Love and Anything You Say or Do.

Craig was a good friend to me and a very dedicated christian, his heart was pure. We spent alot of time making music in the studio and he can be truly referred as a fallen soldier. His work and ministry has not gone in vain though, his music will continue to live on and continue to minister to people, who know, maybe even the people who shot him.

Listen to his songs, you hear strong lyrics, he was an educated yute, down to earth, intelligent.

11 My Help by dalevirgo

=============================================================================

Rest in peace brother, we laid the foundation u gone to the father to rest. You will be greatly missed.

Craig is one of the artiste i groomed from the start and saw him grow as a man, as a minister, he was always ambitious and had a zeal to do ministry. his heart was pure, we used to always talk on the phone, even though i was so far away, he would call and i was always glad to hear a phone call from him and check up on how he was doin. we made plans to do some new stuff this year, he was to link me in portie.

RIP Craig

Make One – Sean Lypher (Official Video)

Dale — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:07:28 +0000

Jolly Boys Jamaican Style (popculturevideomagazine.blogspot.com)

Dale — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:52:48 +0000

http://popculturevideomagazine.blogspot.com/2011/02/jolly-boys-jamaican-style.html

Errol Flynn gave this amazing band their name over 50 years ago.But it was John Baker who brought the Jolly Boys and their Mento style music to the Hiro Ballroom in New York, where they impressed even the most blase hipster. The Jolly Boys’ recent album, “Great Expectations” charted in eight European countries within the top-10 during 2010. ;Go and get it! Errol Flynn named this amazing band over 50 years ago in Jamaica, however, the Jolly Boys have only recently been noticed by the world. They rocked the HIRO ballroom and impressed even the most blase New York hipster. John Baker took the Jolly Boys out of their native land, to share Mento music with us. Find out more in this interview about a story much like the Buena Vista Social Club – Jamaican style. Their recent album, “Great Expectations”, charted in eight European countries within the top 10. Go and get it! jollyboysmusic.com