1 week ago
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During an energetic session last Wednesday at the Rooftop Terrace of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, prolific writer and music producer Mikie Bennett, had participants helping him to create a tribute in song to Olympian Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce. He showed a clip of the super athlete blazing her way to Olympic gold-medal glory and asked for a description of how Jamaicans celebrated that unforgettable moment. There were several suggestions, but the one that was most embraced for its ‘Jamaicanness’ was the term “wild”, and with that came the real banging of two pot covers by a participant. That sealed the deal.
“Yuh see ... during the creative process we came out with this gem called ‘pot cova wild’,” a delighted Bennett told the equally delighted group.
The occasion was the inaugural Music Mastery: Empowering the Sound Industry workshop, organised by Headline Entertainment and supported by the ACP-EU Culture Programme, UNESCO, the CARICOM Secretariat and The UWI, under the Creative Caribbean Project
In addition to Bennett, the presenters included music executive and Grammy-nominated producer, the surprisingly waif-like Cristy Barber; knowledgeable songwriter and creative director, Lloyd Laing; US-based singer-songwriter Nikki Shannon Fernandez; deputy director and legal counsel at Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO), Shantal English Richards; general manager of Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS), Evon Mullings; veteran instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer, Clive Hunt; and the duo of Steve Wilson, co-manager for Sean Paul, and Dana Shayegan, music, media, and technology entrepreneur.
The presenters all came with timely messages about the importance of the business side of the music business; creative development through “crafting sound, story and identity”; and understanding intellectual property and technology.
The presenters had the rapt attention of the more than 100 participants at the venue for several hours, and the general sentiment was that “this is a very good thing”. Singer and songwriter Andrea ‘Andi’ Green-Browne told The Gleaner that she learnt a lot, but would have liked to hear more from Evon Mullings.
Mullings was allotted 15 minutes, and he begged host Carlette DeLeon for another 10 minutes to air the facts and figures that provoked thought. The JAMMS chairman shared that streaming giant Spotify has 202 million songs on its platform, however, 50 million of those songs have no listeners and 175 million have less than 1,000 streams.
“If the song shows up in Google, that doesn’t mean that it is being sold,” Mullings emphasised, debunking the notion that a lot of artistes have about finding their songs on Google.
Following the presentation from Shantal English-Richards of JIPO, he continued to explain the various rights and defined the role of the producer and executive producer but omitted to mention the role of the arranger, a point on which the legend, Clive Hunt, challenged him.
Hunt stated that, like Mikie Bennett, he believes that the music business is still about the song.
“Since the modern period of music ... since the drum machine ... people just sit at their computer and tap, tap, tap. I gave Sly [Dunbar] his first drum machine and told him what it can do ... and he just went crazy. I remember Jah Cure called me and wanted me to produce a song. I said ‘Let me hear the song’. Him seh, ‘But mi no have nuh song, Fada.’ I tell him that me is not a man who produce riddim. Him seh ‘Jah know’. And I seh, ‘All right, what time?’” Hunt related.
The song was That Girl, and Hunt, Jah Cure and Jason Boyd are listed as the songwriters.
There is no doubt that the workshop was a success. Jerome Hamilton, of Headline Entertainment, said he was “pleased with the turnout” and thanked his partners, “whose flexibility and commitment made this possible”.
Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange passed through on her way to the studio to “make music which you will hear about”.
English (US) ·