The Jakoostik Music Ensemble formerly known as the Calabash Acoustic Ensemble consists of Wayne Armond, Steve Golding and Seretse Small knocking out with passion and ease Jamaican Classics from the catalogues of Peter Tosh, Bob Andy, Beres Hammond, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and others all with an acoustic vibe.
Having performed at Calabash Literary Festival for many years the ensemble is now recording an album and have started performing concerts around Kingston.
they will take you back to the simple power of Jamaican music ...strong lyrics...hypnotizing rhythms
REVIEWS
2008
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This ensemble of musicians is always impressive. Seretse Small is an amazingly gifted guitarist whose speed and tasteful understanding of moment are truly brilliant. Wayne Armond and Steve Golding don’t flash like Small does, but they offer sweet licks and rhythm and their vocals are never hurried, never precious, always just right.
By Kwame Dawes
2007
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The final event of the festival is always the performance of a band that we have now come to call the Calabash Acoustic Ensemble. It is made up of some stalwart reggae musicians who have had a significant impact on the direction of reggae music over the years: Steven Golding, Wayne Armond, and Seretse Small are all there again this year.
The Calabash Acoustic Ensemble then kicks into gear. They embark of an hour-long performance of the music from Bob Marley's Exodus and Third World's Ninety Six Degrees in the Shade; both albums celebrating their thirty year anniversary. With witty banter, stunning arrangements as they segue from song to song, the vibe is powerful, touching and really spiritual. Cindy Breakspeare comes on stage to sing "Turn Your Lights Down Low" and Rita Marley, who is in the audience, is acknowledged as the band cheats a bit and plays a few strains of "No Woman Nuh Cry".There is a scandal built into the moment--a kind of gossip in this appearance of the wife and the mistress--but you realize that this is not the first time something like this has happened, and somehow there is no awkwardness--it is all in the spirit of the festival that the celebration can continue. The men on stage take us through classic reggae song after reggae song. Sereste Small is an amazing guitarist and his virtuoso turns form an beautiful counter-balance to the calm grounded skill of the other guitarist and Ibo Cooper's keyboards.
By Kwame Dawes
2006
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Black Heart Man
With the late afternoon sunlight playing on the waves making silvery patterns in the background, the acoustic ensemble of Seretse Small (Griot Music), Billy Mystic (The Mystic Revealers), Wayne Armond (Chalice) and Steve Golding (of Ossie D & Stevie G duo) closed the festival with a musical tribute to the 30th anniversary of Bunny Wailer�s classic album Black Heart Man which comprises:
* Blackheart Man
* Fighting Against Conviction
* The Oppressed Song
* Fig Tree
* Dream Land
* Rastaman
* Reincarnated Souls
* Amagideon ( Armagedon)
* Bide Up
* This Train
They glided from one rendition after another of songs from the album, punctuated with reflections on Bunny Wailer and his music and humorous quips here and there. During Dream Land Seretse gave an awesome display of guitar skills honed over a 20-year career which included training at Jamaica School of Music, Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, major jazz festivals in Grenada, Jamaica and St Lucia, and three years backing Grammy-winning artiste Sean Paul on a world tour.
Stevie G shared excerpts from a speech he delivered at an event organised by the Reggae Studies Department, UWI in 1996, to commemorate the fiftieth birthday of Bunny Wailer, the last remaining member of the original Wailers trio, which included Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Explaining that Black Heart Man was �a rebuttal to the colonialist concept used in a divisive way� he proclaimed the album Bunny�s seminal work.
Of course the artistes had to venture outside the focal album to treat with other popular Bunny Wailer compositions such as Ballroom Floor which sparked a sing along and, for some, dance along which carried through to the end of the show.
by Tamani Amal
