lj-music: Silencio mostly
Jomo won the 2007 Rock/Alternative Artiste of The Year at the Barbados Music Awards last night for his first album, “Free”.
It’s been a long time coming, but I am very proud of him. He’s miserable and mean sometimes, but he’s still my brother and I love him no matter what. As a family, we’ve been through so many hard times, and no matter what, we’re proud of him as a family.
It took a lot of guitar strings, bummed ciggies and endless ‘plinking’ on the guitar to get to this point, and somehow I believe it’s only the beginning! It’s not that we thought Jomo wasn’t worthy… he’s one talented man, but politics being what they are, we didn’t think he was going to win last night. We were sure Massala or Kite would win the award, but it was Jomo.
My boy went and bought himself a beautiful green suit, and some serious shoes (that were very Rumplestiltskin), and off he went. Jomo said when they announced his name, people cheered, but when he took the stage the cheered again, cause he looked good. And he did, he was dressed to kill, and his hair looked terrific.
I’ve taken a few pictures, all of before and after (because Big Mami can’t afford to catch the bus, much lest the cost of admission to said awards, mate).
As a side note: Where are the photos? No one who took photos last night posted anything to the web. In fact, the official results, news and photos are slow to come. Mind you this is Barbados, and it is just past 8am as I write, but still!!! Where are the bloggers dude?
Ahhh…. I’m proud of him. He may drive me crazy, but I pushed his steel pan through Woodbrook thirteen years ago to go play in Panorama in Queens Park Savannah in Trinidad, when he played with Invaders. I danced on the sidelines, jumped and partied, then pushed that steelpan all over the place that night. I was proud of his musical talent then, and I am no less proud now.
Of course, the phone has been ringing off the hook, and we’re all floating… except Dayo, he has no idea and is sitting in his swing alternately watching “Tempo” and sleeping… heh.
All of us are floating here this morning. Jomo can’t sleep he’s so pleased with himself. He came out here a little while ago and picked up the award, he’s gone to sleep with it.
We need to celebrate though, do something… I can’t tell you in words the energy flowing through the house. It’s nice considering the amount of tension and stress we’ve all been through in recent months. It’s nice to be proud of him for getting recognition for so many years of hard work, and so much talent that until now has largely been ignored.
This was the first year they had a “Rock/Alternative” category, and I think it’s good that Jomo won the first one, because he’s like the Granddaddy of that scene here in Barbados. He was playing rock/blues/alternative on the scene for more than ten years… in fact, he is probably the first person to enter the Richard Stoute Teen Talent contest here in Barbados and play not only a rock song, but an original AND he played the guitar.
Most of the other nominees either worked with Jomo before or he trained them. In his acceptance speech he dedicated the award to the other nominees, and said that they were the mainstay of the music scene in Barbados, because there was only two soca bands, one reggae band and seven or eight rock/alternative bands… and you know, he’s right. If it wasn’t for the rockers in Bim, many a bar or pub would be playing canned music.
So here we are! He’s got a little recognition, a phone full of the numbers of people who want to talk to him about work, and business cards of some industry scouts in the US. Wouldn’t it be lovely if this was just a stepping stone to greater and more substantial success. I so want him to succeed. He deserves this recognition. He’s worked so hard for so many years, labouring in what is largely obscurity. He deserves a break now… a real break, and some financial returns.
He said to me a little while ago, “Now I need to turn that little piece of plastic into my next album…”
I’m just here going, “You go boy!!”
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