June Is Black Music Month

Media Alert!! Harlem Welcomes Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Marica Griffiths

For Immediate Release

June Is Black Music Month

“Save the Date June 24, 2006”

 Live and  In Concert  The I Threes featuring Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley Unite On One Stage in Harlem at the legendary Apollo Theatre 253 west 125th  Street at 8 PM  for one night only as the Caribbean Cultural Centre, the African Diaspora Institute and the Apollo Theatre  Present the 11th Tribute to Women of Color, with special guest Thandiswa Mazwai 2005 South African Music Award Hosted by,  Ntozake Shange Tony and Emmy Award winner,  Dahved Levy WBLS  Radio Personality and La Bruja Spoken Word and Recording  Artist.

The Mission

The Caribbean Cultural Centre / African Diaspora Institute and the Apollo Theatre pays Homage to make visible these wonderful artists by highlighting   their contributions and culture to their musical genres and ensuring their legacy to be remembered within the musical vibrations and African Diaspora traditions. The Caribbean Cultural Centre past tributes concerts included Celia Cruz , Katherine Dunham, Angela Bofill,  Cassandra Wilson

Three In Oneness- The I Threes

Marcia Griffiths  In a career spanning four decades Marcia has earned her title 'The Queen of Reggae'. She spent her teens singing at Studio One, has worked with many of Jamaica's greats and continues to make music to this day. She is  a successful female vocalist in the history of reggae music, having recorded in every one of the myriad of styles in Jamaican music, from ska through to an 80s rap crossover record. Her precocious talent was recognized very early by producers Coxsone Dodd and Byron Lee, who were competing for her father's signature on a recording contract even before Griffiths' tenth birthday. Dodd was the winner because she "liked his vibes" and Dodd's Studio One set-up was like a "musical college". It was there that Griffiths achieved her first Jamaican number 1 in 1968 with the rocksteady hit "Feel Like Jumping", a record that can still fill dance floors. She had worked very closely with Bob Andy during this period and he had written many of her biggest hits for her. In 1969, they recorded, as Bob And Marcia, an interpretation of Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted And Black" for producer Harry J. The popularity of the record ensured crossover success and it rode high in the UK charts in 1970 and became a hit all over Europe.
In  1975, she became one of Bob Marley's I-Threes backing vocalists, along with Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt - recruited to fill the musical gap left by the departure of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh from the Wailers. For the remainder of the decade and on into the 80s she recorded and toured with Marley, still continuing with her solo career, but after Marley's transition  in 1981, she returned to extensive recording as a solo artist. Her "Electric Boogie" with Bunny Wailer was a hit in the USA in 1989 - seven years after it was recorded - and even inspired its own dance - "The Electric Slide". She continues to make records that matter.

Rita Marley has enjoyed a successful solo career in her own right. In her early days she had originally worked with the Soulettes a female ska trio. The Soulettes began recording for Clement Dodd Studio One Label in 1964. Dodd asked his emerging star Bob Marley to mentor them.  Rita Marley subsequently enjoyed several solo hits in Jamaica, among them "Pied Piper". Prophetically, she would back the Wailers on several early recordings.  Her album “Who Feels It Knows It”  produced a big hit  "One Draw", a pro-marijuana lyric recorded in 1981, became the first reggae single to top Billboard's disco singles chart, which was used to track dance-club play at the time. Rita Marley continued to enjoy single successes with "Many Are Called" and "Play Play". . In  1988's Rita Marley recorded  Harambe (Working Together for Freedom), and followed it in 1991 with We Must Carry On, which garnered a Grammy nomination. Both albums continued her knack for danceable, rootsy reggae with spiritual messages and a definite sense of fun. 

Her most recent recording paid tribute to her husband Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley titled Rita Marley Sings Bob Marley...and Friends, in 2003 and in the same year her autobiography exploded many of the myths surrounding her former husband and paid tribute to Rita's remarkable fortitude.  Rita helped organize the I-Threes, a female vocal trio consisting of herself, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt. The I-Threes backed Bob Marley in the studio and on tour for the remainder of his career, up until his transition in 1981.

Judy Mowatt, In her teens Mowatt joined a dance troupe that toured the Caribbean. There she met up with Beryl Lawson and Merle Clemonson, with whom she formed the Gaylettes (aka the Gaytones). Together they backed many artists on releases for the Federal label in the mid-60s, until Mowatt's two companions left for America in 1970. Deciding to persevere with a solo career, she recorded widely in both soul and reggae styles, under a variety of names due to contractual complications. The most notable of these releases was "I Shall Sing", the first of a string of reggae chart successes. She formed her own label, Ashandan, and in the early 70s joined Marcia Griffiths on stage, alongside Rita Marley. Eventually, the trio was cemented as the I-Threes, Bob Marley having been suitably impressed by their performance. While working with Marley, she continued her solo career, and also managed to find time to raise a family. She also had the honor of being the first to record at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studio in Kingston, sessions that produced Black Woman.

It was the first time that a female artist had produced her own album in Jamaica. Not only was it an outstanding work in its own right, but it offered an articulate voice for Jamaican women, who had previously been either under- or mis-represented in the reggae idiom. Largely self-penned (with notable contributions from Bob Marley and Freddie McGregor), it proved a landmark work, showcasing her sweet and plaintive voice. She has continued to forge a solo career and rivals her old sparring partner Griffiths for the title of Jamaica's first woman of reggae. Love Is Overdue, which included takes on "Try A Little Tenderness' and UB40"s "Sing Our Own Song". The album did bring her a Grammy nomination, the first occasion on which a female reggae artist had been honored in this way. On 25 October 1999 Mowatt was awarded the Order Of Distinction (Office Class) for her contribution to Jamaican music.

Special Guest Artist Thandiswa Mazwai released her first solo album Zabalaza by Ultra Records in the US on the Escondida label in February 2006. The lead singer from the formidable pop group Bongo Maffin, she had performed all over the world and shared the stage with musical icons Stevie Wonder, the Marley clan, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Chaka Khan, Sean Paul, Steel Pulse and Skunk Anansie, amongst others. In 2006 Zabalaza was  nominated for a International Reggae and World Music Award (IRWMA). This will be Thandiswa’s debut solo performance in the US.
 
The Hosts of The Prestigious Event:

NTOZAKE SHANGE‘S For colored girls received on Obie Award, the Outer Critics Award, and nominations for the Grammy, Tony, and Emmy awards.
Since then, Shange has gone on to write a number of celebrated works: three novels, four volumes of poetry, screenplays, essays, and numerous
plays. She is currently working on adaptations of Sparkle(The Freedom Theatre), Liliane(Rites & Reasons Theatre) and The Lulu Plays (The
Public Theatre).
 
Caridad De La Luz, aka La Bruja has appeared on HBO’s Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam and performed internationally at dozens of respected venues, including Joe’s Pub at The Joseph Papp Public Theater, The Nuyorican Café in Puerto Rico, SOB’s, The American Museum of Natural History, and at Miramax’s celebration of Miguel  Piñero.As emcee, La Bruja has recorded with Fat Joe, Vivian Green, Jadakiss, Don Dinero, The Jungle Brothers, Black Ice, B-Real of Cypress Hill, Tony Touch, Afrikaa Bambaata and The X-ecutioners. Star of Darrell Wilks’ documentary Hip-Hop Hope, she has appeared on top-rated NYC radio show “Hot 97 Street Soldiers.” La Bruja has written hip-hop infused commercials in both English and Spanish for TV and radio.
 
Dahved Levy of WBLS  Radio Personality , Producer , Restaurateur and MTV/ Tempo Host of his Ball Room Radio show that is seen throughout the Caribbean  is internationally  well known from East to West he will be Rockin You Rockin You.

June 24, 2006 is the place to be to join Essence Magazine, the Jamaican Consul General, Daved Levy, South African Consulate, Carib News and supporters  for this stellar event concert at the Apollo Theatre 253 West 125th at 8 pm.

For more information and tickets please call Ms Williams at 212- 307-7420 ext 3006.