Lifestyle
Nuff love for Lutan Fyah's Africa
By Basil Walters Observer staff
Friday, January 30, 2009
The spirit of brotherhood and harmony that engulfed the well-attended launch of Lutan Fyah's latest set, Africa, speaks volume of the esteem that this fresh voice of roots rock reggae's currently enjoys from his peers and fans alike.
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| Lutan Fyah... it's a message of love, it's a message of coming together of the people |
All the new-wave conscious artistes as well as some of veterans were at Weekenz to shower him with "nuff love" in support for the 30-track double CD with four number one hits. They also loaned their gift of music to the night's rousing entertainment package.
Veteran journalist/film festival promoter Barbara Blake Hannah, highlighted the historical antecedent which shaped the vision of Lutan Fyah in his musical career. Apart from standing on a rich legacy in music with which his hometown is associated, the Rastafarian reggae crooner's roots came from the community where the Proclamation for Emancipation from slavery was read - a few miles from Jamaica's first freed village and in the vicinity of Pinnacle, the sacred shine of the birthplace of Rastafari culture .
"Lutan Fyah sings songs that create images of suffering humanity, end of days prophecies, offering sympathy for suffering, addressing world leaders, criticising, warning, begging for peace, sanity and love," said Barbara Blake-Hannah, consultant in the Ministry of Information, Culture Youth and Sports.
Putting it all in the context of the singer's place of origin, Blake Hannah noted. "This son of Spanish Town calls his hometown St Jago De La Vega and reminds us the town is coming from slavery, but not much has changed for those who cannot escape the enslavement of the hustling ghetto."
And in his keynote address, guest speaker Mutabaruka hailed the album in its entirety, but moreso for the important statement the title conveys. "We really appreciate this move, knowing that we living in a society now, it's all about guns and daggers. And we need to find some kind of centre to figure out where we go from here, yuh nuh..."
Apart of the uniqueness of Africa, it was produced executively by Lutan Fyah, and will be distributed by a subsidary of Sony called Red. And already there are a number of tours in the works for the marketing and promotion of the album.
"It's a message of love, it's a message of coming together of the people. A oneness message where that you can relate to inna you day-to-day life," was how Lutan Fyah defined his newly released album Africa at the launch on Tuesday evening.
"This collection . it's a life time music, it's a millennium music, yuh nuh....," he went on before declaring, "Africa is my favourite track.... the future plan is to come always with good music. That is always the future for me in music. Just keep coming with good music, uplifting music to the people."
As early as February 11, he begins a ten-show stint in California, in April he will be off to Australia where he will do seven shows, then from there Lutan Fyah will be taking the messages of Africa to Africa before returning to the states for a few of the annual music festivals in May, and the heads off to Europe for the summer.
Among the well-wishers who passed through the launch party to give their blessings in words sounds and music inbetween his entertaining performance, were Capleton, Queen Ifrica, Natural Black, I-Octane, Kool-de-Roy, Lenn Hammond, Romaine Virgo, Turbulance, Fya Kin.
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