FEATURED EVENT: UCLA Reggae Jazz Festival 2006

Every year the UCLA campus in Westwood California holds a special two day concert event; the UCLA JazzReggae Festival.  Day one is dedicated to Jazz and day two is dedicated to Reggae.  This year on Monday, May 29th the Reggae day was packed with solid and exciting talent.

While this year’s Reggae day wasn’t a long line up, the day starts relatively early with performances beginning around one and ending by 7pm.  TAMI CHYNN lead the way Monday starting off the Reggae performances.    After Tami’s performance was Dancehall’s gritty money earning MACKA DIAMOND.  Macka went threw several songs from her catalog including; “Bad Gal Forward”, “Chase Money”, “Lexus & Benz”, “Bad Macka”, “Stop Tickle Mi”, “Done Already” and “Bun Him”.

Cherine Anderson, who many of you remember from her stunning performance as the daughter in the movie Dancehall Queen has been attacking the music industry. She also slipped into this year’s line up.  During her brief stint on stage she performed “Ready Or Not” – the Fugee’s anthem, “Put It On Me” (which is her recording on the Gangsta Rock riddim) and “Good Love”.  

BUSHMAN took to the stage with his socially conscious catalog.   He performed a solid set, even with some audio difficulties.  The songs he presented to the audience included; “Flesh”, “Jah No Dead”, “Fire Pon A Daddas”, “Fire Pon A Weaks”, “Arms of A Woman” and “Your Love”.

It was ASSASSIN who helped bring the day to a head.  When Assassin took to the stage he started off with the pulsating tune “Man A Man” and all you could hear in the first 10 feet in front of the stage was women’s screams drowning out the speakers.  He went onto perform songs like “Step Pon Dem”, “Ruffest Toughest”, “Don’t Like You” and “Girls Gone Wild”.  As if to emphasize his point, or really from the heat, Assassin removed his top shirt which again prompted screams from adoring female fans.  He continued his set with “Anywhere We Go”, “Idoit Ting” and “Bad Mind”.

At this point attendees for the festival were well ripe for the headliner:  Buju Banton.  Buju started off his set with a medley of his pure undiluted Dancehall tunes which set the crowd into frenzy.  He also performed songs like “Ova Me”, “Only Man”, “Champion”, “Destiny”, “Easy Road”, “Hills & Valleys” and more.  Buju was the perfect end to this warm spring day.