TWO WEEKS AGO, I went to the weekly Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates' (JAVAA) get together and showcase at their headquarters on Haining Road, St. Andrew.
Normally, when you go to a music show of any sort, the persons you see on-stage are those who are on the rise or 'trying a ting', or those who have achieved some level of popularity.
That night, I sat and scribbled my notes as a few brand new JAVAA members performed. There were no instantly recognisable names, but persons such as Special Man and Jah Niceness went up and performed their best.
I got a bit no, not a bit, very sad. These were 'big men' and I could only assume that they had been trying their hands at music for a long, long time, as they were JAVAA members. The chances of them becoming known and making a mark and 'a money' are rather slim. However, they were on-stage doing their best.
There is another side to music that we who work in the media rarely tell, the story of those who try and try and try all their lives and never, in the financial sense, truly 'make it'. Yet they put their hearts and souls into their music, sometimes to the exclusion of all else, sometimes ending up broke and lonely.
It may sound romantic to say that they still have 'song in their hearts and melody on their lips', but reality is a much grittier thing than romance.
It was at that moment that I truly began to understand JAVAA, seeing it as something that exists not for the long-standing stars that we know and pay to see, but also for the persons who keep trying all their lives but never 'make it', but still being happy to go on-stage and do what they love.
Then, on Sunday night I went to a dance at the Marketplace and saw the King Stur-Gav in action. Sure, Black Scorpio, King Jammy's and GT Aggregation were there, but Stur-Gav is Stur-Gav. I saw the honour with which the teacher U-Roy was treated and it made my heart full. I saw Josey Wales and Charlie Chaplin, as well as Twitch and Natty Pablo on King Stur-Gav, as well as General Trees on Scorpio and Bunny General, Pad Anthony and Johnny Ringo on Jammy's.
It was good, very good.
