Squire brings consciousness to music

Krista Henry

Staff Reporter

A mother, writer, producer and singer, Sophia Squire is bringing her conscious lyrics to the globe.

Born Karen Sophia Squire in Spanish Town,St Catherine, the talented singer grew up surrounded by music from an early age. With her mother being a strong member in the church choir, Squire soon followed in her mother's footsteps, though hers led from the church to countless studios around Spanish Town and Kingston.

After giving birth to her daughter in 1993, Squire became more determined to excel at music professionally as a means of providing for her child.

Soon after the birth of her child she started working with Kenneth Rose and Phillip 'Bully' Williams of the Miami Vice studio and Owen 'Drummy' Dalhouse of the Rhythm Kings band along with studio engineer Angel.

Squire did her first cover version of a song titled Like This and Like That but that song was never released. During a five-year stint she performed as a back up singer for reggae icon Gregory Issacs before deciding to step into the light herself. Since then, her musical journey has been hectic and often difficult, but also fulfilling.

good airplay

When the singer spoke to The STAR recently she described her sound as 'unusual'.

"It's really a cross of different genres, nothing totally new, but different. A bit of R & B, soul, reggae and acoustic," she said.

Squire has recorded songs and done performances with singers such as Jah Mason, Lutan Fyah, Fantan Mojah, Glen Washington, Warrior King, Andy Livingston, Luciano and Richie Spice, among others.

Her songs - Whatever You Gonna Do, Everyday It's the Same (Rat-ta-ta-ta-tat), Baby I Love You with Lutan Fyah and My Guns - have all been receiving good airplay.

Squire has performed to an equally good response at the recently held GT Taylor Extravaganza, at a show in Negril for Spring Break 2007 and at numerous venues in France.

Inspired by the people and community around her, Squire's Everyday It's a Struggle tells a tale of violence in Jamaica and overseas.

Recently Squire started working with veteran singer/producer Max Romeo and Shane Brown of Juke Boxx Productions, for whom she recorded the song Bloody Murder. For the future, Squire hopes to still be in music, singing and producing hit songs.

Contributed

Sophia Squire

AP NEW YORK

A former actor on The Sopranos was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for a botched burglary in the Bronx in which an accomplice shot and killed an off-duty police officer.

A jury acquitted Lillo Brancato Jr of second-degree murder in the death of the police officer, but convicted him of attempted burglary. He had faced up to 15 years in prison.

He pursed his lips and appeared calm as the verdict was pronounced. His relatives wept and one shouted, "We love you, Lillo!" as he was led away in handcuffs.

Before sentencing, Brancato, whose drug addiction figured prominently in testimony during the trial in the Bronx, begged the court for mercy.

"I'm not talking about redeeming my acting career," he said. "I'm talking about much more than that. I'm talking about being a good son, brother, friend and citizen."

But state Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus wasn't swayed.

"I cannot ignore the fact that, because of the burglary, a brave young police officer is dead," he said, calling Brancato's drug abuse "a sad story of good fortune and extraordinary opportunity that was wasted and abused."

Prosecutors said Brancato and accomplice Steven Armento were looking for drugs when they broke into an apartment next door to the officer's home in December 2005. When Officer Daniel Enchautegui went to investigate, he was gunned down.

Authorities said Armento shot the 28-year-old officer with his .357 Magnum, hitting him in the heart. The dying officer fired back, wounding both men.

Armento was convicted last year of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence without parole.

Brancato rose to fame in 1993's "A Bronx Tale," playing a young kid from the neighbourhood who is torn between two worlds and two men: a local mobster played by Chazz Palminteri and his straight-and-narrow bus driver father, played by Robert De Niro.

Other roles followed, most notably a stint on the second season of HBO's The Sopranos.

Brancato, 32, and Armento, 48, were drinking together at a strip club before deciding to break into the basement apartment in a hunt for Valium, prosecutors said.

He said the pills were part of a drug problem that began when he was introduced to marijuana on the set of A Bronx Tale. He later became hooked on crack and heroin.

Former Sopranos' actor

gets 10 years in prison

ap

Lillo Brancato Jr