The Maritimes were settled by Irish and Scottish folks for whom playing music was second nature. Singing and playing guitar and fiddle were integral to their culture. Today, the East Coast music scene is bustling with talented musicians, who have been influenced by every other culture under the sun. Immigration has been good for the Maritimes, the fusion of cultures has helped music to naturally evolve into what it is today.<\/p>\n
Halifax is a beautiful city with an expanding cultural identity, but reggae has never been part of the cultural fabric. Black communities have existed for hundreds of years in Nova Scotia, but there is no Caribbean musical connection. Nova Scotia is practically an island jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The city centres are far apart, which makes it financially challenging to travel to perform there. However, Halifax has had its fair share of reggae stars performing in the city over the years; stars like Beenie Man, Kabaka Pyramid and the Easy Star All Stars.\u00a0 \u00a0The Halifax Jazz Festival has hosted the Wailers, Jesse Royal, Jo Mersa Marley and Exco Levi.<\/p>\n
Today with the insertion of different cultures, artists like Aquakultre, Classified and Jah\u2019Mila have immerged. According to Reggae artist Andru Branch, he was told that reggae existed in Halifax before he moved there, but he has not seen much evidence of that. \u201cA young group of school friends called Dub Kartel became popular amongst the university crowd for a time\u201d, he said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t until Earl \u201cChinna\u201d Smith\u2019s daughter Jah\u2019Mila moved here from Jamaica about half a decade ago, that people really started to take notice.\u201d \u201cJah\u2019Mila has made great strides in Halifax with her music, and she is poised to become one of Canada\u2019s premiere reggae artists,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Branch, who is now one of the known players of reggae in Halifax lived, performed, and recorded reggae music in Toronto for many years, but it was through the tragic passing of his mother that he came to settle in Halifax. \u201cIt felt devastating to leave the wonderful community of great Jamaican reggae musicians who taught me how to play, namely Raffa Dean, Bernie Pitters and the great bands like Messenjah, 20th Century Rebels and Truths and Rights\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But unforeseen circumstances often lead to great experiences when one least expects it. His move to Halifax led him to meet one of his greatest mentors, the legendary Studio One \u201cBassie\u201d Brian Atkinson. \u201cI had heard his bass lines all my life, but never did I imagine that I would spend day in and day out playing with one of the original pioneers of the genre. We became the closest of friends and recorded an award-winning album together\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to Branch, reggae is on the rise in Halifax and with its universal appeal it is hard to find people who do not like it. \u201cIt is like the popular beer here, those who like it like it a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Maritimes were settled by Irish and Scottish folks for whom playing music was second nature. Singing and playing guitar and fiddle were integral to their culture. Today, the East Coast music scene is bustling with talented musicians, who have been influenced by every other culture under the sun. Immigration has been good for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions\/2229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}