Genre:
Urban , World/Other
Plays:
4
Seen:
482
Location:
Castries,
Quarter of Castries,
Saint Lucia
Biography
Rastaman. Island man. Poetry man. Reggae recording artist Taj Weekes plays many roles, but chief among them is the role of storyteller. The singer/songwriter tells tales of poverty, oppression, hopelessness and rejection, counterweighing them each with a message of Rastafari faith and spirituality. On his aptly-titled debut CD, Hope and Doubt, Taj sings about life’s tug of war the way only a man of experience can.
Born the youngest of ten children, Taj grew up on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. He became aware of the disparity between the well-heeled tourists and the striving locals early on. Religion and music were the two main salvations for the Weekes family, St. Lucians of Ethiopian descent, and the songs they learned at church often followed them home. “It was like a Caribbean Von Trapp family. Someone was always singing in some corner of the house or entertaining the rest of us, ” explains Weekes. While church music played a big role in Taj’s life, so did the sounds that emanated from his stereo—everything from The Mighty Sparrow to Paul Simon to Nat King Cole. Taj himself began singing by age five and started composing his own calypso music by the time he was eleven years old.
When his role model and older brother Desmond, nicknamed MPLA, discovered Rastafari, Taj quickly had his own spiritual awakening. Yet, by his late teens, Taj found the island’s 238 square miles too stifling and grew weary of its rigid dichotomies. He headed for the vast, opportunity-filled North American mainland to pursue a music career—first to Toronto and then to New York, where he found a home. Taj formed a band and named it Adowa, in tribute to his Ethiopian grandfather and to an 1896 battle in which Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II thwarted off Italian invaders, a milestone in Rastafari history.
Their brand of "classic roots reggae for the conscious mind" is mellow, positive and original. Their critically acclaimed album, HOPE & DOUBT has been receiving worldwide radio play and several stellar reviews on the internet and in print media. The group has developed a strong following in the United States, particularly in New England, having headlined the Vermont Roots Reggae and participating in the Emergenza Festival. They will also be recording their second album to be released in the Spring of 2007 as well as launching an international tour in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Members
Adoni Xavier
Guitar
Bunny Cuningham
keyboards
Delroy Golding
percussion
Ital Stew
Drums
Radss Desiree
Bass
Shelton Garner
Guitar & Vocals
Taj Weekes
Vocals & Guitar
Rastaman. Island man. Poetry man. Reggae recording artist Taj Weekes plays many roles, but chief among them is the role of storyteller. The singer/songwriter tells tales of poverty, oppression, hopelessness and rejection, counterweighing them each with a message of Rastafari faith and spirituality. On his aptly-titled debut CD, Hope and Doubt, Taj sings about life’s tug of war the way only a man of experience can. Born the youngest of ten children, Taj grew up on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. He became aware of the disparity between the well-heeled tourists and the striving locals early on. Religion and music were the two main salvations for the Weekes family, St. Lucians of Ethiopian descent, and the songs they learned at church often followed them home. “It was like a Caribbean Von Trapp family. Someone was always singing in some corner of the house or entertaining the rest of us, ” explains Weekes. While church music played a big role in Taj’s life, so did the sounds that emanated from his stereo—everything from The Mighty Sparrow to Paul Simon to Nat King Cole. Taj himself began singing by age five and started composing his own calypso music by the time he was eleven years old. When his role model and older brother Desmond, nicknamed MPLA, discovered Rastafari, Taj quickly had his own spiritual awakening. Yet, by his late teens, Taj found the island’s 238 square miles too stifling and grew weary of its rigid dichotomies. He headed for the vast, opportunity-filled North American mainland to pursue a music career—first to Toronto and then to New York, where he found a home. Taj formed a band and named it Adowa, in tribute to his Ethiopian grandfather and to an 1896 battle in which Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II thwarted off Italian invaders, a milestone in Rastafari history. Their brand of "classic roots reggae for the conscious mind" is mellow, positive and original. Their critically acclaimed album, HOPE & DOUBT has been receiving worldwide radio play and several stellar reviews on the internet and in print media. The group has developed a strong following in the United States, particularly in New England, having headlined the Vermont Roots Reggae and participating in the Emergenza Festival. They will also be recording their second album to be released in the Spring of 2007 as well as launching an international tour in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
About Taj Weekes and Adowa
Multimedia
Discography
DEIDEM - 2007
To be released in the spring
HOPE & DOUBT - 2005
Taj Weekes and Adowa
Hope and Doubt
(AlphaPocket Records/Jatta Entertainment; Tuesday, August 16, 2005)
New York, NY—Reggae recording artist Taj Weekes and Adowa will release their debut album, Hope and Doubt, on AlphaPocket Records on Tuesday, August 16, 2005. Produced by Weekes, engineered by Joe Blaney (Lauren Hill, The Clash, Prince) and mastered by Alan Silverman (Norah Jones, The Kinks Chaka Khan), Hope and Doubt is an album of finely-crafted classic roots reggae, with something to say.
With Hope and Doubt, New York-based Weekes takes listeners back to the Caribbean of his childhood and here, against an island-beat backdrop, he tells his autobiographical tales, both tragic and hopeful. On “MPLA,” Weekes offers a poignant goodbye to his activist older brother, nicknamed MPLA for being famously vocal about the Angolan liberation movement, who was mysteriously killed after he discovered Rastafari. Yet the album never disintegrates into a mere chronicle of the hard-knock life. The big horns on the upbeat “Sad” declare war on apathy, offering a “brighter song” in place of “another day another shrug/down in the ghetto.” The danceable “Scream Out Mellow” is a passive resistance anthem in disguise, while “Mysterious” is a song of faith and hope.
Weekes’s songs of struggle combine with his pop craftsmanship to bring reggae back to its roots: music about the people, for the people. Hope and Doubt is an attention-grabbing debut by an artist who’s sure to offer his people hope for years to come.
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News
2007-03-13 -
TAJ WEEKES & ADOWA TO RELEASE SOPHOMORE ALBUM IN THE SPRING
Taj Weekes and Adowa are in the studio working on completing the new albu m to be released at the end of spring 2007
