Stories by Mel Cooke

One morning, June Isaacs woke up to a pleasant surprise - literally - from her husband Gregory. He was playing his guitar and singing "I woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise". It was the beginning of the R...

Bass guitarist and leader of Lloyd Parkes and We The People Band, Lloyd Parkes, mentally flips through an immense catalogue of recordings as the outfit heads towards marking 44 years on stage and in studio. Naturally, many of them are with the late...

"The blood of African kings run in my vein,Here inna Jamaica, rebellious offspring.We got a warrior spirit inside,From that time we cyaa change.An dis ya warrior spirit inside,It come fi break every shackle and chain.Man a Shaka Zulu pickney,Nkrumah...

Donovan Germain of Penthouse Records had wanted Dennis Brown to do a song for his label a long time before reggae's Crown Prince happened into the studio in the 1990s. "I always asked Dennis, 'When you going to do a song for Penthouse," Germain told...

On Wednesday, October 10, poet Dr Jean Binta Breeze will receive a Silver Musgrave Medal at the Institute of Jamaica. She began writing poetry in the 1970s, initially having Dennis Scott at the School of Drama look them over and then Mervyn Morris (...

"Yu neva know Puppa Ranger coulda sing, ribbitMi sey mi like girls fat a mi no like dem slimCause when dem slim mi sey dem cyaa do a ting:Rosemarie, Lone RangerIn his 1981 song Rosemarie, deejay Lone Ranger expresses a preference for a certain heft...

Chalice band's Revival Time opens their 1986 Crossfire album, but when it was recorded (most likely at Music Mountain, where most of the tracks for Crossfire were laid), the name they intended was 'Revival Style'. That is what Wayne Armond has in...

Your Honour is Pluto Shervington's enduring courtroom music drama about being caught in the closet of a woman's home by her very angry husband, who beats him badly. Written from the first-person point of view, Your Honour makes for humorous listening, but it was not funny for Shervington, who made a full confession to The Sunday Gleaner...

Alisia Jarrett fell in love with Irvin 'Carrot' Jarrett during a midnight to sunrise conversation. She had felt the literal heat of his hand days earlier, when Carrot touched her during one of several checks to ensure she was OK during a wellness...