Stories by Mel Cooke

It is natural to take a man's less-than-outright complimentary comments about his ex-girl with more than a grain of salt - more than a couple handfuls, actually, especially when the break-up was publicly nasty. Still, there is a lot to think on in...

Bob Andy's Songbook is among the revered albums produced by Jamaican popular music. But those who gathered at the Medical Sciences complex at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, recently, came to hear from the singer-songwriter's...

At the end of February and early in March each year, there is a near overlap between extensive celebrations of two elements of Jamaican culture. Reggae Month is marked by four weeks of performance, analysis and awards in February, the first getting...

A lot of good things will be said about Winston 'Merritone' Blake over the next few weeks, and not only will they be true, but maybe inadequate to describe and honour his contribution to Jamaican popular music.As the sound system selector, music...

In the days when there was a Jamaica Broadcasting Commission (JBC) television, one of the memorable images during the playing of the National Anthem was a 'country bus' leaning precipitously to one side as it took a corner in Golden Grove, St Thomas...

Once again, a Jamaican general election campaign has been played out in the streets, the airwaves and on the screens. Accompanying it all has been the beat of Jamaican popular music, with mass rally speeches a display in the synchronisation of text...

The martial arts hold an enduring fascination on the big screen, with 'kickers', a genre all on its own. Jackie Chan is the comic standout, Jet Li the classic expressionless bad man, Bolo the only muscular Chinese and Bruce Lee the undisputed...