Starting February 9th, Jouvay.com will hold a weekly Monday night event at Club Ganesh in San Francisco from 9pm-2am. Arrive before 9pm to dine on the fine Indian cuisine or come later for a mix of Caribbean and Indian food. DJ Complex will start things rolling for us with music that will make you return each week. We're preparing for the 2004 San Francisco Carnaval, so here's your chance to get the wining moves down. Come before 10:30pm for the dance classes. Are you a left winer, right winer or an all rounder?

Saturday February 28th Jouvay.com brings you a slamming post Trini carnival party at Ganesh Club.

Our first party of the year was held in conjunction with Bissap, a monthly African party thrown by Marco Senghor. It was a huge success with DJs Complex, Emmanuel Nado of KKUP and Marco along with live drum accompaniment. Amnesia was the sweetest place to be on January 30th and we thank all who supported and had a great time and a really special Thank You to Marco who now owns two restaurants in the Mission: Bissap Baobab and Little Baobab (where part of jouvay.com's party buzz started). See pictures from party here.

Trinidad Carnival 2K4

Need to get in the mood? View Clips of Soca Monarch and Carnival Monday 2003 compliments of Jouvay.com. We recently viewed the XTATIK 5.0 DVD which was a live concert recording in Trinidad at Bacchanal Wednesday 2003. The DVD captures the high energy of Machel Montano and the Xtatik family and shows a crowd that can't get enough of the entertainment. And it truly is entertaining from the stilt dancers to the power puff girls in their itsy bitsy kitty cyat shorts (not to be confused with the jouvay.com kitty cyat shorts coming soon). Carnival 1999, With Or Without You mashed up the Wednesday night Oval party as Machel and Walker, a white American singer, plugged their new duet. Walker became the target of many female dancers for that year and if you attended a Miami carnival after party on the Monday night you might remember a woman about 10 times the size of Mr. Walker jumping around his waist to wine on stage and both falling slowly to the floor with a big thud. Well, the crowd was treated to a Walker appearance during the 2003 DVD shoot minus any "big truck" driver incidents. Sparrow joins Machel on stage to play around with the Congo Man (unlike when we were younger, Sparrow was not dressed in a leopard catsuit with a tail singing that song) and then Machel asks Sparrow whether or not he uses those little blue pills (same ones that the New York Times Magazine reports to be a fad amongst thirty something year old men in the big apple). Sparrow replies he only uses half. Suggesting that Sparrow might need it for the lady about to join them, Machel invites an energetic Calypso Rose on stage to sing the Machel/Rose duet..."hey young boy tell me what you want. Big woman don't want no tired man." What follows is a hilarious ex-tempo session between the two well seasoned calypsonians, Sparrow and Rose and it's a touching moment when all three join hands for the crowd. A must see and a must have.

Read the Jouvay.com experience in Trinidad and download the 2004 party calendar (if you are a promoter, please send us info. to update). We're trying some new things this year:

J'ouvert band: Vanderveer Promotions presents Sex in The City: Sexy in Mud with DJs Merry Perry, Xcaliber, soca artists Doug E Slaughter, Benjai, Talpree, Blazer & more. $20/25 US female/male registration (Mr. Big). Drinks included. Tight security. Tdad: (868) 620-7744; (917) 570-8654.

Friday Fusion All Inclusive at Macqueripe (noon-8pm) with Roy Cape All Stars, Rupee, Iwer George, DC's DJ Sprang and more. $50 US. For ticket information: Newman George (868) 680 4973, Heather Garcia (868) 756 6415, Frank Dillon: (954) 575-7667. .

Panorama Finals line up click here.

Listen to 2004 carnival music now: Sounds of Soca: Slic&Machel on the bbc1xtra, Out of NYC: Bashment Radio, Out of Trinidad: 95.5 FM, Out of Atlanta: DJ Tony Tempo, the AV room of islandmix.com. The music room on torontolime.com or simplysmooth.net.

David Rudder is the man with the hammer when it comes to nailing down profound lyrics and musical compositions of, about and for the Caribbean. Much like a musical messiah with over 20 albums, he produces music that resonates within us to really appreciate our Caribbean world and hope for a better tomorrow. Songs like Engine Room, Bacchanal Lady, and The Hammer have become classics and he continues to bring hits like Trini 2 De Bone which has the world singing, "sweet sweet TNT." READ ON.

In the relaxed atmosphere of his mom's kitchen over some curry egg, Russell Rickford will admit that the jouvay.com parties were his only social outings as he wrote his six hundred page biography of Betty Shabazz, the wife and widow of Malcolm X. This young writer in his mid twenties already received an American Book Award for Spoken Soul, The Story of Black English which he co-wrote with his father, John Rickford. This biography is beautifully written though the story it tells is tragic. Russell reads on Feb 13th at noon in the Stanford Bookstore alcove. Support our Guyanese brother who has a rare and appreciative reverence for black women that is evident throughout the book. READ ON.

Mini Interview With Buju Banton by Maya Trotz for Jouvay.com (Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 2003)
Jouvay.com: You married? Buju: No. Why you ask? J: If you know how many women wanted me to give you their numbers when they heard I was interviewing you. B: I don't see myself as mister right, but if mister okay will do, but for how many people? Therefore I might have to know ahead of time you know. J: So, you are single? B: Yeah. J: How many children do you have? B: Enough to keep me happy for all of the days of my life. Jouvay.com: So, your non-profit for … Buju Banton: My non-profit organization is Operation Willy which deals with kids who are affected positively with HIV in Jamaica. This is what we do to give back to our community in a sense. J: How is that going? B: Positively. I must admit. J: You said you were starting a record label off of that. B: I did start a record label, the Operation Willy Label, and the support has been tremendous, but like everything else there is room for growth. J: So you get other artists who sing songs about HIV/AIDS? Buju Banton: Yes, They have not been forthcoming so steadily like I would hope, but I am still optimistic at the time. J: You have to be because the AIDS rate in the Caribbean is high. B: It's not only in the Caribbean. It's globally. J: Globally, but the Caribbean is high and I am from Guyana and would like to do some work in the Caribbean with the artists. Actually, there's another project in Guyana that I am working on that I'd like you to put your name behind. We've been having alot of violence... B: I heard about the violence in Guyana. J: Yes, it's pretty bad. And earlier this year a group of women started rallying in the country against it. We have set up a website and take out ADs in the newspapers saying that we support their effort. I've been trying to get many entertainers to sign onto the campaign. Would you let me put your name down? B: I always try to help with the Caribbean. Of course.	J: After Til Shiloh dropped many people wanted to know what triggered that change in your music? B: You just don’t want to be fucking around everyday and you want to make some positive contribution to the world we live in. J: That made a really big impact. B: I always want to do things to make an impact. That’s what I am about babes. J: That's good. We need more like you. You ever went to Jamaica carnival? B: A couple of times. My girls go there. My daughters, my baby mothers and I tag along sometimes. J: You like it? B: It’s ok. J: Cause I know some rastas oppose carnival. B: Carnival is a Roman festival. J: That's alright, we adopt everything in the Caribbean. B: It’s not alright. It’s not alright to adopt everything. J: True, but there's a history behind carnival ... B: A very very horrific one. J: You have a production company too? B: Yes, Gargamon music production. J: And how is that going? B: It's going great. Going forth to the horizon. Most of my songs are on there now. J: You produce other artists? B: Yes I do. J: How hard is it to find young, Caribbean artists. B: Not hard. J: And the boom bye bye? Buju Banton: What about it? Jouvay.com: Well, you know alot of Jamaican.. B: Steeeeups, my girl, what de bombacloth you talk about boom bye bye? I don't want to talk about that.
End of interview. The show was really good and it was unfortunate that he did sing parts of Boom Bye Bye and more unfortunate that it was the song that moved the crowd the most, and even more unfortunate that we could not discuss it. Thanks to afiwi.com for arranging for us to meet Buju.

 

Our Sponsors:

Links/Announcements:

XTATIK.COM has launched.
DOUBLEXPLOJUN.COM (This hot band from Barbados is looking for North American exposure.
THISISRUPEE.COM (Rupee recently signed with Atlantic Records)
BunjiGarlin.com (king of ragga soca, download songs for $1)
Trinispace.com (largest collection of downloadable soca music)