ICE RECODS :: JAMES LOVELL

James Lovell is an enthusiastic, ebullient, and highly enthusiastic 29-year-old drummer and percussionist whose musical journeying began with his playing on buckets as a child. His introduction to playing in an ensemble began in his local church band with Sister Marshall, a scion of Barbadian gospel music. He joined her band after those earliest gustatory years of playing both on buckets and anything else that became available for rhythmic experimentation. Within his homeland of Barbados, his formal academic education at the primary and secondary levels included his years at Eden Lodge Primary and Coleridge and Parry.

His professional career began in 1990 at the age of seventeen and has included local bands such as Krosfyah, Square One, Splashband, Kolorblynd, Holders Band, Jamari and Fusion. Within the last few years, his maturity as a bandleader, arranger, and music teacher has come to be evidenced in the formation of his own band, Ngoma. Ngoma is comprised of James on drums and percussion, Leonard Griffith on keyboards, Paul Murrell on bass, David Walcott on steelpan, and Ryan Brewster on percussion, in addition to Oneika Best, Indra, and Marissa Lindsay on vocals.

To date, one of his most signal accomplishments as a solo bandleader was his performance with Ngoma at the Barbados Jazz Festival, 2002. His major performance on television to date is “Jazz in The Sun”, which was recorded and broadcast by Black Entertainment Television (BET) of the USA.

FIRSTBORN is the title of James Lovell’s debut CD which is dedicated to his son, Jared, who is his first child. This collection of five scintillating songs – “Like Ah Spouge”, “One On One”, “Welcome The Morning Sun”, “Symphony”, and “Boom Byeh” – was first issued to the public a few months ago. It is a self-published compilation which he intends to be a substantive contribution to the development of progressive music in Barbados. It represents a blend of Afro-Caribbean rhythms that emblazon and celebrate the musical arc of our archipelago from Cuba to Guyana, but which also incorporates jazz. This blend of rhythms represents a style called Säf.

James has performed extensively in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and at home, within both the Southern Caribbean and the wider region. He has shared stages with and backed such international artistes as Rachelle Ferrell, Kofi Ayivor, Tito Puente, Eddie Bullen, Roberta Flack, Luther Francois, Thandi Klassen, Mori Kante, Brian McKnight, and Air Supply.

He has created a unique and distinguished reputation within local musical arenas and communities by performing and creating music that is representative of his people’s identity. He earned this reputation through dedication to an eclectic schooling in the study of rhythm. For, in addition to being largely self-taught, his years of musical apprenticeship have also included studies in Cuba; playing in the local group
Ruk-a-Tuk International; studying and working with Barbadian master drummer,
El Verno Del Congo; and instruction at the hands of world-renowned American drummer, Bernard Purdie. Throughout his Barbados-based career, he has been able to consolidate upon his steadily advancing reputation by working alongside such dominant talents as the Grammy-Award-nominated Nicholas Brancker,
Arturo Tappin, Ronald Lashley, the Mighty Gabby, John King, and Adisa Andwele also known as AJA), amongst others.

Foremost in James’s future artistic projections, is his vision of a cultural market that will interweave families, communities and nations by communicating to them Caribbean musical traditions that convey messages of love and happiness. A major component of this vision is James’s role as a teacher. This encompasses his work as a private tutor, and as an instructor with local organizations and schools including the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), the Youth Achieving Results programme, Parkinson Secondary School, and the Barbados Community College. This year, 2002, marks his inaugural year as a judge in the NCF’s National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) competition.

Earlier this year, James combined his talents with AJA and the latter’s band, Fusion, in a collaboration whose intent was to spread peace and unity whilst actively securing intellectual property rights and trademark status for Barbadian and Caribbean musics. So that, during the summer months, they took their talents to Europe. There they performed in Belgium at the internationally-acclaimed Sfinks Music Festival; in Germany, at the Welnecht Festival in Owl; and in Manchester, at the Manchester Jazz Festival. They also performed in other countries and festivals including Switzerland and the Soul of Africa Festival.

James Lovell is currently working on a second CD with his band Ngoma, and has plans of opening a music centre in the near future. His most joyful assistant in his burgeoning artistic development as a professional musician is his wife, Tamara, whose spirit fuels the dynamic and continuing pulse of his heart.

Compiled by Ice Records Ltd. in collaboration with Tamara Lovell and James Lovell.
December 11, 2002.