By snoadmin
The air at Long Beach City College was filled with roots rhythm on the upbeat and the aromatic pleasure of incense all day. The multitudes of Bob Marley memorabilia and reggae couture that can seemingly be found only at this type of festival blew in the wind on one of very few sunny days Long Beach has seen in the recent weeks.
On Saturday, LBCC hosting Reggaefest, a charity concert that benefits Children Now, a non-profit organization that assists Long Beach area homeless children. The concert featured performances by local bands as well as Coral Music Group recording artist Pato Banton.
LBCC has been hosted an annual music event for seven years now, but insurance troubles lamed the project a few years back.
“Risk management informed us that neither hip-hop nor rock were covered in our policy,” said Derek Oriee, Student Activities Advisor and the events chief organizer. “I proposed Reggae as a more mellow alternative, and the dean was for it.”
He went on to explain the culture of reggae and the possibility of an augmented presence of substance use on the college’s Pacific Coast Highway campus during the event. But the school was still supportive as long as the event didn’t condone the consumption of such substances.
East Coast transplant Jemal Montaque spit positive dancehall burners and urged the multicultural crowd to unite as “one people under one love.” Montaque continued to perform sexy ballads as Long Beach based seven-piece roots troupe, The Divine Crime, did an extra long sound check. As soon as the levels were right though, Amee Jana split the air with her soulful vocals and calmed the restless crowd.
The new-age roots alternative offered up by the men and women of the Divine Crime has something that most other bands of the genre lack — a soul not rooted in drunken partying. Somewhere between the groove of bassist Benji Hamlin and the three-part vocal harmonies of the ladies Divine, TDC proved that crime does pay, and well. The big band had the most full and balanced sounding set of the day, and despite some minor audio-tech problems, they managed to make the small crowd start to move as more people gradually began to fill the quad of the LBCC campus.
As the adults conversed and TDC finished their set, scores of young children began to arrive and play rambunctiously in front of the stage. The Liberators took the stage after The Divine Crime and played a few songs with guest vocalist Ray Jay Bush.
Guillermo “Polo” Agredano, Natty-dread havin’ guitarist and vocalist for the Long Beach Liberators among other bands, also arrived around this time. He prepared for his set by lying on a blanket in the grass with his wife and daughter, both of whom also had dreadlocks.
A different brand of roots reggae, The Liberators had a more traditional song structure and simpler compositions over all, but arguably the most beautiful moment of the day occurred during their set. Bush’s children, who were in the back of the crowd, rushed toward the stage and danced and laughed as their father took the stage.
Pato Banton ended the day with positive messages of perseverance from his reggae career that spans nearly 23 years from his first record release in 1987. His most recent release is 2008’s “Destination Paradise.”
Reggaefest, though it had a small crowd, was for a good cause. And the genre of music in being associated with an academic institution like LBCC is breaking its stereotypes of being a genre for stoners and hippies, and establishing itself as a valued part of our multicultural community fabric in Long Beach.
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