HALL OF FAME IN HALF-WAY-TREE

The Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA) will close its sixth anniversary celebrations by mounting the pictures of its inductees on the walls of the Transportation Center in Half- Way-Tree, St.Andrew.  This is schedule to take place on Saturday July 11, 2009 at approximately 10am. The Hall of Fame will have the images of inductees along with a synopsis of their contribution looming 20 feet high above the ticketing area.

Those inducted at the last anniversary celebrations include Lord Flea, Vere Johns, Count Ossie, The Wailers, Alpha Boys’School, Miss Lou, Olive Lewin, Sir Coxsone Dodd, The Skatalites, Duke Reid, Ernie Ranglin and Derrick Morgan. Those slated to be inducted next Tuesday at the Jamaica Pegasus are Sonny Bradshaw, Bob Marley, Otis Wright, Jimmy Cliff, Alton Ellis, Byron Lee, Merritone Music, Prince Buster, Stanley Motta Studio and the Frats Quintet. There is room in the center for eight to ten more years of inductees.

“We want it to be a tourist attraction. We want people to do research. Jamaica music has done too much to not have a HALL OF FAME,” Frankie Campbell chairman of JAVAA told the Gleaner. He was also noted saying that the association’s intention is to make induction into the Jamaica Music Hall of Fame meaningful, with the attendant respect due to those who have made contributions to Jamaica‘s music.

“We did not want to put them in a museum downtown somewhere where young people would not see it,” Campbell explained. “We want them to see it and eventually ask questions when they see it over and over. They will ask who they are and what they did.”