TAJ WEEKES & ADOWA
MUSIC
Taj Weekes’ music is more than
just entertainment. The roots
reggae artist’s music stirs
thought, provokes discussion and
inspires people to think for
themselves, free from the
constraints of the corporate
media. On his beautiful new
album DEIDEM, released on his
own independent label, Jatta
Records, Weekes sings assuredly
and soulfully for the voiceless
and the oppressed, taking his
music to a new level of
commitment and universal appeal.
ST. LUCIA
Born and raised on the island of
St. Lucia, Weekes grew up the
youngest of ten children in a
family where music was always
present. The radio was a source
of untold treasures, playing
everything from rock, country,
R&B, soul, jazz and more, and
Weekes grew up blissfully
unaware of category or genre -
to him, great music was (and is)
great music no matter what the
style. By age five, Taj was
singing in church and by eleven
he was composing his own calypso
music. His older brother’s
immersion in Rastafari provided
Taj with a spiritual awakening
and a context for his burgeoning
worldview.
HOPE & DOUBT
In his late teens, Taj left home
for North America to fulfill his
musical ambitions. After a stint
in Toronto, Weekes came to New
York and formed Taj Weekes &
Adowa. In 2005, they released
their first album, Hope & Doubt,
winning extensive radio play,
rave reviews in the press and
provided Taj with a platform to
begin touring, through which he
began building an extensive
following in New England and on
the West Coast.
After completing touring behind
Hope & Doubt, Weekes began to
write for his next album. During
that time, within the span of a
year, both of his parents died
and the new songs were
reflecting the sorrow of the
time. "I was wallowing in my
grief," Weekes explains, "and I
wrote a song called Clay Dust To
Dust, which was incredibly
depressing. But it was then that
I realized that it’s not about
me. Sure, I lost two people, but
there are millions of people
dying every day. So right then I
scrapped all the songs I had and
wrote 12 new ones. I wrote about
the world instead of myself."
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DEIDEM
Working quickly and with the confidence that came from his
recording and performing experience, Weekes has now emerged with
DEIDEM (meaning "All Of Us"), a meditation on confronting the
fragmentation of the world and the search to give everyone a
voice in it. Weekes exclaims, "Whether it’s Darfur, the Middle
East, global warming…there’s something going on in every part of
the world and we’re trying to bring it all together on one
album. No one is talking to each other; the album is designed to
create conversation where people can come together."
Tracks like Orphans Cry, with its lilting and classic reggae
feel, depicts the suffering and isolation of lost children,
making it vivid and real, no longer an abstraction on the
television set or newspaper. Since Cain, with its Biblical
reference to the first act of violence, laments the endless
cycle of brutality while asking what it will take for it to end
("Is there anyone with sense to put an end to this violence/I
kill you, you kill me, we got an empty country/and so the cycle
goes around/it goes up and comes down/and soon your smile
becomes a frown/when karma visits your town"). Dark Clouds warns
with an almost Biblical sense of foreboding of the cost of the
degradation of the environment ("Spring comes early/autumn’s
late/unwelcome winter procrastinates/see the seas have taken
over the land/there’s a fleet of ships resting on the sand/dark
clouds don’t always bring rain/but smoke is a sign of fire.")
The music matches the lyrics in intensity, painting an aural
portrait of a world that is burning.
DISTRIBUTION
With a distribution deal in Europe through Sony and touring
in the works, Taj will be making his impact felt beginning in
2008. And from every corner of the planet via the Internet,
people are responding to the authenticity of Taj Weekes’ spirit,
heart and commitment to a world where people can communicate
with one another to solve issues non-violently. Taj’s commitment
to such a world is backed up by his non-profit organization, The
Orphan’s Cry Outreach, dedicated to improving the lives of
disadvantaged children around the world via music, soccer
programs and more.
FOR THE PEOPLE
For those that have been disadvantaged, abandoned or just
alienated by a power structure that values profit over people
and fear over hope, Taj Weekes and his new album DEIDEM speaks
for them in its refusal to forget those left out of the new
"global economy" and in his continued belief in what is possible
through authentic music and real communication.
Taj Weekes & Adowa
Links:
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