Nice job my brothers!!

Obama said yesterday in response to the Occupy protests that, “If we want jobs, we have to have a strong financial sector.” The definition of “strong financial sector” as it stands now is crystal clear: concentrate money into the hands of a tiny few (individuals and corps) with the expectation that these tiny few will somehow take care of everyone else, give them jobs etc. I don’t understand how ANYONE (except for the few who profit massively from it) can still believe in the effectiveness of the trickle down system. Damn it, that just doesn’t work!!

We 99 percenters want, at the very least, a redefinition of what a “strong financial sector” is and (read your Howard Zinn) that redefinition will NEVER come from the top down, so….tent cities and massive marches, here they come!

Here’s a few shots I took today. I especially like the big community poster that asked both “What is right with this country?” and “What’s wrong with this country?” It’s critical and inspiring that this fair and balanced question is being asked and not just pure system hating going on.

On December 1st, 2011 the REBEL TUMBAO KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN came to a close and it was a resounding success. We far surpassed our goal!! I am truly humbled and incredibly thankful to all those who contributed, not just financially, but with their hearts and souls. Stay tuned for more details as we head into the studio this month to complete the mixing of our debut recording!

This is my blog and website where you can learn about the various projects I’m working on and bands that I play in: Rebel Tumbao, Combo Sabroso, Cincoson, Federator No1, and my Dragonfly Taxi Recording Project.

Also you can link to my involvement in education including my very popular Music and Life of Bob Marley class, Latin Piano Lab and my work as Assistant professor of piano at Berklee College of Music where I’ve been teaching for the last 10 years.

You will find a lot of music on this site that can be accessed in two ways: 1) hit the play button on the player in the upper right hand corner of each page (and scroll to different tunes with the arrows), 2) the site is set up with a ‘one shot’ player that I use to drop in pretty much any kind of audio I want including hot-off-the-griddle excerpts of new tunes I’m writing and recording. As you scroll through various pages you’ll see a speaker and play button icon, just hit it!

Much of my music is influenced by the socio-political happenings of the day and I spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing with friends and colleagues WHAT’s GOING ON as part of a life-long calling I’ve had to revel in the beautiful aspects of life and to continually work towards a deeper understanding of the not so beautiful aspects of how the human race functions. A lot of what I write comes from what I see as our collective inability to put human and environmental welfare before the obsession with material gain and how we continually allow such a tiny minority of people (who are QUITE misguided in my opinion) to have such a drastic concentration of power and money.

This is indeed a BLOG site so you’ll see various blog posts on the main page and on various project pages regarding my thoughts and activities. Over on the right, below, I’ve got links to some of the inspiring people out there who are true revolutionary visionaries when it comes to creating and pushing for the desperately needed transformation we need. Also there are a few of my brief writings and my travel blogs.

Thanks for dropping by and if you want to stay informed as to what I’m doing, please sign my email list to the right and come back to check out my blog entries from time to time!

1) Rebel Tumbao (Afro Latin Roots Reggae with a message) Rebel Tumbao site
2) Dragonfly Taxi (my original reggae/rock/rap jams) DFT site

I feel blessed to have been able to hang out with the band for a week in Accra, Ghana a few years back and maintain a friendship with them, especially the bassie, Amlak Tafari. The band hit the stage FULL WATTS from the very first downbeat, no need to warm up over a tune or two. After the intro medley, touching on bits of their hits and drawing huge cheers from the crowd, the band settled into a night of playing their known and not so known tunes.

The thing that I find so damn inspiring about their show is that, despite the band being over 30 years old, they keep the music fresh each time. That’s really hard. Many times bands with such a history, bands that have embedded themselves, culturally, into the ears of the world, end up becoming hollow nostalgic mockeries of what they once were. Not so with Pulse. David (Hinds – lead singa), on mic, reminded us all that “we gotta keep the fiya under Babylon’s ass.”

Also, he spent a bit of time talking about his involvement with the visionary “Dokte” (Doctor) Paul Farmer and his amazing Partners in Health organization which brings healthcare to some of the poorest of the poor communities in the world, especially in Haiti. Pulse wrote a tune “Hold On [4 Haiti]” and last year teamed up directly with PIH to help fund a project which installs solar energy panels in health clinics. Right on Pulse! That’s putting music to work with the right Babylon-Ass-Kicking people such as Farmer. Check it: //www.holdon4haiti.org

Anyway, Steel Pulse delivers a powerful, current and grooving show, all powered by a back bone of clear vision that ignites the reasons why I play music. Thanks to PULSE!!