Gramps Morgan: Saint Kitts Music Festival Ranked Among The Premier Festivals In The World
The Saint Kitts Music Festival has become one of the premier music festivals in the Caribbean.
That’s according to Jamaican Reggae artiste, Gramps Morgan. He was at the time, fielding questions from reporters during a press conference before his appearance on the festival stage last year.
“The Saint Kitts Music Festival has become one of the premier music festivals in the Caribbean and I’ll take it even further, one of the premier music festivals in the world because they strive to bring great talent to this island. They do it so well… The Saint Kitts Music Festival takes risks and I’m excited. For me to be here it’s a risk because a lot of you guys never saw me perform solo but you know me from performing with Morgan Heritage. I applaud this festival because the mindset is very international and in order to build the future of music you have to take risks…” he said.
“I’ve seen festivals come and go so I think this is soon to be almost a national hero in itself because you guys are bringing some of the best artistes to this island from all genres. I mean, Air Supply… I remember growing up listening to bands like that and to see that the Saint Kitts Music Festival is able to draw, I mean people come all the way from London and Switzerland to come to this small island in the Caribbean to enjoy entertainment! They can stay right in these great first-world countries and enjoy some of these artistes but they decide to come to Saint Kitts Music Festival and I’m just happy to be a part of that.”
These sentiments were fully endorsed by Govana who told reporters:
“Saint Kitts Nevis Festival I think is the premier festival of the Caribbean,” he said during a press conference. “A Jamaican telling you this, you know we have Reggae Sumfest, we have Sting but the Saint Kitts Music Festival is the premier festival of the Caribbean.”
GRAMPS MORGAN ON CARIBBEAN ARTISTE EXPERIMENTING WITH MAINSTREAM SOUNDS
Responding to questions about Caribbean artistes who are sometimes vilified for experimenting with more mainstream sounds, Morgan said it’s always been done.
“If we’re talking about the music business, or are you talking about music to please yourself? That’s up to you. You have to know this… you know when you listen to Bob Marley Katchafire album and you listen to it ‘Could You Be Loved…’ and it was almost like Disco met Reggae and that was because he started to tour the world, his audience began to expand and he started to blend different things. When you listen to people like Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, toured with the Rolling Stones. So that has always been something that was there. Shaggy, ‘shorty you’re my angel, you’re my darling angel…,’ that’s not a Reggae song, but Shaggy is a Reggae artiste. When you listen to my song, Islander, ‘it feels good to be…,’ that sounds like a Country artiste, right? But, I’m stil Jamaican, I’m still a rastaman. One of the things I see with Caribbean music, we like to blend different things, look at Rihanna from Barbados. Rihanna is not a Soca artiste but she knows her roots. She’s a Pop artiste so I think it’s very important. You talk about songs like Eddy Grant, ‘we’re gonna rock down to Electric Avenue…’ that’s not a Soca song so it’s always been done. I actually think we need to do more…”
The veteran artiste was accompanied by two of his sons who joined him on stage at different points during his set. More on that in another story.
