New songs have been released..
Gracious Gorilla and Burning Van!
Hope you enjoy the music..
The new CD will be out soon...
Thanks and respect!
Born in Barbados, W.I., had some early success during high school days with a band called Everyday's People, who were the back up band for a duet 'The Draytons Two". This act had two 1 hits in the Caribbean back in the '70's 'Drink Milk' and Hiti Titi'. Soon after high school, Ishmael moved to Baltimore with his mom and brother. After a brief stint in the USAF, Ishmael got right back into music. First hooked up with The Sonny Saul Trio from Narberth, Pa then with the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra from Philly. This was an initiation period to jazz. It was not long, though, before Ishmael found his way back to his roots of doing reggae, ska, calypso and soca music. This led to the birth of BlackSheep.
This band formed when a student from U of Penn. came into Ishmael's health food store, The Apple Seed, one day looking for a reggae band. Ish called up his friends Moata and Isa and got Jelani and Ambi and went did the show for the frat party. It came off so good that the band stayed together. After touring for four years and recording 3 albums, some of the members decided to stay on the west coast.
Ishmael wound up in San Francisco, working with a back up band " Jah Kingdom Band' for Caribbe International, a booking agency that brought artists from Jamaica. Ishmael toured with such artist as, Freddie McGregor, Pablo Moses, Eek-a-Mouse, Don Carlos, Leroy Sibbles, Mutabaruka, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Michigan & Smiley, Alton Ellis amongst others. On some tours Ishmael performed the roles of drummer, road manager, driver and backline provider.
After about 3-4 years of constant touring for Caribbe, Ishmael was asked to join the Killer Bees from Austin, Tx. by their manager Louis Meyers, founder of SxSW. Ish toured and recorded with the Bees for 7 years, performing in every state in the union and a bit in Europe. The Bees were nominated for a Grammy in '87 and won the NAIRD award .(National Association of Indy Record Distributors) for the ''Grooving'' and ''Live in Berlin" albums.
After the Bees cooled off due to illnesses, Ish recorded his first CD, "Idiosyncratic Creatures" and moved out to San Diego with John Forbes ( keyboardist, who later joined Bobby Brown's band). Ish met Arturo, who replaced Forbes on the keyboards, and some other local musicians to get the Peacemakers on the road. This venture was successful for a few years with the recording of 'Feeling Irie'. After the birth of Jathanuel to Ish and Leann, Ish made a decision to cool off the road and got a job as booking agent/driving range supervisor at Victor's on the Bay/Mission Bay Golf Course (Ish is an avid golfer)working with Brian Ross, manager of the facility. After 3 years, Victor's closed and everyone were laid off.
This is when DubSquad started, recorded one CD,Peacemaker/Dubsquad, 'All One' and did a little tour. Other commitments of the band members prevented the band from moving forward and after the 'burning van' incident, Ishmael took a job at the San Pasqual Academy, a residential high school for foster kids.
Three years into working there and the music itch drove Ish into the studio to record another CD of original songs. Ish called up his long time cohort in the music, Arturo, who recommended that they worked with Vegitaion's bassie at Metamora studio. That project went extremely well and led to Ishmael joining up with Vegitation as their drummer.
Now, with Brian Ross, (who moved on to UCSD as assistant director of campus events), as manager, Vegitation with the Peacemakers (Art & Ish) merger is receiving very favorable attention and is poised to move to the next level. Three new CDs are about to be released 'Tribes of Peace' a Dandilion's (Veges lead singer) compilation project; Gracious Gorilla, Ishmael's new CD and Vegitation Live at Winstons. This band is READY.
