myspace generator
Reggae music "Hit Me" at the tender age of ten. It was the song "Three Little Birds" that caught my ear. I asked my cousin Oscar to dub me a tape of that song and instead he dubbed me a tape of the entire "Uprising" album. I played it over and over everyday. Luckily my mother and step father were supportive of my new obsession and agreed to let me attend my first concert two years later. Sunsplash 91' at the Greek Theater in Berkeley is when and where my dream was born. From the moment I heard the thumping bass and drum and saw the artists one by one take the stage and conquer the audience, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I found a new identity in everything reggae. Reggaemylitis is not something that is easily explained, but you definitely know it if you've got it! While my schoolmates were listening to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, I was engulfed in Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. When baggy jeans and dark colors were in, I was wearing red gold and green to show the love I had for this music that I was just beginning to learn about. While all this was going on, my dream was fueled further with the passion I had for playing and making music. I began to play the flute in fifth grade at first to get closer to a girl I had a crush on. The problem was that she was first chair, therefore I had to actually get good in order to sit next to her! Practicing everyday made me realize how much I truly loved music and how much of a natural ability I was blessed with. I also began to write my first songs on a small Casio keyboard which provided an outlet for the many feelings I had deep inside of me. One of the first songs I wrote was called "Band Geek" which was a cry to all the so called "cool" kids to stop making fun of us who were in band! Another song was called "White Man Gone Jamaican" which was a plea to society to "let me be who I want to be." Another favorite was "Good Man" a song about respecting women no matter their size or complexion! I began to perform these songs in 1995, my sophomore year in High School. I was going to Cerritos High which at the time was the most ethnically diverse school in the nation. Therefore it made sense to name the band "The Melting Pots" since we were all from different cultures. The band was frustrating for me because everybody wanted to rock out and I just wanted to play reggae. At this time, everybody was listening to "Green Day" while I was getting into bands like Burning Spear and Big Mountain. Still it was a positive learning experience for collaborating with other musicians and performing in front of an audience. This was also when I began to play the saxophone and sing which I know was hard to bear at times! My junior and senior year found me starting a new project which would eventually be called "Nothing Posh." This band was a collective of musicians from my high school and another high school. By this time (1996-1997), the third wave of ska was gaining momentum so it was much easier to find musicians who wanted and understood how to play reggae. The band was successful as we played numerous events and even raised $5,000 for our school band program through a benefit concert. Once we graduated though, we all went our separate ways. I decided to further study music by attending Fullerton College which boasted the best music program in the nation for a J.C. and rivaled many Universities especially in the area of Big Band Jazz.It was at Fullerton where I learned about playing in tune and improvising. I began in the second jazz band and worked my way up to first chair in the #1 jazz band. During this time was when I began to play professionally in a reggae band. The name of the band was Kindread lead by a very important mentor of mine, Andre Greene. It was in this band that I learned how to play the horn lines for so many classic reggae riddims as well as began to overstand vocal harmonies as well as performance style. The main gigs we did were the ever popular Reggae Boat Parties, The White House (Laguna Beach) and the Light House (Redondo Beach). It was also in this band where I got to meet and perform with some of the best musicians in the business. Musicians who would sit in with the band included members of Detour Posse, Ronnie "Stepper"of Steel Pulse and many others. Eventually after being noticed, I began playing with many of the local reggae bands such as Black & White (Ras Collin), Kitaka(Skarcha), 4:20 band, JahMark & the Soulshakers, Upstream, and many more. This lasted fromm 1997-2001 and was a great way to get through college and was much more rewarding than having a "regular" day job. In July, 2000 I took a break from reggae and went on a month long tour of Europe with the Fullerton College Jazz Band. The highlight was performing at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland, The North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam and the botanical gardens in Paris. It was also a blast starting and ending the tour in Amsterdam which provided more than enough inspiration for the song "Sensi ((Who's Got It)" When I returned from Europe, I found myself with a B.A. degree in fine arts and an ever increasing itch to record an album of original material. with the help of some family and friends, I rented a warehouse space in Anaheim which had previously been converted into a studio. The next six months were spent fixing up the studio and recording an album that was called "Duality."The project was engineered and produced by my high school buddy Ben Galbraith and myself. The idea for the project was to record an album prior to our twenty-first birthday to serve as a sort of reference point later in our lives. The album we ended up with was some of the most honest and heartfelt music I have ever written. The track "Padre" dealt with never getting to know my father. Then there was "Harmony" which was a plea for mankind to live as one, and of course the ever popular "Sensi (Who's Got It)" the lyrical description of a youth visiting the cafe's in Amsterdam for the first time. Unfortunately the album was never released except to close family and friends. December 7th, 2001 finally arrived and marked the end of my adolescence. I was finally 21 and could now perform in clubs without getting hassled! I decided that I would move to L.A. and start a band and try my best to make it in the music business. I ended up moving to Silver Lake with two of my cousins. While in Silver Lake, I established my own band once again and continued to record. I converted the garage of the duplex we lived in into a studio and acquired as many instruments as I could afford. Eventually I had the studio that came to me in a dream. The idea was to have all the instruments set up so that a group of musicians could walk into the studio and basically start recording. There was a drum kit, acoustic piano, acoustic bass, organ, guitars, percussion, horns everything you could think of! I began recording demos for what would become the first and second Jativa albums. There were also many songs, good songs that were recorded and never released. Some of the tunes of this era include "So Sweet" "Burn Ya" "Fine Wine" "My Dear" and countless others. The band I formed prior to being called Jativa was called "Jah'z Roots" and began to play a steady gig in Fullerton at this spot called "Back Alley." That is where I met my wife Irene. I remember looking in the crowd and seeing this beautiful woman with a gorgeous smile singing along to all the reggae tunes with me. Of course I had to ask for her number. After talking for a while, I asked her to come to the Beres Hammond show with me. After that concert at the House of Blues in L.A., the rest is history! Soon after, our angel, Mia Bella Jativa was cookin in the oven if you know what I mean!Meanwhile, I got called to tour with an all-star reggae band called Ragga-Soul-Jah. The trombonist I-Timothy got me the gig and I was most grateful as this was my first real tour. The line-up included the great Scientist behind the mixing boards, Haile Maskell on Bass, Tony Bird on keys, Freddie Flint on guitar, Wadi Gad on drums, I-Timothy on trombone, Mr. Beenie and Hawaiin Lyon on vocals and many more. It was through this tour that I met Haile Maskell and asked him to produce the first Jativa album. I chose Maskell as producer because there is something about his vibe that really gets the best performance out of the musicians around him. He is an amazing musician and a complete master of playing bass, guitar and singing; a reggae legend in his own right. Maskell is responsible for making my songs sound more "reggae" as well as for laying down great bass and guitar lines throughought both Jativa albums. The best tunes of these albums are the bulk of "Crucial Selections."This compilation album also includes tracks recorded with Lynval Golding of "The Specials" at The Rough Sounds studio in Redondo Beach as well as Fully Fullwood of "Word Sound & Power; Soul Syndicate" recorded at his very own "Fully's Kitchen" studio. Other musicians on this album include: Tony Chin of "Soul Syndicate" Calton Coffie of "Inner Circle" Johnny Blimling of "The Courteous Rude Boys" Angela Barnes of "Soul Majestic" and Haile Maskell of "The Rastafarians" More on how I came to work with these amazing musicians as well as how I came to be the current saxophonist for The English Beat to come. Until then, respect and thanks for tuning into my lickle story of the importance of reggae music in my life. Thank you Jah every night and day for the many blessings; my mother Cathy who has supported me tremendously and has showed me nothing but unconditional love, my wife Irene and daughter Mia who have given me their hearts completely and give me a reason to keep pushing forward, my in laws Abe and Loli who have supported me in more than the physical sense, My Grandmother Fanny for all her wisdom and guidance, all my aunts, uncles, friends and cousins for being like brothers and sisters to me, and George Michael and Gracie for being the brother and sister that I never had. Also thank you to all the fans of Jativa and supporters of reggae music in general. Stay Positive~Jah Live!!!~ Fernando Jativa