Hi, my name is Jamaica. I was raised on the folk songs of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan and grew up listening to the sounds of my father's guitar. I learned to walk on the rural, rocky hillsides of San Diego's North County. By age two and a half I was climbing to the tops of tall pine trees and scaring my parents to death! At age five, after asking my mother for violin lessons, I began classical training (Suzuki Method) on the piano, since there was a piano in the house and not a violin. I took to it and started winning competitions. For three years I was a Bach Festival champion at ages eight, nine and ten. When I turned eight, I got my first guitar as a gift and I took a few folk guitar lessons. I wrote my first talkin' blues at nine. At age eleven, I received my first violin. I fell in love with the sound of bowed strings and felt immediate passion for the violin. I continued my piano training through age fourteen and performed several times at institutes and workshops, in honor recitals and in master classes, selected by teachers from all over the country, but my focus was turning more and more towards the violin. Eventually I set aside my classical piano studies in pursuit of the violin. I have been featured as a soloist on the violin in live concert performances with songwriter, Jackson Browne and on recordings of David Crosby of the legendary C.S.N.Y.. I toured and recorded with my father, Joel Rafael, for several years. We were warmly received at folk festivals across the country, in the acoustic ensemble, The Joel Rafael Band. I also love to dance and to act. I have studied gymnastics, tap, ballet, flamenco, African and Cuban dance and yoga. When I am not touring professionally, I teach private violin lessons, take acting classes, and ride Arabian horses on trails in Malibu canyon and the Santa Monica mountains. I love to sing, write songs and compose music. Although I have toured and collaborated with many well known artists, I am currently in the studio working on my own debut singer-songwriter album. I write my songs on the guitar and the piano and accompany myself, but I am joined by some incredibly talented musicians in the studio, for the recording of this album. "California Girl" is a track from my forthcoming CD. I think I have been most greatly influenced by the life and music of Ravi Shankar, composer and master of Indian classical music. My parents played his music during my birth. I believe that the greatest musical and creative inspirations come from a connection of body, mind and spirit, a concept held sacred in the study of classical Indian music and yoga. My most desired goal as a musician and artist is described best in the words of violinist Yehudi Menuhin. To achieve "a synthesis of the immediacy of expression and the spontaneity, truth and integrity of action suited to the moment, a form of honesty characteristic of both the innocent child and the great artist".
"On Stage with Jackson Browne at Valley Festival in Solvang, CA" (Photo by Tim Owen)
