BENNETTGermaine Smith, Staff Reporter
THERE IS no denying the musical talent that comes from Jamaica. The land of wood and water has constantly produced people who have taken Jamaican music to several other countries.
To ensure that our musicians are competent and comfortable ambassadors for both reggae and dancehall music, accomplished musician Mickey Bennett and his associates formed Caribbean Management and Artiste Development (C-MAD). One year after its formation, the company is now in full swing and set for greater things.
Bennett explained that the extent of the company's progress is for artistes' development and, if things work out as planned, Jamaica could be in line for good things.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
The C-MAD management team is made up of people with different skills, which are all relevant to music. The managing director is vocalist Winston Tucker while another director is Courtney Singh of Bodyguard sound system, and musician Bennett is the artistic director.
"We have a step by step programme which can take up to three years," said Bennett in explaining the company's philosophy. "At the end of the programme we are guaranteeing you that you as an artiste will be a household name who is earning comfortably." This naturally will depend on the level of talent and development an artiste is at before he comes in to them, he added.
As such, at their Grafton road offices, artistes get accepted after auditions where their present skills are assessed. Depending on where they are at, they are taken from that level to where the company wants them to be.
TALENT
"We look for talent first of all. Singers should have a particular range in their voices, a bit of knowledge about the music and certain star qualities, charisma if you will," he said.
The age according to Bennett is not too critical, but they would prefer if the artistes are young high school graduates, or persons in the late teens to early twenties.
"For some of them, whatever they need to function as a human being we provide it. Whether it be food or shelter, we try to take care of this aspect as best as possible," Bennett said.
While this is provided for those who need it, the artistes are taught how to play at least one instrument, the basics of music, the 'business of the business' and are schooled in songwriting, in addition to receiving voice training. This, according to Bennett, will turn participants into fully developed artistes.
MOCK BUSINESS INTERVIEWS
Other steps in the programme involves creating a profile so that the artistes are ready for the Caribbean and, by extension, the world. This involves writing their biographies, getting pictures taken, doing demos of their work, doing mock business interviews and practising answering questions from the media.
"We need to look at this thing as a global thing and not just as a Jamaican thing. If these youths do a show here, someone can tape it, stream it on the Internet the next day and the world can watch his performance. His career can take a different turn even before he knows it," Bennett commented. "We are under the world microscope again, so we need to find the youngsters on the cutting edge, people capable of going out there and representing the music."
To handle these many aspects, C-MAD has acquired the services of qualified and trained people. These include guitarist 'Stevie G' Golding, voice trainers Georgia Guerra and Leecia Wright, and Ozzie D, who deals with stage movements.
Bennett handles the songwriting and business workshops.
Bennett told The Sunday Gleaner that C-MAD works closely with the musical component of the Government's 'Building Youth For National Development' (BY.ND) programme. This programme aims to promote talented young artistes who have the qualities necessary to succeed in the business.
EFFORT AND MONEY
The big question though, is when C-MAD invests so much time, effort and money into an artiste, where does it come from?
As Bennett explained, their roster includes upcoming artistes, as well as established artistes like Ghost and Ingel Chanta. "When we have these people out there earning, they have a percentage which they give back to C-MAD, and we use it to help those who are coming up. This does not always work out as sometimes we use funds from our pocket. It is a work in progress though, and as long as we keep putting out artistes, we will get returns."
Other artistes who are involved with C-MAD include Rickey Shepherd, his own son Nickey B, Ashanti, and Sasha, the vocalist who teams up with Sean Paul in the single I'm Still In love With You.
For the future, Mickey Bennett sees only positive things coming from C-MAD. "We want to manage young producers as well. Anyone who wants to be involved with the music. We have a few established artistes who we will be targeting next year. We have been waiting to build a good team around us and this is it," he said. "Come next year, we also want to offer classes in reggae singing. This is the sound that is capturing the imagination of the world right now and we want to make use
of it."
