January 4th, 19 "eighty-sum'n" was a memorable day in Jamaican music history. This was the day that a famous female artist of the eighties (Shirley McLean) and a renown radio personality (Owen “O.B” Brown) brought a bouncing baby boy into the world, and they called him Gavin. From birth, Gavin has been submerged in and surrounded by music as not only his parents but many of his relatives and family friends have all been intimately involved in the music fraternity. Commercially; his cousin Toots from Toots and The Maytals (who many credit as coining the word Reggae in song) and the UK based Me&You have been the most successful of the lot thus far.
Gavin began showing much musical promise from as early as age 5 when he began playing the drums at an advanced/semi-professional level at the Jamaica School of Music under the tutelage of Sparrow Martin, Carl Ayton (who he later worked with) and many others. He began honing his stage craft in 1991 as a solo act by performing at school concerts, barbeques, etc. and was even a member of the Kingston College Chapel Choir. In 1995, Gavin made his first recording and landed his first live radio interview with top Jamaican disk jock Richie B on RJR.
The subsequent years saw Gavin emerging as a profound writer/lyricist and at one point; he was even playing the guitar. However, it wasn’t until 1998 that Gavin began making deliberate and intentional steps towards being a successful full-time Artist and adopted “Gavinchi” as a moniker/stage name. Gavinchi's first three recordings were in rotation on all of Jamaica’s major radio stations and one of them has earned him two live performances on national television in Jamaica.
To date, Gavinchi has graced top notch websites such as wireimage.com and dailyceleb.com, among others; he's formed alliances with D&G Ting(Pepsi Americas) and The LRG Clothing Company, been interviewed by several major media houses such as BET, BBC, CNN, TimeWarner, RJR, IrieFM & RETv, made several red carpet appearances (including the Soul Train and BET Awards), performed at various colleges, universities, festivals and events in and around the Kingston Metropolitan Region, various parts of Europe, Canada's East Coast, The U.S West Coast plus Hawaii. He has headlined and sold out venues previously packed by legends such as The Beatles, Willie Nelson, Kool And The Gang, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Eek-A-Mouse and Pato Baton plus performed alongside the likes of Toots Hibbert, Ernie Smith, Jr. Marvin, Fully Fullwood, Beenie Man, Baby Cham, Barrington Levy, Mykal Rose, Xzibit, New Zealand's Katch A Fire, Hawaii's Ooklah The Moc, B.U.B.z and many others. He has worked alongside Grammy Award Winning and Multi-Platinum Artists and Producers like Krayzie Bone (Bone Thugs-n-Harmony) and Dany Tomas; some of Jamaica’s finest musical talents, such as Sly Dunbar, Freddie McGreggor, Big Youth, Robbie Lyn, Dwight Pinkney (Roots Radics), Steve Golding (Peter Tosh’s Word, Sound & Power Band), Keith Francis, Gibby Morrison, Charmaine Bowman and many more. His style, although eclectic, is always unmistakably Reggae at its core. Gavinchi has given birth to a new genre of Music; Sub- Stancehall Music and is its first valiant representative. Sub-Stancehall is Dancehall music with Substance, not mere rhymes and punch lines which has now become commonplace. The true substance of Authentic Reggae Music is alive and well in all his songs.
We are all witnessing the rise of a new era and Gavinchi is its focal point. Ladies and gentlemen, the future is here; as a matter of fact, Gavinchi is the past and future wrapped up in our beautiful present. What we are seeing here is that One with God is a majority; as all of Gavinchi's efforts and accomplishments thus far were all possible because of close friends and family (Phenix Records), hard work, perseverance and Divine Intervention. Time is the master and ultimate test of all that is; so it will undoubtedly prove how great Gavinchi is.
Look out for his debut album “Release Di Truth… VOLUME ONE”.
