DESCRIPTION:
Luddy Samms has started the annual, international "Blues on the Beach Jam Extravaganza " every January at his "Drifters Beach Bar" in Negril, Jamaica. Musicians from Jamaica, USA, UK, Germany and Canada performed blues and roots music from 3pm to 9pm under the blues skies of the Caribbean...and near Mile One on the seven mile long beach.

Jay Douglas comes back home to sing after a very long absence...A natural born performer, Jay Douglas first took to the stage over 40 years ago as a youth in his hometown of Montego Bay, Jamaica. His first real break came through one of the wildly popular talent contests held by Vere Johns, whom author Lloyd Bradley, in his book This is Reggae Music, described as "the most influential man in Jamaican music in the second half of the 1950s." Douglas was runner-up in the competition and swiftly caught the attention of many prominent ears in the emerging reggae landscape.

The young Douglas immediately became a contributing voice to the rising styles and rhythms of Jamaica's early reggae movement, and quickly learned the tools of the trade by performing on the same stage with Jamaican reggae legends such as Desmond Dekker, Alton Ellis, Jimmy James, Higgs and Wilson, Millie Small, Jimmy Cliff, Derrick Morgan, and many others.

In 1963, Douglas immigrated with his family to Toronto, ON, and soon became an architect and leader in the midst of Toronto's inexhaustible and diverse music scenes, as one of the many artists fresh to Canada from Jamaica. With his limitless vocal ability, nimble capacity across musical styles and captivating stage presence, it wasn't long before Douglas was asked to front the seminal Toronto R&B outfit, The Cougars. From the late '60s through early '70s, Douglas and The Cougars became a prominent fixture of Toronto's music panorama, along with the revered artists Jackie Mittoo and Wayne McGhie, an era documented in the recent Jamaica to Toronto album compiled by Light in the Attic Records in Seattle, WA (full details below).

Douglas has performed his wide ranging repertoire of music for audiences around the world, including parts of Europe and Asia, at the prestigious 2010 Havana International Jazz Festival in Cuba. He has been a featured performer at numerous night clubs and resorts, and major chains such as the Sheraton, Hilton, Ramada, and Holiday Inn, and more specifically, the Sheraton Hong Kong and The Matsuri in Japan. He has performed at Roy Thompson Hall and has been a headliner at the Canadian National Exhibition.

travelbydawn@outlook.com
http://luddysamms@talktalk.net
http://www.terrygillespie.ca/music.html
http://www.jeromegodboo.com
http://www.chuckjackson.com/gigs.htm
http://www.cheryllescom.com
http://brantparkerband.bandcamp.com
http://www.tyleryarema.com.
bluessouth2017@gmail.com
http://www.jamaicastrong.com/the-overtakers
jaydouglas.ca
megacitymusic@yahoo.com