Press
Release
For
Immediate Distribution
Rocksteady: The
Roots of Reggae
Rolls out
across Canada starting Friday, July 24
Montreal, July 13, 2009 — The soulful and rhythmic sounds
of Rocksteady will soon be heard across Canada thanks
to the exceptional reception Rocksteady: The Roots
of Reggae received at its world premiere in Montreal last week to universal critical and audience acclaim. On
Friday, July 24, 2009 the feature opens in Toronto at the Carlton Theatre and
in Vancouver at the Granville Theatre. In the following weeks the film will
also open in Ottawa, Saskatoon, Edmonton and other cities.
Around 125,000 people came to see the stars of the
film perform at an outdoor tribute concert at the Montreal International Jazz
Festival 30th anniversary celebrations on July 7, 2009, which the
Festival billed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” event and the music critics acclaimed
as “the concert of the year,” and ”the top festival
concerts of all time.”
The documentary tells the story of the Rocksteady era (1966-69), considered by
music experts to be the golden
age of Jamaican music. A
blend of ska, soul and R&B, Rocksteady
developed the
buoyant rhythms, prominent bass line, beautiful vocals and socially conscious
lyrics that became Reggae. Forty years after Rocksteady’s
peak, the documentary filmmakers brought the remaining great Rocksteady singers and musicians together to record an
album of their greatest hits, to perform live at a reunion concert and to tell
their stories - all of it captured in this stunning film.
The singers featured in Rocksteady: The
Roots of Reggae are Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths and Dawn Penn; Hopeton
Lewis, Stranger Cole, Derrick Morgan, Ken Boothe,
Leroy Sibbles and U-Roy. Among the musicians are Ernest
Ranglin, Sly Dunbar, Jackie Jackson, Gladstone
Anderson, Hux Brown, Bongo Herman and Scully Simms. A
special guest star in the film is Rita Marley, who along with, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths made up the I-Threes, Bob
Marley’s backup singers during his rapid
rise to stardom. These artists reunite to take audiences on a trip through time
with such legendary hits as Rivers of
Babylon, The Tide Is High, No,No,No (You Don’t Love Me) and Stop That Train.
The feature was produced
by Muse Entertainment of Canada and HesseGreutert
Films of Switzerland and directed by Stascha Bader.
It is distributed to theatres in Canada by Filmswelike
of Toronto.
To hear a sample of Rocksteady music, to see the film’s trailer or to read
biographies of the artists, please go to Rocksteady’s
brand new website www.rocksteadyrootsofreggae.com.
The CD of Rocksteady: The Roots of
Reggae is available from the label Moll Selecta around the world with liner
notes written by the internationally renowned Chuck Foster who writes the
Reggae Update column for Beat Magazine and is the author of Roots Rock Reggae:
An Oral History of Reggae Music from Ska to Dancehall
(Billboard Books). He also hosts Reggae Central on KPFK-LA.
— 30 —
Media Information:
Anisha Rangi, Muse Entertainment, arangi@muse.ca,
514-866-6873
Virginia Kelly, info@vkpr.ca (416)
466-9799