First Annual Socalypso
EWA Entertainment, Honor Rebel Promotions, and Island Social Club (ISC) are re-creating Soca Music History in Metro Atlanta, GA. They are combining their resources to bring three World Class Soca Music Bands during Atlanta’s Twentieth Peach Carnival to be held on Saturday, May 24th, 2008. Legendary singer and guitarist, Onyan, is leading Burning Flames Soca Band, Windward Caribbean Kulture (WCK) Bouyon Band, and Jam Tymez Soca Band (formerly Jam Band). These Soca bands will share the same stage on the same night at the Atrium in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The show is billed as the “First Annual Socalypso”, SOUL OF CALYPSO, and is expected to be an Annual SOCA Event. These three big name bands are known for their sizzling Eastern Caribbean rhythms, whether it is Soca, Bouyon, Cadence, or Calypso.
Onyan and Burning Flames' Me Nar Freard
Onyan and Burning Flames' Soca Band were back-up musicians for legendary Soca singer, The Mighty Arrow of"Hot Hot Hot" fame, when their debut hit, “Stylie Tight” was released in 1985. The band has successfully created chart smashing and road march hits such as "Island Girl" (featured in the film "Bernie and Me"), "Workey-Workey, De Real Fyah", and "Swinging Engine". Onyan and Burning Flames' Soca Music Band have dominated the Soca and Calypso scenes in their native Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, the Caribbean Basin, Europe, and North America. Burning Flames' Soca Band has toured countries ranging from the Soca mecca, Trinidad, to Japan to Italy to England to Colombia to Nicaragua to The United States. It has played in international cities ranging from Toronto to New York, London to Miami, Tokyo to Port of Spain
WCK's Conch Shell Crew On Ya
Similarly, WCK was formed in 1988 by a group of talented musicians from Dominica and has filled the emptiness that was in the music scene by pioneering Bouyon music. WCK has grown to international stardom to match its Dominican predecessors, Exile One and Grammacks. WCK’s following is strong particularly in the French influenced Caribbean: Dominica, Haiti, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. According to Numusiczone.com,
“The band heralded in a new and much needed resurgence of live music and created a new wave in Dominica’s musical evolution They began experimenting with a fusion of Cadence-Lypso and Jing Ping. While the Cadence-Lypso sound is based on the creative use of acoustic drums, an aggressive up-tempo guitar beat and strong social commentary in the native Creole language, the new sound created by WCK, focused more on the use of technology with a strong emphasis on keyboard rhythmic patterns.”
Jam Tymez Massive Deh 'Bout
On the other hand, Jam Tymez Soca Band, formerly Jam Band Soca Band, is one of the top Soca bands in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), The Eastern Caribbean, and The Soca World. Jam Tymez is extremely popular among their native Virgin Islanders (St. Thomas and St. Croix), Tortolans, Anguillans, and SKV( St. Kitts and Nevis). “This band gained notoriety April 2007, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands Carnival. The members are former members of Jam Band, and they came together to form Jam Tymez,” according to Jam Tymez’s myspace Website. Their plan is to keep Jam Band’s Soca Music alive and to keep the legacy of Nick “Daddy” Friday alive... Jam Tymez Soca Music Band is also popular in mainland cities like New York, Miami, Orlando, and Atlanta, to name just a few.