Reggae/Rock Artist
Bio
By Adriana Rubio
UNITY, LOVE and LIVITY!
Jahmings Maccow was born in Crocus Hill overlooking Crocus Bay on the Island of Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. Jahmings started singing and playing the harmonica at the age of 5 with a choral group at school in St. Kitts. At the age of 8 Jahmings built a steel drum and tuned it himself with excellent results. And by the time he was nine everyone in Anguilla was talking about him as one of the best singers and poets in school. Maccow became the leader of the “Public Works Steel Band” at 12 and the keyboardist of the band “The Flames” at 13 in St. Thomas.
“Every Living thing Vibrate to Music, because Music is LIFE!”
New York City 216 W. 42nd Street Movie Theater
In the early 70’s Jahmings Maccow was introduced to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter Group. This all together was what in musical terms influenced Jahmings outstanding style.
Jahmings Maccow moved to New York City, and the 42nd Street Movie Theatre is where it all happened for him during the late 70's and early 80's. Jahmings was going to a Music School in the upper West side of Manhattan. He met a group of singers working at the Theatre who asked him to join their group. They called themselves “The Lover Boys”. It didn't take him long to find out that the group name represented what they were really all about: Girls! Jahmings was more interested in music, and after the group had a few incidents with girls, Jahmings left the group and started to concentrate more on the guitar and songwriting.
One night at the Theatre while the late show was on, Jahmings was in the lobby where it was pretty depressing so he decided to pull out his acoustic guitar and played some Reggae riffs on a song that he was writing at the time. Reggae musician Paul Henton heard Jahmings playing and congratulated him for such a great solo performance. Henton ran upstairs to tell his friend Cliff O'donoghue about Jahmings playing and in a blink of an eye they found themselves with Jahmings in Brooklyn the very next day on a jam session for their start-up band called “Rhythm Dimensions”. On that same week Paul Henton invited him to go to Angel Sounds Recording Studios in Manhattan to record “Rebels”, the song Jahmings was working on at the movie theater lobby when they first met. The song was a success and went right to the top of many Radio Stations charts that year in Anguilla.
Mid-town Manhattan Studio 45
Studio 45 was the home of “Catch-A-Fire Band” in Mid-town Manhattan for Jahmings. The fusion of bands such as “Rhythm Dimensions” and “Creation” gave birth to “Catch-A-Fire Band” in late 1981 early 1982.
“Catch-A-Fire Band” was an opening act for bands like “Ken Boothe”, “Alton Ellis”, “The Meditations”, “Israel Vibration”, “Dennis Brown” and “Culture” amongst many others. They all also used to share the same stages and tours with “Michigan & Smiley” and “Mojanya”.
Due to some disagreements between band members, “Catch-A-Fire Band” broke up.
Shortly after “Catch-A-Fire Band” Jahmings wrote a rock styled song entitled “True Love”. He met with his producer to record the song that way, but the producer decided to record it in a ballad style. Although Jahmings liked the recording, he was disappointed as it wasn't recorded in the original style. Jahmings did not complete the final vocals tracks on that cut until years later.
“I re-recorded the track and it appeared on my New Way CD which gave birth to my Reggae Rock Style!
The South Bronx years
Jahmings Maccow’s inner talent and non-stop songwriting led him on to create “The Enforcers” in 1984. They mostly did studio work for Bullwackies Artists such as “Max Romeo” and “Sugar Minott”. Around the same time and due to his work at Bullwackies Studio, Jahmings met singing groups “Love Joys” and “Leroy Sibbles” and of course joined the groups. He then met “Hopeton Lewis” while coming out of a recording session at Quadrasonic Studios in mid town Manhattan. Lewis invited Jahmings to his studio in Montego Bay, Jamaica for some recording.
Dick Grove Musical School
To continue with his musical education, Jahmings Maccow moved
to Los Angeles, CA in the fall of 1987. Jahmings attended Dick Grove Music School from 1988 to 1990. During his time at Grove he proudly signed a songwriter’s contract with “Sunrise Records”. And the song entitled “Yesterday/Memories” was done by “Buddy Raye” and released on the album entitled “Hollywood Sessions” as a result. “Yesterday/Memories” is one of the songs Jahmings wrote during “The Enforcers” band years.
Jahmings Maccow continues making music as Music is Vibration for him! And in his own words:
“Music is a (LIFE) Vibration for me, because in the beginning was The (Word), and the Word was with JAH, and the Word is JAH. The Word is a sound, Music is a sound, and The Word is responsible for all creation. Every Living thing Vibrate to Music, because Music is LIFE!”
For further information on Jahmings Maccow please visit his official website at:
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