BY RICHARD JOHNSON—
Observer senior reporter—
Ska to the world—
Rock The World, a documentary tracking the work of Jamaican vocalist Richie Stephens and his Ska Nation Band, was featured at the Festival del Cinema Europeo in Italy last Thursday.
The project is the work of young film-maker Frederico Giannace who was contracted by the band four years ago to chronicle their travels and performances as they take the indigenous Jamaican musical genre across the globe.
For Richie Stephens, having the documentary and the music showcased at a film festival such as this is both a great look for the band and ska.
“Basically, this documentary is looking at where Richie Stephens and the Ska Nation Band is coming from and we hope to take this music. I had met Italian musicians Rankin Lele and Papa Leu about five years ago and we connected over our love of ska. We then decided to go ahead and form the band, which started backing me for performances. As we prepared for performances and tours, I would travel to Europe where most of the band members are located and do the rehearsals. This was an amazing situation.”
“The suggestion to start documenting our journey came to us four years ago from Italian music producer Pablo Molo. I was doing some work with him separately, but when he saw what I was doing with the Ska Nation Band, he suggested that we hire a cameraman and start documenting. So we started capturing footage on the first tour of Japan four years ago and took the cameraman along. Over time, we toured Germany, Italy, Romania, did the Independence Grand Gala and Reggae Sumfest here in Jamaica and another music festival in the US. It has taken a number of years to pull all this footage together and edit. We then added commentary from personalities like David Rodigan and Mutabaruka and what we have is a really great product which we have been sending to film festivals. From the information reaching me is that it went over very well in Italy last week. The plan is to shop the documentary to a major streaming platform such as Netflix in a bid to spread awareness about this music even further,” Richie Stephens told the Jamaica Observer.
Known for his booming tenor voice, Richie Stephens has been a staple on the local entertainment scene for close to 30 years. Primarily known as a balladeer with hints of reggae and dancehall thrown into his music for flavoring, he has long infused music from the ska genre into his live performances as a means of preserving the music.
“I really love the music. My earliest experience with ska came from my father. For me, he was one of the baddest ska dancers and I always wanted to be like him and so I would include some of his moves in my shows. From my experience, ska is played everywhere else in the world except Jamaica and I just want to play my part in continuing the genre. On my album Come to Jamaica, there are seven ska tracks on it including a collaboration with the late great Toots Hibbert. Performing ska has also broadened my musical horizons as it has taken me to music markets in places such as Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia… this has been all in the name of ska,” he noted.
Hibbert, front man of Toots and the Maytals, died of COVID-19 complications on September 11. He was 77.
Richie Stephens and the Ska Nation Band were preparing for a major world tour when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February of this year, he therefore sees the documentary as part of the effort to keep the music our there.
“We all know what has happened as it relates to tours and live performances worldwide, but here comes this documentary and we hope it will keep our music in the ears of music lovers. That’s why we want to see it on a Netflix so that even more people can enjoy,” Richie Stephens added.
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