Kingston – Roubaix, French Connection

First comes the Jamaican food, which the crowd is relishing on Place Faidherbe, turned into a permanent i-tal restaurant. The smell of rice & peas and steamed fish drifts through the air while the technicians busy themselves on the stage where Rico Rodriguez will play that evening, fine-tuning the sound checks with resounding cries of « Jah ». If the project, vast and ambitious, makes an impression, so does the audience, which has turned out in great numbers and… with families. Far from drawing only reggae fans, La Condition Publique fills with a motley crowd in which pushchairs mingle with dreadlocks. More than 1,500 visitors have come, curious, to attend the opening of the Jamaican season.


« This is paradise »

The building's main thoroughfare, christened Kingston Street for the occasion, gradually fills up. The organisers wanted to recreate the atmosphere of a Jamaican street, calling in particular on the artist Bones. This young painter, who covered the walls of Trenchtown and the studios, has made a speciality of murals depicting the icons of reggae. A permanent guest, he has carte blanche to decorate Kingston Street.

From the covered street, you reach the various exhibitions. The first that greets us, C'est ici le Paradis, will delight botany lovers. A large collection of plants is gathered under the splendid multicoloured glass roof. Ackee, ginger, chocho, sweet potato, yam and taro: exotic plants superbly showcased.

On the other side of Kingston Street, Rastafarian Art is drawing its first visitors. Inside are some forty objects, ranging from paintings to a motorbike fuel tank, brought together by Wolgang Bender, an ethnologist who turns his hand to everything. The story goes that the idea came to him on seeing the film Rockers and Leeroy Wallace's motorbike. As the owner of one of the largest collections, only a small part of it, inevitably frustrating, is on show here, though it includes some superb paintings.


But for any reggae fan, the unmissable stop is a little further on. Admission-charging, the exhibition Island Revolution : Jamaican Rythm From Ska to Reggae, 1956-1981 is a must. Bringing together period objects, photographs, video and audio documents, interactive terminals and explanatory texts, it is a genuine journey to the roots of reggae. Marley of course, but also Studio One, Randy's, the Alpha Boy School… You go from discovery to hallucination, dazzled: you stop in front of King Tubby's mixing desk, Lloyd Brevett's bass (1956), Count Ossie's drums or Lloyd Matador Doley's speakers (1957). You smile knowingly at the astonishment of visitors discovering the vinyl on display, their labels torn off. An interactive terminal lets you wander the streets of Kingston to discover the capital's musical landmarks, backed by video and/or audio documents.

Ears in Kingston

Late in the afternoon, the crowd gathers around the stage set up on Place Faidherbe. Gotham CT, a French band delivering festive, spirited ska, precede Rico Rodriguez. The famous trombonist, a pupil of Don Drummond, plays to a packed square, before the back of the stage turns into a giant screen for the showing of Dr. No, the first film shot in Jamaica. The crowd, still large, waits patiently for the ticketed night to begin; wolf whistles of admiration greet the appearance of Ursula Andress.

The doors of La Condition Publique open, letting in the holders of the precious tickets for the night, which will last until 6am. For many, the serious business starts now: King Stitt, Studio One's first artist, warms up the hall with his highly distinctive mix, wearing out each of his records. Then come Turbulence, Jah Mason and Junior Kelly, who set the stage ablaze in turn. Finally King Jammy and his cohort of deejays (Anthony Malvo, Admiral Bailey, Little Twitch, King Everald…) take over and close the night. At dawn, you walk out dazed, head and ears still in Kingston. The Jamaican season has just begun.