Location:
Brancaleone
Via Levanna 11
Rome, Roma 00141
When: March 11, 2010
Starts at: 12:00 AM
This is an all day event
Description:
Born Ripton Hylton, Eek-A-Mouse grew up in Trench Town which he calls 'a first-class ghetto' of Kingston, Jamaica and one of the innovators of the "Sing-Jay" reggae style. In 1974 at the tender age of 17, he cut his first songs ("My Father's Land" and "Creation"), but it wasn't until 1981 that he scored his breakthrough hit "Wa Do Dem".
His live performances are legendary show-biz spectacles that combine myriad vocal personalities with elaborate and outrageous stage costumes (gladiator, pirate, jockey, Mexican bandit, Chinese coolie, you name it). At a show in Nottingham, England he once came on stage as Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest.
His strange moniker is an example of his sense of humor and ability to laugh at himself and the world. A fan of horseracing, he consistently lost money on a horse named "Eek-A-Mouse" that never even finished. He finally gave up betting on the horse which promptly won! The teasing of his friends led to the new nickname and he decided to keep it.
Sing-jay is a combination of singing and dee-jaying, (referred to in Jamaica as 'toasting') embellished with an assortment of unusual vocal sound effects. In the percussive and nasal aspects of his vocalizations, Eek-A-Mouse is reminiscent of African and Brazilian singers, with an element of Eastern tonality. The Boston Globe called him "the Al Jarreau of reggae".
