Taffari

One of the upcoming artists in the new roots style is Taffari. Born as Boris Anthony Silvera in the district Bagnol Spring in the Parish of St. Mary on March 8, 1971 he grew up in the countryside of Jamaica before moving to Kingston at the age of 16. "Music has always been my greatest interest from birth", Taffari says, "But from the age of 14 I realised that I could make a career as a musicman and from that time I started to take the music serious." Like many other Jamaican artists Taffari was a regular visitor of dancehall sessions and he used to go to sounds like I-Jah Lick Force and Classic One and started to sing utilizing the name Singing Bird. His first tune, 'Nice Girl', was recorded in 1988 and was a combination between him and a singer named Lanny, who was also the producer of the tune. The both of them grew up together in St. Mary. In 1990/91 Singing Bird voiced a remake of Millie Small's 'My Boy Lollipop' for producer Phillip 'Fattis' Burrell, owner of the Xterminator label through a link with one of his friends named Brokie. The tune was recorded by Syl Gordon at Gussie Clarke's Music Works studio. After voicing for 'Fattis' Singing Bird recorded for a few other producers like Mikey Magic, Impact from New York, Super Blaster and policeman Isiah Laing, but some of these tunes were never released After voicing these tunes Taffari decided to take a break to concentrate on writing new songs. In 1997 he linked back with Syl Gordon who in the meantime built his own studio at Molynes Road and started producing for his 321 Strong label. Still using the name Singing Bird, he voiced the song 'Take I Away (Eastern Side)' on a remake of Dennis Brown's 'Tribulation' riddim. Whilst starting to record an album for 321 Strong Singing Bird changed his name to Taffari. "Singing Bird was more for the girls, Taffari deals with serious message tunes", as he explains. By now Taffari voiced tunes for the legendary engineer Cedrica 'Soljie' Hammilton, Firehouse Crew, the New York based J&D, Mighty Music, Ovadoze Productions, Roaring Lion and Chris Records. Taffari lived in Kingston in areas like Tivoli Gardens and Seaview Gardens, both notorious for their political violence and regarded as rough areas. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.