Jah'Mila: Rooted in Reggae and Connecting with New Audiences

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

Jah’Mila is a 🇯🇲 Jamaican-born Reggae singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Canada. In this episode you’ll hear about both her youth in the countryside of Jamaica singing gospel and then her immersion in Reggae roots and Rastafarian culture in Kingston. Her father is the legendary Earl “Chinna” Smith who has performed extensively with the Soul Syndicate, been featured on over 500 albums, and also played with Bob Marley and the Wailers on the Rastaman Vibration album, Live at the Roxy, and the historic One Love Peace Concert of 1978.

Jah’Mila speaks so eloquently about being grounded in a strong sense of identity and purpose, her love of music and communicating with a wide audience and she has also generously shared two tracks from her album Roots Girl which are part of this episode, and a special version of Roots Girl which is available as a bonus podcast.You can use the timestamps to navigate to any topics or musical selections, and you can listen to this on your favourite podcast player, watch the video on YouTube or read the transcript; everything is linked with the show notes on my website: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/jahmila⁠

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I met Jah’Mila in her role as the Associate Artistic Director and lead singer of the Reggae Roots program which is available to all 🇨🇦Canadian schools free of charge, created with Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser and the National Arts Centre. If you missed my episode with Daniel in Season 2, you should have a listen: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/e8-s2-daniel-bartholomew-poyser

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:39) Roots Girl album, and Jah’Mila’s dad Earl “Chinna” Smith

(07:59) Nayabinghi Groundings rom roots Girl

(09:58) Jah’Mila’s childhood

(14:17) Jamaican culture and Patois

(17:04) performing with The Wailers

(22:21) excerpt from Roots Girls

(22:32) different audiences for Reggae

(27:51) Reggae Roots with Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser

(31:17) performances at the NAC

(33:14) paying tribute to other artists

(36:15) intro to Irie Meditation

(38:39) Irie Meditation

(42:17) new album, processing emotions through songwriting, journaling, gratitude

(46:51) Rastafarianism and Jamaican culture

(53:44) working with children

(56:51) Influences of sound system culture

(01:04:06) finding your niche and new audiences

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