There we have the last night of passion that gives a worthy ending to the 2018 edition. Firstly, we will travel to the golden age of the jamaican roots with the sweet voices of Mighty Diamonds. Donald ‘Tabby’ Shaw, Fitzroy ‘Bunny’ Simpson and Lloyd ‘Judge Ferguson that are part of the group since 1969 and started looking for fortune recording simple work until they collaborate with Channel One, who brought their first songs and first album “Right time”. The ingredients of Mighty Diamonds sounds are the harmony of the vocals which is clearly inspired by the US soul tradition but brought to the ‘rasta consciousness’ of reggae music inspired by the new style of ‘rockers style’. After leaving Channel One, the Diamonds go with Guisse Clarke, and they recorded ‘Pass the kutchie’ in 1981, being probably their most famous song and a well known sound in the jamaican music of all times. Even though they recorded with other producers and sometimes they had done it themselves, the fact that they had collaborated with Gussie Clarke brought them to the success until the 90’s. Their concert is a list of popular songs of their fascinant history.

After the myth, we go back to a nowadays Jamaica with Konshens and the french band Dub Akom. Having started their career with his brother Delus known as SoJah, Konshens he went for an individual work and he got a big success in the japanese market with the simple “Pon di corner” and his first album “Real talk”. His undeniable flow and versatility allowed him to adapt to the different types of rhythms, but Konshens offers his best version with modern sounds influenced by the US black music. Considered one big success ‘Good girl gone bad’ with Tarrus Riley, and the fact that in this occasion they share stage bodes well for them as a duet.

Indeed, after Konshens arrives Tarrus Riley accompanied, as it is common, by his mentor’s Dean Fraser’s saxo. The big talent of the saxo, the contagious passion when he interprets. The magnificent capacity of adapting topics and discovering talents makes Dean Fraser a key element of the period of the 70’s and 80’s until the present. Dean discovered Tarrus Riley, son of the big singer Jimmy Riley who sometimes he had played with. The authentic attitude of this artist, his high quality as an author and his intelligent lyrics have converted him to a treasure in Jamaica. In 2006 he got to the highest spot with the album ‘Parables’, that contains ‘She’s royal’, an ode to all jamaican women. In his last album ‘Love situation’ he got his inspiration during the immortal rocksteady age.

To complete the festival we will remain in the Caribbean with the cuban sound of Orishas, a hip-hop band created in 1999 known as Amenaza, one of the first music groups to bring the hip-hop philosophy to the revolution island, even though remains and produce its music in France. The use of the rhythms from the cuban tradition generally unusual for a hip-hop group, catched a global attention and his debut with the CD ‘A lo cubano’ (2000) was a success. It seems that until Fidel Castro was a big fan of the band and had gone to see them several times. After a 16-years-long silence, Orishas have released this year their fifth work, ‘Gourmet’.

The last party is going to keep many italian people on the Lion Stage, with Train To Roots and Villa Ada Posse as well as Alika and Vanupiè, at the Dancehall we’ll have an encounter between Freddie Krueger and ZJ Liquid, at the Dub Academy Blackboard Jungle sound will play as resident, accompanied by Barry Isaacs and Don Fe’s voices, and lastly, at the Caribbean Uptempo, we will have the expert selections of Wassie One from London.

Text written by Pier Tosi, and translated by Càrol Ferré and Berta Asensio