Starting at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 28th, 2012, WKCR will broadcast 43 hours of music from Jamaica spanning the development of more than 50 years of recorded music. August 6, 2012 is the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence from Great Britain. The emergence of Jamaica’s modern recording industry began in the late 1950s followed by the emergence of ska in the early 60s. Ska was the first in a continuum of music genres--rock steady, reggae, dub, lover’s rock, and dancehall--that would have global influence in the next 50 years. The WKCR Jamaican Independence Festival will celebrate this musical and cultural legacy through a 43 hour broadcast running until 3 a.m. Monday, July 30th. The dates of the festival fall between Jamaican Independence Day and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie’s birthday on July 23rd. Saturday evening, a segment of the festival will focus on Rastafarian music specifically. The Rastafarian movement, which began in Jamaica in the 1930s after Ras Tafari Makonnen’s coronation as Haile Selassie, was a major cultural force in the Jamaican recording industry as many musicians were Rastafarians. The festival will celebrate the Jamaican community, and educate the larger New York audience in preparation for other cultural events the following week. The festival will be segmented to illustrate specific developments in genres, and periods of Jamaican music. Iconic artists whose influence deserves recognition will receive special one-hour profiles, and Sunday evening will feature a live, in-studio performance by the Brooklyn-based Full Watts Band, which specializes in rock steady and early reggae. Here is a full schedule of the festival: Saturday: 8-10 Festival Reggae / Independence Songs 10-12 Ska 12-14 Reggae Got Soul 14-19 Tributes to Deceased Icons: Alton Ellis, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Sugar Minott, Bob Marley/Peter Tosh 1 hour each. 19-21 Early Dancehall/Rubadub/Early 80's Sound 21-23 Guest (stay tuned for details) 23-(1 Sunday) Rastafari Sunday: (23 Saturday)-1 Rastafari 1-3 Deejay Style 3-6 Digital Reggae 6-8 Dub 8-10 Jamaican Gospel 10-12 Mento 12-14 Rocksteady/Early Reggae 14-20 Tributes to Living Icons: Bunny Wailer, Bob Andy, Ken Booth, Leroy Sibles, John Holt, Jimmy Cliff 1 hour each. 20-22 Full Watts Band Live Set/Interview 22-(1 Monday) Harmony Groups Monday: (22 Sunday)-1 Harmony Groups 1-3 Dub Till Dawn WKCR’s weekly Jamaican music program, “Eastern Standard Time” is broadcast from 8 a.m. to 12 noon every Saturday. Tune in on the 28th!