By Teino Evans, Staff ReporterHE IS one of the very few gospel artistes to have entered the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Gospel Song competition three times without winning, but this has by no means deterred Clive Provost, a.k.a. Jabez, as he is charting a path to a successful ministry.
He said he was inspired by listening to the likes of Elvis Presley and others while growing up in Linstead, St. Catherine, and it was as early as 12 that he discovered his gift of singing.
"I started out doing dancehall, as I even recorded some songs with King Jammy's and Mikey Bennett while in high school (Dinthill). At the time, it was Jammy's who gave me the name 'Schoolboy'.
"As every man journey they come into an experience with Christ and I took on to the message," Jabez said, as he recalled being only 21 years old when he accepted Christ.
Jabez is actually a name from the Bible, "I read about the man called Jabez in the book of Chronicles and the name actually means sorrow, but he prayed and asked God to bless him and open up doors for him and since I named myself Jabez, God has been doing just the same for me," he said.
Jabez has been making his presence felt in the gospel music industry as he has entered a number of festivals and competitions, including, of course, the JCDC gospel song competition.
Jabez, who was second runner-up in this year's JCDC gospel song competition, is not at all disappointed, as he appreciates the experience and exposure that the festival gave him.
"It was a wonderful experience, the response from the crowd was very encouraging towards going on further," he said and this is exactly what Jabez did.
FIRST ALBUM
Jabez has since released his debut album, Jabez: Enlarging the Boundary, produced by Gifton Smith.
The 10-track album is geared towards getting young people more interested in gospel music, he said, as he sees secular music drawing the attention of the youngsters.
"If we do good gospel music, then young people will tend to want to gravitate towards it. Some dancehall songs are currently encouraging immorality and are degrading to women, and so gospel music will present a more uplifting form of music," he said.
"The album is doing well, the demand is high and even the bootleg CD outlet says its the fastest selling CD right now," he said.
Jabez says there are plans to do an islandwide promotion, but he has started out in the churches and from there hopes to expand the campaign overseas.
Two songs on the album have been popular with radio disc jocks Big A and Alan Lewis. They are You Are Healed and He's My Daddy Oh.
Jabez feels these two particular songs have been getting some positive feedback largely because of the messages being brought out in them.
"Persons have been calling me, crying and saying that the songs have really ministered to them and the words of the song have even delivered them," he said.
He gives thanks to his producer, Gifton Smith, who he says really took a risk in working on his project, and also to the back-up singers who created the melodious harmony for his tracks.
The next step for Jabez is to become an international singing evangelist. "I want to sing all over the world, ministering to people," he said.
In addition, Jabez wants to take his ministry to the next level, as he says he hopes to even do some social commentary on some singles he hopes to release soon. "I don't want to limit myself to doing just gospel, because I see what is taking place in the nation and you have to reach people in all forms. I wrote a song about crime; I just need to go and record it now," he said.
