Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

A large plant disguised the small 13-year-old figure striking the keyboards to Pluto Shervington's Ram Goat Liver at the popular Sundays on the Bay in Miami, Florida in 1995. The audience was oblivious that the youngster strumming the melody had snuck into the venue.

Those who knew he entered through the backdoor and hid behind the rest of the instruments had the foresight to recognise the untapped potential of Jason A. Farmer, better known in music industry circles as J-Vibe.

The son of Jamaicans, Gene and Margaret Farmer, the 26-year-old's musical ingenuity has now taken him to the 'front doors' of stars such as Keyshia Cole, Estelle, Rihanna, Wyclef Jean, Toni Braxton, Vivian Green, Nina Sky, award-winning songwriter, Gordon Chambers, and many others.

Grammy nominee

But even more rewarding is the fact that last year the multi-talented producer, songwriter and musician's work received Grammy nominations in the category, Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for Heaven Sent from Keyshia Cole's platinum-selling CD Just Like You. The Grammy Awards will be held on February 8, at Staples Center, Los Angeles, California.

Composed and produced by J-Vibe, Cole's hit single peaked at number one and still remains on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts after 41 weeks. He also worked with British singer/songwriter and another 2009 Grammy nominee, Estelle, on the single Come Over (featuring Sean Paul) from her second album, Shine.

Estelle is one of the artistes billed to perform at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival which takes place at the Aqueduct in Rose Hall, St James this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

No stranger to the Grammys, J-Vibes was nominated in 2003, for Best Reggae Album as producer, engineer, musician and writer for Ain't Givin' Up recorded by Third World.

Passion for production

"In 2003, I was just happy to be nominated. It really didn't matter to me if I won or not. Of course, it would have been nice! This time I feel very positive about both nominations. I'm keeping my fingers crossed," he told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview last week from his home in Florida.

J-Vibe's passion for production began in his early teens while growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He began composing, arranging and producing a number of R&B songs for various groups and had his first release charted in the United Kingdom in 2000. Tapping into his Jamaican ancestry, his production talents have graced a wide range of genres including hiphop, jazz, gospel, rock, pop, salsa, reggaeton and reggae for artistes as diverse as Keyshia Cole, Rihanna, Freddie Jackson, Beenie Man, Fat Joe, Sly and Robbie and Ky-Mani Marley. Preferring live instrumentation, the sought-after producer, engineer, musician and musical director plays all instruments in his compositions.

Margaret Farmer, who is in charge of J-Vibes Publishing, will tell you she noticed her son's affinity with instruments when at eight years old he tied a string to a tennis racket, put it over his shoulder and strum and sang.

"That led to his gift at Christmas of a red plastic guitar that came with a microphone. He became the talk of the town at Tug Boat Annie in Boca Raton (Florida) where Montegonians Billy and Andy Vernon played as he would sing and play his red guitar with them," she said, reminiscently, adding that he grew up hearing all kinds of music being played at home.

Inspired by Jamaican artistes Bob Marley, Third World, Dennis Brown, Beres Hammond, Alton Ellis, Garnett Silk, Pluto Shervington, Andy and Billy Vernon, J-Vibe's first keyboard challenged him to create music and with help from his older brother Garth, he was able to save it to tape for playback in the early years. "He would literally spend hours on the keyboard creating, especially on weekends," said Margaret.

Not wanting their son's talent go to waste, the Farmers enrolled eight-year-old Jason in a local music school for piano lessons. Between ages 13 and 15, he studied with Leslie Butler, one of Jamaica's finest pianists, to get the finishing touch, revealed Margaret.

For this mother, her passion is to see the fervour her son displays for the music. "This is shown in his creativity and discipline, not to mention his abilities onstage. To see him manoeuvre around four or more keyboards is quite remarkable," she said with pride.

Musical director

Having toured worldwide as a musician and musical director for artistes including Third World, Damian Marley, Ky-Mani Marley (musical director and lead keyboard player since 2003), Stephen Marley, Ziggy Marley, Elephant Man, Wayne Wonder, Marcia Griffiths, Freddie McGregor and Sean Paul, the Miami-based producer is currently working on a number of projects with Chris Brown and American Idol's Jordin Sparks.

He told The Sunday Gleaner that it really doesn't take anything to make music. "I keep a very open mind when working with any and all artistes. It's my job to bring the best out of the artiste and most important to have fun in the process," he said.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com