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NEW YORK – Reggae singer-songwriter Julian “ Ju Ju” Marley has been nominated for four International Reggae & World Music Awards (IRAWMA) in the category’s of : Bob Marley Award for Entertainer of the Year, Best Album of the Year, Most Cultural / Educational Entertainer of the Year and Emperor Haile Selassie I Award for Spiritual Service Through Music . The IRAWMA ceremony will host the top names in reggae, soca, and world music, with a scheduled performance by Julian Marley and other nominees.

Marley’s IRAWMA Award nominations comes on the heels of a Grammy Nod for Best Reggae Album that the talented artist received for his third studio album entitled, Awake. Co-produced with his brothers Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Stephen Marley, Awake was released on April 28, 2009 on Ghetto Youths / Universal Records.

“Ju Ju” Marley responds to the nominations, “It is such a great honour to be recognized. I give thanks to the IRAWMA award staff and to all the fans that continue to show their love and support.”

Born in London in 1975, Julian Marley has been blessed both by the great talent and legacy of his father Bob Marley and by the unique perspective that comes with an upbringing in a multicultural community. Having been exposed to music all his life, Julian Marley has become a skillful veteran performer, producer and songwriter with numerous successful international tours and albums under his belt. In 2009, Julian Marley and his band The Uprising spanned the globe in support of Awake. Having just finished a major European leg, Julian has extended his Awake world tour with The Uprising to include performance dates in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States throughout 2010.

The 29th Annual International Reggae & World Music Awards ceremony, produced annually by Martin’s International & Associates, will be held on Sunday, May 2nd at York College Performing Arts Center in Jamaica (Queens), New York. Watched by over 20 million viewers on television, fans may cast ballots online at the office. IRAWMA

Reggae Singer and Songwriter Tarrus Riley ended his 2009-2010 Europe and North America ‘Contagious’ tour on a high note closing with a sensational set at the 17th annual Bob Marley Movements Caribbean Festival in Miami, Florida.

After a successful leg in US and Canada late last year, the artiste resumed his album title tour this January through March making waves in some thirty cities across France, Belgium, London, Sweden, Spain, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Germany as well as completing stints in California and Florida.

His first extended set in Europe, while the cold whistled and howled outside, Riley warmed patrons up with some sweet music on the inside, “With Tarrus Riley you can always expect to hear ‘feel good music’…music with a meaning as well as music that uplifts the spirit and soul and I delivered just that. The set list had a great mix of material – hits from the previous albums including ‘She’s Royal’, ‘Lion Paw’ as well as current material from the Contagious album including ‘Start Anew’, ‘Love’s Contagious’, ‘Human Nature’, ‘Living The Life of A Gun’ among others. The crowd was highly responsive at each venue and you could see that they were visibly tuned in, singing along with us word for word and really enjoying themselves

MIRAMAR – Hundreds of people packed the Miramar Cultural Center recently for Rhythms of Africa, Music Around the World, with Willie Stewart, formerly of the legendary Jamaican reggae band Third World, and a group of 60 children from Miramar Early Childhood program, Aspira, and Little Kids of Miramar.

Stewart, who spent 23 years with Third World, and later pursued music education in England, began weekly lessons with the children in December.

“Most of the kids had never picked up a musical instrument before I met them,” said Stewart. “They were eager to learn and quickly absorbed everything in just 10 one-hour sessions over an eight week period.”

After a brief history lesson on the many uses of the drum, the show, designed to highlight the journey of music from Africa across the continents, got off to a rousing start. Seemingly hesitant at first, the children, some of whom were dwarfed by the larger drums, quickly got into the swing of things, performing a repertoire of music from the Ivory Coast to Morocco.

The synergy between Stewart and the children was highly evident throughout the hour-long segment as they moved effortlessly from one piece to the next.

Also joining Stewart, to round out the musical journey through Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S., were seven-year-old master percussionist Miguel Russell, local violinist Nicole Yarling, Jamaican singers Sabrina Williams and Carl McDonald, singer Melissa Stokes, his daughter Leea Stewart, and backed by musicians Jesse Jones, Jr. and his brother famous jazz trumpeter Melton Mustafa, Steve Lashley, of KC & the Sunshine Band, guitarist Robert Johnston, Jaime Hinckson, and Trinidadian steel pan player George Goddard. Dancer Nicholas Pairman of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) of Jamaica and Florida State University dancers paid special tribute to James Brown and Michael Jackson.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s musical fraternity is lending its support to the recovery efforts of its Caribbean neighbors in Haiti. This has resulted in the creation of “Listen 2 the Call,” a collaborative song which will have its global premiere on Tuesday, February 23 at 4:53 pm EST. Written by Raymond Azan, co-founder of For Jamaica Inc., and produced by Handel Tucker, “Listen 2 the Call” is a special musical gift made possible through the contribution of more than 30 of the island’s top artistes and musicians.

This version of “Listen 2 the Call,” which will premiere on February 23, is a special mix of the song, which runs for four minutes and fifty three seconds to commemorate the time the quake hit the Haitian capital. The lyrics offer encouragement and support for the people of Haiti.

According to the producers, “The goal of this project is to inspire people around the world to “Listen 2 the Call” not only of the poor, the suffering and displaced in Haiti, but rather to listen to their conscience and extend a helping hand.”

“Music is an important part of our culture and it is heartening to see the collaboration of a number of our top entertainers as part of a global effort to help our Haitian neighbors,” says John Lynch, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tourist Board. “We hope everyone will “Listen 2 the Call” and act.”

Following the global simulcast premiere on February 23, the full version of the song will be available online for purchase. Proceeds from the sale of this song, including videos will be used to assist Haiti’s recovery and rehabilitation.

REGGAE crooner Gramps Morgan, fresh from copping the prestigious Album of the Year Award for his debut solo disc 2 Sides of My Heart Vol.1 at this year’s Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards (EME), has now secured a whopping 5 nominations for the 2010 International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWA) that will be staged on Sunday, May 2 at the York College Performing Arts Center in Queens, New York.

Gramps’ nominations include: Best Song – Wash the Tears; Best Male Vocalist; Best Crossover Song – Therapy ft India.Arie; Best New Entertainer and Songwriter of the Year.

“I’m so excited and overwhelmed to have five nominations,” said Gramps. “Since I launched my solo career I have had a number of pleasant surprises and this is certainly one of them. It is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. I thank the fans and the media for the support and my management team for the hard work that they have put into my project so far.”

Gramps’ current success comes on the heels of a whirlwind year in 2009 that included a major US tour with Arie and John Legend. In August 2009, he performed back to back, sold out events at the World famous Madison Square Gardens in New York and topped off the summer with a strong performance at Irie Jamboree, North America’s premier reggae festival. His debut album Two Side of My Heart Vol 1 had one of the strongest reggae debuts ever, racking up impressive sales in its first week. Then in October at Citi Field Stadium in New York City, home to the legendary New York Mets baseball team, he delivered a sizzling pre-game performance of his hit single Don’t Cry for Jamaica, which warmed the hearts of thousands of baseball fans at the Mets vs Houston Astros game.

For 2010, Gramps plans to remain focused on his core mission which is to heal the world with his music. Just last weekend he embarked on yet another first, taking the stage for two historic performances in Las Vegas, at the largest rugby event in North America, the USA Sevens International Rugby Tournament. This weekend he heads to the West Coast to perform at the Ragga Muffins Festival on February 20 with acts like Shaggy, Yellowman, Big Youth, Barrington Levy, Gregory Isaacs, Tarrus Riley, and The Mighty Diamonds.

Jimmy Cliff already holds the Order of Merit, the highest honor bestowed by his native Jamaica, where the reggae legend stands alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in the genre’s Mt. Rushmore. Now, he deservedly follows Marley from the reggae world into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he will be inducted by longtime admirer and friendWyclef Jean.

The accolade comes at a perfect time for Cliff, who will release a new album, ‘Existence,’ this year and gets set for his first major US tour in five years, including dates at Bonnaroo and the Hollywood Bowl, this summer. On the eve of his induction, the elegant and gracious Cliff spoke with Spinner about his influence on the likes of the Grateful Dead and Keith Richards, the enduring impact of ‘The Harder They Come’ and about finally getting to the next level in the US.

Where were you when you found out you’d been selected?

When I first heard, I was in New York City. I had just finished a tribute to the president of Ghana, and after I came offstage somebody said, “Congratulations.” I said, “Thank you. For what?” I thought he meant for my performance. But he said, “No, you’ve just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” I said, “Oh.” I had not heard anything.

You’re only the second reggae artist, after Bob Marley, to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Do you feel like then you’re carrying the torch for the genre with your induction?

The way I look at it, in the genre of reggae music I was there at almost the commencement of it, so I played my role there. Bob Marley came after, so I did a lot of things internationally before anyone else. So I’ve always seen my role as one of like a shepherd, one who opens the gate. So who opens the gate has to close it.

You’re doing an extensive US tour this year, as well. Was that planned to coincide with this or was that just a happy coincidence?

Actually, it was planned ’cause I have not toured the US for five years out of choice. And I just said, “OK, it’s time. I want to go tour the US again.” And then that came about, so it all coincided together.

What made this the right time to tour the US, then?

I wanted to come back to the US on a new footing, and the new footing now is I have a new album, which I’m very excited about. I have a movie planned, which may go into production this year. And with all of those things going on, I just feel like now is the time to go back into the US.

‘Existence,’ your new album, comes out later in the year. Who are you working with on the record?

All young creative Jamaican musicians; they’re all young, they’re all fresh, and they’re all just roaring to go. I love to do that. Throughout my career, I’ve always liked to touch on who’s new.

How much does working with that young blood inspire you as a musician?

Fantastically. I bring to them my songs and when they heard the songs they became more excited. So that really motivates me, ’cause the encouragement and appreciation is something we all need in everything we do.

You can’t get more appreciation than being into a Hall of Fame. What does it mean to you then?

OK, it’s a stepping stone to another level of success. It’s a journey that I’ve been on, and this stop on the journey is really an exciting one and a great stepping stone to the other level.

What do you hope for the other level to be?

Well, I have established myself, along with the music that I helped create. And I’ve played stadiums in Africa and certain parts of South America, but I’ve not done that in the US. I’ve done it some parts of Europe, so that is something I look forward to doing. I have made, like, four movies. My first love was acting, and that’s another area that I have to explore much more extensively. So, yeah, there’s a lot more to be done.

In a lot of respects, over here for people the music and film started off intertwined when it comes to your career because of ‘The Harder They Come.’ But then you continued making music. So do you feel like in a way film has been overlooked?

In one way, however, I focus myself in the musical area, and, like, two, three, four years after the movie came out, there were still a few roles coming. But not roles I felt I wanted to do, and because I had my music to fall back on I just say, “When the right one comes along.”

There are many great artists on the Bonnaroo lineup. Who are you excited to see and are there any old friends you’re looking forward to catching up with?

I’ve met Stevie Wonder and I’ve always been a big fan. I’m a fan of Jay-Z, I’ve met Dave Matthews, we’ve done one tour together. So it’ll be great to catch up with those people again if at all possible.

You’re a fan of Jay-Z and Dave Matthews. Are there artists you really feel are carrying on the spirit of the music you started in terms of social consciousness and telling stories?

A lot that I’ve seen in different genres of music, from rap to rock to R&B, even in country because somebody like a country legend like Willie Nelson has done a version of ‘The Harder They Come.’ And rock legends like the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards in particular, have covered also songs of mine, and the list goes on. So many of the artists that I’ve seen are influenced and inspired by the music that I have created and it is gratifying to see that and encouraging for me because I do feel like my greater work is yet to be done.

Are there any covers of your songs that stand out as favorites?

Well, I appreciated all of them. There was a song that was done by the Grateful Dead when Jerry Garcia was around, called ‘Struggling Man,’ and I was really amazed when I first saw him perform that song in his own rock way. That one really touched me a lot. I have to say I like a lot the version [of 'Many Rivers To Cross'] of Nilsson, which John Lennon produced because I loved some of the work of Nilsson I heard in the past and I really liked the way they both collaborated on that one.

Now, let’s switch it around to your covers. You’ve done stuff like Cat Stevens’ ‘Wild World.’

As a songwriter what is one song you wish you could have written, and why?

There are a quite a few, but let me just name one: I would have to say Paul Simon andArt Garfunkel, ‘The Boxer.’ Boxing has always been my favorite sport because when I look at boxing it makes me see that this is really what life is. The boxer has in his corner all his trainers, his handlers, his manager, everyone that’s around him. But when the time comes to step into that ring, he’s by himself, he has to defend himself in there, and for me, that’s really how life is.

Wyclef Jean is inducting you into the Hall of Fame. Talk about your friendship.

Well, I’m a great fan of Wyclef, as well; as a creative person, he’s brilliant. And we’ve done some work in the very early stages before Fugees even broke big, in his basement studio. And then my last album, but we’ve seen each other on and off in that time since my last album. And then we did a track off that album. So, yeah, it’s a very artistic and brotherly respect, because we’re also neighbors in terms of coming out in the Caribbean there.

Who are you looking forward to seeing at the ceremony?

Well, I’ve always been a fan of Genesis, from Peter Gabriel, when he was with them, and when they broke away and did separate albums. I understand that Genesis won’t be performing, but I would love to see them perform all together. I love Abba’s music. The Stooges are great, and the Hollies, I knew the Hollies when I lived in England. So either of them will be a great pleasure for me to see.

What three Jimmy Cliff songs would you send people to who are just getting to know your music?

The movie ‘The Harder They Come’ and the title track, along with so many other songs on that soundtrack. But I would think because people are so familiar with that song and the movie, which was such a great inspiration, maybe that song. And then of course there is ‘Many Rivers to Cross,’ which is also one of those songs that touches so many generations. And an inspirational song like ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want.’ [Barack Obama] has used the slogan of “Yes we can” and got elected. And it’s always a song of hope and inspiration: “You can get it if you really want.” So I think those are three Jimmy Cliff songs that people would look forward to.

“I took myself around the world in that room,” he said.

Now, Zeb is 50 and literally has traveled the world — with The Wailers and Kenny Chesney.

And thanks to some inadvertent inspiration from Chesney, Zeb is ready to debut his mishmash of country and reggae in the form of the band Regwa.

But just to back up for a minute. . . . In the’80s, Zeb (a Richmond native who was born Ernest Zebulon Williams) helped found what became Richmond’s stalwart reggae band, Awareness Art Ensemble, better known on the festival circuit as AAE.

By 1993, he formed Drummie Zeb and the Razor Posse and became a fixture at the lamented Flood Zone and Trax in Charlottesville.

When the Posse shared a bill with The Wailers at Mayo Island in 1999, Zeb and the band became friendly. Three months later, he was playing drums with the celebrated reggae masters.

“I rocked with them for 10, 11 years, and what do you know? I get a call that Kenny Chesney wants to mix some reggae into his song ‘Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven,’” Zeb said last week from his home in Church Hill. “Kenny saw this vision and had a No. 1 record. It really represented both worlds of country and reggae.”

The country superstar and the Richmond drummer sparked an immediate kinship, and Drummie spent 2009 touring arenas and stadiums with Chesney.

“Even with 30 years on stage [before this], I never stood up to play the drums. Kenny would pull me up and make me come to the front of that grand stage. Now, everyone knows I’m short,” Zeb said with a soft laugh.

Zeb is a sweetly garrulous guy — humble, spiritual, thankful for his labyrinthine career. He respectfully refers to producer Doc Holiday and Paul Simon, with whom he laid down a track last year for Simon’s next album, as “Jedis” and is always on a quest to discover new rhythms.

After seeing how well country and reggae meshed with the Chesney song, Zeb began to collaborate with his Moroccan friend Ismail Bouziboune, who plays an ancient acoustic bass called a gimbre, an instrument Zeb said possesses healing powers and drives away negative spirits.

Last month, Zeb and his band, including “Ish,” as he’s called, recorded an album in Nashville and Hampton with Holiday.

“I wouldn’t make a move without him.I’m so honored to meet this master,” Zeb said of the legendary producer.

Several labels are interested in signing Zeb, but first, he’s going to introduce his music live with a show tomorrow at The National and Saturday at The NorVa in Norfolk.

Performing with him and Ish will be Ras Mel Glover (The Wailers and AAE); Zak Godwin (Chesney’s guitarist); John “Red” Redling (keyboardist for New Potato Caboose); Mark Tamborino (a vocalist who sings with Chesney and wrote “I’m Alive,” performed by Chesney and Dave Matthews); George Kouakou (The Wailers, Burning Spear and Culture); and longtime Richmond singer Kyle Davis.

“Kenny is so supportive of this project. I want to show him that I can do it on my own. I want to present it to him and show him what he helped create,” Zeb said.

His goal with the music is to mesh Texas swing with roots rock reggae.

“The reggae-country, it’s about the youth, to put the youth [sound] out front,” Zeb said. “All these years, I’m sitting on the drum set cooking it up. . . . I didn’t think anyone could get a different side out of me.”

Wycliffe Johnson, an innovative composer and producer known as Steely, who held sway over two decades of reggae music, died on Tuesday in East Patchogue, N.Y. He was 47 and lived in Kingston, Jamaica.

The cause was a heart attack following pneumonia, said his daughter Kerry Johnson. He had moved to Brooklyn this summer for treatment of kidney problems related to hypertension and diabetes, she said, and died at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital several weeks after surgery for a blood clot in the brain.

The reggae world knew Mr. Johnson as Steely, a boisterous producer with a larger-than-life personality and a belly to match. Best known for his role in the team Steely & Clevie, he was equally influential in his early work as a sideman, and helped to transform reggae at several stages, from roots to dancehall to digital.

An expert keyboardist who worked with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, Mr. Johnson worked at seminal Jamaican recording studios like Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One, Lee (Scratch) Perry’s Black Ark and Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion. By some estimates he participated in more sessions than anyone else in the history of reggae.

Born and raised in the same Trenchtown streets as Marley, Mr. Johnson was largely self-taught. When he was 12, the drummer Cleveland Browne, known as Clevie, invited him home for daily rehearsals with him and his brothers. “We basically learned together,” Mr. Browne said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “Steely became like part of the family.”

As a child, Mr. Johnson would hang around Channel One Studio in Kingston, fetching drinks for the influential drum-and-bass duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, known as Sly & Robbie. When those two left Channel One, the band the Roots Radics, with Mr. Johnson as keyboardist and chief arranger, became Jamaica’s most in-demand rhythm section.

In the early 1980s Mr. Johnson and the Roots Radics pioneered the muscular, stripped-down reggae sound that would come to be known as dancehall, performing on records like Cocoa Tea’s “Lost My Sonia,” Freddie McGregor’s “Big Ship,” Yellowman’s “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng ” and Michael Prophet’s “Gunman.”

A few years later Mr. Johnson helped revolutionize the sound of reggae again. While other musicians resisted the digital tide of the 1980s, Steely & Clevie embraced it, pushing the technology of the day to its limits. At the studio owned by the producer King Jammy, in the Waterhouse neighborhood, the two worked with the engineer Bobby Digital and the songwriter-producer Mikey Bennett to record a vast catalog of hard-hitting “ana-digital” (part analog, part digital) instrumentals like “Punany,” “Cat’s Paw” and “Duck Dance” — all of which are still recycled by younger producers more than 20 years later.

Mr. Johnson’s digital bass lines and graceful keyboard riffs invested mid-1980s dancehall — in its so-called computerized style —with melody, groove and an unmistakably human touch. The two also laid down rhythm tracks for top dancehall labels like Penthouse, Techniques and Music Works. By their accounting, they worked on 75 percent of the hit reggae records of the late 1980s.

After Steely & Clevie left Jammy’s to start their own record label, bearing their names, in 1988, Mr. Johnson established the Silverhawk sound system, named after a favorite motorcycle. As a kind of mobile discothèque, the system offered a peerless selection of exclusive records, serving both as a promotional tool and as a laboratory for testing street-crowd reaction to songs being considered for release.

Mr. Johnson produced career-making records for luminaries like the crooner Gregory Isaacs and the dancehall star Super Cat, whose hit “Boops” spawned many imitations, including the 1987 Boogie Down Productions rap classic “The Bridge Is Over.”

Signing to a publishing deal with EMI in 1990, Steely & Clevie also collaborated with international acts like Billy Ocean, Heavy D, Caron Wheeler and No Doubt. They scored a Top 40 hit in the United States with their 1994 revamping of Dawn Penn’s Studio One classic “You Don’t Love Me (No No No)” and reached the Top 5 in 2004 with another vintage reggae remake, Sean Paul and Sasha’s “I’m Still in Love With You.”

Besides his daughter Kerry, Mr. Johnson’s survivors include four other children, Shae, Shanice, Daniel and Cailon, and his mother, Alice Johnson.

As shtick goes, Elephant Man’s is durable. His version of dancehall is comic: neon-colored hair, flamboyant outfits, young children performing adult dance moves, plus-size women pulled on stage for the purposes of bawdy humor.

Friday night at the Hammerstein Ballroom he relied on all these gimmicks during his performance, which came near the end of Hot 97’s On da Reggae Tip, an annual celebration of Jamaican music. Hot 97 (WQHT-FM in New York) is the most prominent outlet for reggae in New York but not the most vital. The genre thrives far from mainstream radio, and the handful of hours the station devotes to it each week smack of tokenism.

Still, much in the same way that Hot 97 has something of an obligation to reggae, the genre’s stars owe a debt to the station, and each year they come to tithe. The gravel-voiced Bounty Killer stalked the stage agitatedly as he roughly made his way through “Sufferer,” “Another Level” and several other hits. Beenie Man, Bounty Killer’s longtime antagonist, was charismatic during his set, a slick series of radio-friendly numbers including “Girls Dem Sugar” and “Who Am I.”

Serani, whose hit “No More Games” has been the biggest beneficiary of Hot 97’s largesse this year, was awkward, still acclimating to his fame. He brought out the Harlem hip-hop stars Jim Jones and DJ Webstar, who easily stole his oxygen.

This concert was the first — and probably the most polite — of several multi-artist reggae bills over Labor Day Weekend leading up to the West Indian American Day Parade on Monday. But for the younger artists who performed early in the night, this show provided the opportunity to act out on a major stage.

The young female performer Spice provided some of the night’s raunchiest moments with “Romping Shop,” her salacious back and forth with Vybz Kartel, notable in his absence. (Though that didn’t cheer up his longtime rival Mavado, who was characteristically sullen during his set later in the night.) Earlier Spice dropped into a split while rapping, and transformed Cham’s “Ghetto Story” into her own “Virgin Story.”

She also submitted herself to daggering, the shameless, controversial dancehall dance maneuver that involves rapid-fire pelvic thrusts. Dancehall isn’t just music: it’s gymnastics too.

And, of course, it’s also politics. Daggering has caused another flare-up in what seems to be the perpetual culture war surrounding dancehall. But that didn’t stop RDX, a duo trained in the Elephant Man school of mania and slapstick. RDX’s quick set early in the night was a furious ode to this lewd dance, with songs like “Daggering” and “Bend Over” paired with absurd dances, hypersexualized past the point of eroticism and into the realm of caricature.

At the routine’s most extreme points a female dancer would latch onto a male dancer’s waist, face-down and horizontal, with the result approximating a pornographic sort of Siamese twin. The woman would then undulate as if trying to swim her way around the stage, but despite her best efforts, she remained attached to a man who only held her back

LAST month, inside a sprawling new tourist resort on the Montego Bay coast, Tarrus Riley did the near impossible: He and his seven-piece band, anchored by the Jamaican saxophone virtuoso Dean Fraser, transformed an antiseptic, fluorescent-lighted, air-conditioned hotel ballroom into a sweaty reggae dance party. Mr. Riley, a 30-year-old Rastafarian singer-songwriter, was celebrating the imminent release of his third album, “Contagious” (VP Records), a diverse collection of songs that reveal the complexity and richness of a genre often dismissed as monotonous.

Tarrus Riley is the son of Jimmy Riley, top. The younger Mr. Riley, above right, with the saxophonist and producer Dean Fraser this month at J&R Music World in New York promoting his new album, “Contagious.”

“ ‘Contagious’ — much better than the swine flu,” said the bearded, spectacle-wearing Mr. Riley with a grin, his green T-shirt darkened with perspiration. “Let us infect you with some of this virus.”

Peter Tosh sang of “Reggae Mylitis” in 1981, diagnosing a pandemic of indigenous Jamaican music spreading around the world. But in the 28 years since the death of Tosh’s band mate Bob Marley, reggae has sought a new standard-bearer. Mr. Riley is hardly the first to throw his hat in the ring, but his name is already being mentioned in the same breath as esteemed vocalists like Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and Beres Hammond.

Like those singers he possesses an expressive, instantly recognizable voice, as well as a knack for lyrics and melodies that capture the ups and downs of love and life — a new baby whose parents can’t sleep, a husband whose wife’s kisses have gone cold — in a way that is both familiar to his island audience and accessible to the world. He’s also an irrepressibly cheerful personality, constantly cracking jokes in patois, though he could hardly take his work more seriously. His mission, he said in a recent telephone interview from a tour stop in Orlando, Fla., is to “preserve our culture,” by which he means reggae music and the attendant black-empowerment philosophies of Marcus Garvey.

After a long season dominated by a musical war between Vybz Kartel and Mavado that has divided those artists’ young fans, and a radio ban brought on by a slew of songs about daggering, the latest dirty-dancing trend, the dancehall sound that has dominated Jamaican music for the past two decades has become increasingly unintelligible to the rest of the world. Without bashing dancehall Mr. Riley is leading a resurgence of traditional roots reggae, fortified by a rare blend of wisdom, maturity and street cred. His music has become a fixture on the Jamaican reggae charts alongside coarser fare and now seems poised to break into the big time.

”It’s very important that the legacy of the kind of music that Bob Marley started continues,” said Bobby Clarke, the chief executive of Irie Jam Media, a New York reggae radio and concert production company. “Tarrus’s job is to bring original reggae back to the mainstream. And I think he can do it and he will do it because he has great people behind him — and his music is perfect.”

The night after his release party Mr. Riley commanded a much bigger stage at Reggae Sumfest, the annual three-day festival that has made Montego Bay a mandatory stop for the biggest stars in R&B and hip-hop as well as the cream of local talent. This year’s lineup included Ne-Yo, whose recent hit single “Miss Independent” provided the backing track for Vybz Kartel and Spice’s X-rated dancehall smash “Rampin’ Shop,” and a twin bill of Marley’s youngest son, Damian (Jr. Gong) Marley, and the American rap star Nas, who are currently collaborating on an album called “Distant Relatives.”

This largely unheralded cross-cultural conversation between American and Jamaican musicians has been going on for half a century, resulting in, among other things, the creation of ska (by modifying American bebop) and the birth of hip-hop (by transplanting Jamaican sound-system dances to the Bronx). But as these free-flowing stylistic innovations calcified into marketable categories, reggae lost out on the American airwaves. Hip-hop stations might spice up their mix shows with a few dancehall cuts and occasionally add a Sean Paul or Serani hit into rotation, but R&B program directors have been largely content with the reggae dabblings of major-label acts like Estelle and John Legend.

“We don’t like categories,” Mr. Riley said. “ ’Cause then you get the separation and then you get the prejudice. Can’t take all of these boundaries, you know? I just like to make free music. Let me express a song because of what I feel, and make it for everyone.”

Born in the Bronx and raised between Florida and Jamaica, Mr. Riley is the son of the reggae singer Jimmy Riley, a member of seminal 1960s harmony groups like the Techniques and the Uniques. The elder Mr. Riley achieved solo success with the reggae ballad “Love and Devotion,” produced by Sly and Robbie, which hit the British pop charts in 1982.

“Tarrus always gravitated toward music,” Jimmy Riley said backstage at the 2008 edition of Sumfest after sharing the stage with his son. “He learned to play the piano and grew up right there in the midst of things. Most of the veteran singers were friends of mine, so he knew them all.”

But the younger Mr. Riley was a fan of the pop music he heard on the radio as well as reggae. “Everything influence me,” he said. “Rock, R&B — music influences music. I’m a lover of all melody, whatever the melody is.” He grew up admiring dancehall stars like Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton and started his career D.J.-ing (dancehall parlance for rapping), recording his debut single,