SANDRA CROSS
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SANDRA CROSS

Band R&B Reggae

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The best kept secret in music

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"SANDRA STEALS THE SHOW"

IF THE AMBIENCE and respsonse to the first night of Jeff & Jazz in The City was anything to go by last Friday night, then it's producer Richard Stoute is on a good thing.......

11.00pm, Cross, a British-based singer who has released some 10 reggae/jazz albums to date in Britain and Japan, took centre stage singing ALL OF ME.

And she truly seemed to put her all into these songs, conveying her own deep emotion felt whenever she sings Judy Garland's SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW - " a song which always brings tears to my eyes' she said.
She also rendered SUNNY, featuring a lively guitar solo by Parris, and Nat Cole's WHEN I FALL IN LOVE in what could only be described as a voice which grows on you.

Her cover of MOON RIVER from her latest album was also impressive, and she tried to spice a bit of naughtiness into it by attempting a scat session with Parris.

Cross endeared herself even more to the audience when she took over the keyboard from best to render BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS and WIND BENEATH MY WINGS.. (And she covered the old reggae song I WANNA WAKE UP WITH YOU, and made it her own with an extended scatting performance.

Dressed in a black mini skirt outfit, she seemed nervous initially but mangaed to pull the audience into her arena while re-emphasising' " I make the song my own"...........
- WEEKEND NATION - BARBADOS - 23/03/01


"BASHMENT VIBES!"

Lovers Rock Legend Sandra Cross began her career in the late 70's as one half of the duo Love & Unity singing on sound systems and at talent shows.

In 1980 aged just 14 she released her debut I Adore You, which topped the UK Reggae charts and established Cross as a major player on the British reggae circuit.

But despite recording a barrage of popular hits such as Blinded By Love, My Best Friend's Man, and Why Oh Why in the late 90's, she became disillusiohed with Britain and emigrated to Barbados.

Later this month, Cross returns to England to take part in the second part of a Lovers Rock Reunion. The even reunites fans of British reggae with the singers and performer who established the sound back in the 80's.
In this exclusive interview with Bashment Vibes, Cross reveals why she left England and why the reunion has persuaged her to come back.

(N.N) YOUR PARENTS ARE FROM JAMAICA, SO WHY DID YOU MOVE TO BARBADOS?

(SANDRA) Everyone asks that, but Barbados is a beautiful island, just like everywhere else in the Caribbean. It just happened to be one of the places I found myself visiting more often than others.

(N.N) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PRESENT RESURGANCE OF LOVERS ROCK?

(SANDRA) Well to be honest I was unaware of the resurgence in London due to me not being actively involved in the scend for a few years.
I remember there was a serious decline in the scene in the early 90's efore I left London. All the artists I was familiar with seemed to have disappeared.
I'd heard reports about the Lovers Rock scene whilst in Barbados and most of them seemed to be negative. When you get negative feedback, you believe that the scene is fizzling out, so obvioulsy one starts to think about other fields in terms of music genres.

(N.N) SO HAD YOU GIVEN UP ON LOVERS ROCK?

(SANDRA) I wouldn't say 'given up', it was more of just watching and waiting. The fact that there is a difinite comeback is great. I think the Lovers Rock scene is well supported by the British reggae media, radio Dj's and promoters. I think that was one of the reasons Lovers Rock withstood the test of time!

(N.N) SO ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE LOVERS ROCK REUNION?

(SANDRA) I am looking forward to returning to London. It will be interesting to see the new re-born Lovers Rock scene in London and the rest of the UK. It's been sometime since I've performed in the UK. I am hoping that as well as the dedicated fans who have always been there supporting Lovers Rock, the younger folks will see it in the same light and learn to give Lovers Rock the appreciation and respect it deserves.

(N.N) ARE YOU STILL RECORDING ANY MUSIC?

(SANDRA)I have been involved in various projects over the years - spanning from Japan to the U.S.A (and not forgetting the Caribbean). I have collaborated with various songwriters and composers. Because I am an established songwriter/composer as well as an entertainer, I sometimes tend to get caught up in writing and composing 'for myself', which is sometimes not a good idea. With an music project it one of the best ingredients to make that project successful is to have different blends of flavours, ideas and input.

I am presently working on a new album which is scheduled to be released March 2004.




A Lovers Rock Reunion takes place on Saturday December 20th 2003 at OCEANS in London.

- NEW NATION NEWSPAPER - UK - 16/12/03


"'JUST A DREAM' album review"

Sweet Rebel Music called Jazz Reggae
This is what I call a "Rebel Music"... This might sounds strange as the heroine of the album is Sandra Cross who used to be the queen of ARIWA label led by Mad Professor and is also one of the top lovers rock singers along with Janet Kay and Carroll Thompson in the UK. Probably nobody would have an impression of a "Rebel Music" from her album entitled "Just A Dream".

To give you a simple and compact explanation of the album, its music is a reggae equivalent of jazz bossa which was created by some Brazilian giants with Stan Getz in an album called "Getz / Gilberto". Without understanding the sense behind, I suppose nobody could get that impression of rebel music from this album, "Just A Dream", as, if you talk about the sound of music, after all it gives you more like an after-midnight-chill-out vibe.

However the sense of a rebel music can be found in a joke made by Alan Weekes, the producer of the album and the guitarist of Jazz Jamaica based in London, while the recording was on.

"American accept jazz only if it is played by American musicians in American Style in the States, but nothing else. Isn't it right?"

This album is a rebel against that silly reality. If you go back in history, it is far too obvious that the original Jamaican music, ska, the roots of reggae, is nothing but Jamaican jazz and also jazz was not created in the States but in the Caribbean, the melting pot of cultures. But no respect was given to ska or those original giants created this revolutionary music in a tiny island called Jamaica.

Probably the reason why this Jamaican jazz was not accepted as jazz was because there was not a well known American jazz musicians involved in the early stage like Stan Getz of jazz bossa or Charlie Parker of Afro-Cuban. Hence ska was regarded as a novelty music from Third World and sadly still is.

There was a need to prove this fact and one of the projects I have tried for that theory was an already classic album of Jazz Jamaica called "Jamaican Beat - Blue Note Blue Beat Vol.1" released in 94 and its "Vol.2" released in 95. In this series of the albums, what Jazz Jamaica did was to make a cover of jazz classics in Jamaican style and the result was phenomenal. All of the tunes like "Witch Hunt", "Little Melonae", "Moanin'", "Sidewinder" as such sounded as if they were composed originally for this Jamaican Beat and, without having a massive promotion, these albums recorded a smash hit in Japan.

The following project was to make a tribute album to Bob Marley by UK jazz musicians called "One Love". In the last project, the guys were approaching to jazz from Jamaican angel and this time, they are approaching to reggae from a jazz angle. As generally known, the new generation of black jazz musicians in the UK are mostly the 2nd generation of Jamaican or Caribbean immigrants and there is no doubt that reggae has been giving real important influence to their original style of jazz. Then why not covering the great Marley's songs in their unique jazz style? The recording was produced by Courtney Pine, the leading jazz musician in the UK, and there you could find 10 names of the finest jazz oriented musicians that are Tony Remy, Dennis Rollins, Omar, Steve Williamson, Orphy Robinson, Juliet Roberts, Carroll Thompson, Cleeveland Wakiss and Noel McCoy. The result was just incredible and this album was released over 40 countries in the world and well-received by both reggae and jazz fans.

"Just A Dream" was a step forward of all those projects. The initial concept was to cover jazz standards with the finest vocalist around, but there should be a clear difference in between this album and another classic called "1000 Volts" by John Holt in which you could find a similar concept. In this classic album, there was not that much jazz, but simply the concept seems to make a reggae version of those jazz standards. But in this new project the vocalist has to have a jazz edge as well as the music behind.

One of the vocalists showed a strong interest in this project was Sandra Cross who left ARIWA and now based in Barbados helping a local sax player, Arturo Tappin, who was trying to create jazz reggae in his own works like "Strictly Roots Jazz"(94) and "Java" (95).

Strange enough, she has never listen to jazz but the slightest interest in it before this project, but she said "I was waiting for this kind of project to come up to me..." in one of the first meetings.

"This is a turning point of my career. For the previous recordings I have done with Mad Professor, it was me giving ideas and he was just working as an engineer really. Also I am excited of working with some musicians playing in jazz circuit and it seems a new door was opened up right in front of me..."

Even though she had never had jazz experience, working with those musicians got together for this project, who have been shifting into jazz from reggae, made a clear difference to Sandra - Hanasan Records/Latina Magazine - Japan 1996


Discography

List of 48 CD's currently on the market featuring Sandra Cross vocals and recordings. - ARIWA RECORDS

THE AFRICAN CONNECTION 1983
COUNTRY LIFE 1986
COMET IN THE SKY 1988
BREAKING THE BARRIERS WITH SOUND 1988
TRUE BORN AFRICAN 1991
FOUNDATION OF LOVE 1992
ARIWA 12TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM 1992
THIS IS LOVERS PT 2 1992
TRUE BORN AFRICAN DUB 1992
SMILE A WHILE 1993
THIS IS SANDRA CROSS 1994
100% LOVERS ROCK 1994
ROOTS DAUGHTERS PT 1 1996
ARICD061 THIS IS LOVERS pt 1 1996
LOVERS' LEAP PT 4 1996
ESCAPE TO THE ASYLUM OF DUB
STEPPING IN DUBWISE COUNTRY


Pioneer Record Label - Japan:

JUST A DREAM - 1996

DREAMS COME TRUE - 1998

LOVERS DELIGHT www.loversrock.com/cdinfo/loversdelight.htm
PURE LOVERS search.launch.yahoo.com/search/lsearch/all?p=sandra+cross
PURE LOVERS http://www.loversrock.com/cdinfo/purelovers5.htm
REGGAE HITS VOL 4 http://www.loversrock.com/cdinfo/reggaehits4.htm

JAVA - ARTURO TAPPIN - 1996 - album featuring SANDRA CROSS singing the late great Garnet Silk's hit "Hello Mama Africa"

AWARDS:

Radio London Reggae Awards:
Best Female Singer - 1985

Radio London Reggae Awards:
Best Female Singer - 1986

British Reggae Entertainment Enterprise Awards: Best Reggae female singer - 1986

British Reggae Industry Awards:
Most outstanding Contribution Award - 1987

British Reggae Entertainment Enterprise Awards: Best Reggae female singer - 1987

British Reggae Entertainment Enterprise Awards: Best Reggae female singer - 1988

Best Reggae Female singer - The Voice Newspaper - 1988

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

This 7-times British Reggae Awards-winning diva has a lot to offer to not only the reggae music industry but the whole music industry on the whole. Her unique charisma and charm brings out and compliments her diversity and musical talent, which she has religously shared with her fans over the years.

Sandra was born the only girl amongst seven boys in South London, England. Her father taught her to play the piano at the tender age of 5 years.
Because her parents were strict church goers, it was in the local Pentecostal church that her talent for singing and playing the piano was discovered. So by the time she had reached 10yrs old she was appointed lead singer of the church choir.

At the age of 14yrs, she entered a local talent contest performing a song she had written and composed by herself entitled ‘I Adore You’.
Triumphantly, she won the contest and was awarded the prize of a recording contract with a local record company.
‘I Adore You’ was recorded and released, and just a few weeks after went to the number one spot in the British Reggae charts. It stayed there for four weeks!
Following the hit, three more songs were released. ‘I Just Don’t Care’ and ‘ I Can’t Let You Go’ of which both again, were written and composed by Sandra. All three songs sat comfortably in the top 10 positions in the Radio London and various other reggae charts all over Britain.

Sadly, after realizing the producer was ‘taking more than his share’, financially, at the age of 16 yrs, Sandra signed her career to another promising record company who released another self-penned song by Sandra called ‘Glue On the Paper’.
Due to poor marketing and lack of experience from the record company, the record did not do as well as expected. By this time Sandra was a little despondent with the music industry and decided to take a break.

Three years later in 1983, her brother introduced her to an up and coming record label in South London called Ariwa Records. It was there she formed a girl-band called ‘The Wild Bunch’. Ariwa Records released their first album entitled ‘The Wild Bunch’ which went to the No. 6 spot in the reggae album charts. Following this success, The Wild Bunch toured England and Europe perfoming at sell-out shows.

In 1995 Sandra decided it was time to go solo again, and Ariwa Records released her 1st single on the label, a rendition of The Stylistics ‘Country Living”.
Two weeks after it’s release, Country Living went straight the number one spot, this time not only in the British reggae charts, America and Japan!
It stayed at the no. 1 spot for an amazing 10 weeks!

Her follow up single ‘You’re Lying’, a song penned by her and her brother was released shortly after, and this too went to the no.1 position for 4 weeks! A third single, ‘It’s You’, again penned by Sandra, followed the trend it too went to the no. 1 spot for 2 weeks.

Following this amazing success, Sandra was voted best reggae female singer by fans and listeners of the British, American and Japanese public in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990 consecutively.
Between 1989 and 1994, Sandra toured Japan and the United States. Her albums and singles topped the international reggae charts making her one of the most recognized and appreciated reggae female artist in the world.

1998 Sandra teamed up with producer Alan Weeks, guitarist of the stongest Ska/Reggae band – Jazz Jamaica. They both singed recording deals with Pioneer Records of Japan. She recorded two albums entitled ‘Just A Dream’ and Dreams Come True’. This introduced a new style of music in to the music industry, which was a fusion of jazz and reggae. The albums were big sellers in Japan exclusively.
Since then she has recorded over 10 albums and is featured on over 20 compilations albums worldwide.