In one month’s time, Buju Banton is scheduled to perform at XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, as part of his The Overcomer Tour of the United States. Ardie “Cuban” Wallace is certain to be backstage. The Montego Bay-born Wallace has lived in Hartford since 1970 and has promoted shows throughout Connecticut for 49 years.
While not as fashionable as its neighbours, New York and New Jersey in terms of dancehall-reggae, he said the New England state has been one of Jamaican music’s strongest US markets for decades. “Connecticut has been a great area for reggae, always since 1975. Connecticut was doing volumes of live concerts from we did that Bob Marley Natty Dread tour.
It has never changed,” Wallace told the Jamaica Observer . Marley’s appearance at The Bushnell theatre in Hartford 49 years ago was Wallace’s first major gig as a promoter. It attracted a capacity 3,000 and announced him as reggae’s man in Connecticut.
During the 1970s roots-reggae craze he promoted shows by Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Culture, and Dennis Brown. During the 1980s, when dancehall became the sound of choice among Jamaicans in the tri-state region, Wallace brought Sugar Minott, Tony Tuff, Super Cat, Gregory Isaacs, and John Holt to Connecticut. His stocks as a promoter soared in the 1990s as dancehall found an audience among black Americans.
His biggest gig during that period took place in 1993 when Shabba Ranks shared the bill with Bobby Brown, TLC, and Mary J.