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 Blige at what was then the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center), drawing 10,000 fans. This year, Wallace has promoted shows featuring Stephen/Damian Marley, Stephen Marley/Michael Franti, and Steel Pulse. The Marley/Franti event drew 10,000 fans to the Powder Ridge Resort in Middleton; the Marley brothers had 4,000 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven; while Steel Pulse performed to a 3,000-strong crowd at Stony Creek Brewery in the city of Branford.
In October, Wallace presents Tarrus Riley at the Webster Theater in Hartford, which has a seating capacity of 1,800. “He attracts a lot of Portuguese and Spanish people. When yuh drive through their neighbourhoods, yuh hear Tarrus songs, when yuh go into Walmart yuh hear She’s Royal .
When I get him in Jamaican areas yuh not getting more than 700 people ‘cause they don’t come out an’ support their own like dat, so at The Webster, you’ll get a blend of people,” Wallace explained. The XL Center show is the sixth leg of The Overcomer Tour, which is promoted by Buju Banton’s management. That venue has seating capacity of 16,000, which Wallace says he will have little trouble filling.
“I’m 100 per cent sure just by the reaction so far. Connecticut is Buju’s biggest market outside of Jamaica.”.
