JAH LEVI & The Higher Reasoning: What's New

Currently, Jah Levi is working on a collection of 100 songs that he has written and produced, featuring Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace on drums and a host of great artists of every genre and tradition of music.
Alot of the music in this new collection is the classic reggae that Jah Levi is known for, as well as world fusion, and eclectic ethnic songs and healing vibrational music. He states, “I am most excited about my new world fusion projects that are an electic acoustic fusion of diverse ethnic strings, percussion and vocals from around the world.”

Greetings and love to my beloved Family!
I wanted to write this newsletter to keep you all updated on my latest projects, which I’m very excited to tell you all about. I just finished and released my new album, So Jah Say, and have another one on the way, which is called Praise Him, scheduled to be released February 2006. These two albums are a culmination of my musical career up until this point. A lot of the songs you know and love that I play live are on these two new albums, now professionally mixed and recorded, along with some brand new creations. Featuring so many great artists, like David Grisman, Tina Malia, Sasha Butterfly, Shimshai, Abba Yahudah, Prezident Brown, and Rocker T, and a whole spectrum of musicians, we’ve all come together to make an epic collection of music. The album So Jah Say, which is currently available at CDBaby and on my website www.jahlevi.com/ can either be purchased alone or along with a DVD of a 3 hour live concert that I played in November 2004 in San Francisco at Café Cocomo. This concert features an 18 piece band – an all-star cast which is a lot of fun to watch. I am also working on a DVD that is all about my music and is a deeper look into who is Jah Levi featuring many people who’ve known me and played with me over the years.
I’ve been playing with the legendary Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace, drummer for Burning Spear and star of the movie “Rockers.” I’ve recorded over a hundred new songs with Horsemouth on drums and he came with us on a CD release tour of the west coast this summer, a highlight of which was the Seattle Hempfest, the largest outdoor music festival on the west coast, where I got a headlining spot, performing for a crowd of 100,000 people with an all-star band, featuring Ronnie “Stepper” McQueen on bass, founder of and bass player for Steel Pulse.
If you haven’t seen my new website, check out www.jahlevi.com/ There are several songs you can listen to on it, and it has beautiful photos, my biography, links, etc., and ways to purchase my new album.
At this moment I am currently setting up distribution and tour dates with my new manager and comrade Andre Jonson, of Dreamcatcher Productions. He is a wonderful friend and ally and I am grateful and enthusiastic to have him aboard for this next phase of my career. We’re booking a tour of the Hawaiian Islands in February. I hope to see you all there in the beautiful sunshine. I’ve also retained Nancy Lewis of Entertainment Works as publicist and PR person. She has been my publicist for the last ten years and is helping me to promote my new album and DVD.
Lately I’ve also been working in the studio on my own new music as well as producing several other artists, such as Manaka, Har-I, Abba Yahudah and Rocker T. It has been a wonderful experience helping to create and promote the musical visions of these up and coming artists. They are all my good friends and are doing great work. Stay tuned for all the Irie music and video coming your way from Theocratic Records International, the record label and production company that I started 25 years ago.
The new music that I’m working on now is a fusion of eclectic, ethnic, and world music, and simply has my own flavor that cannot be put into a genre, but I call it world fusion, bringing together elements of diverse cultures, traditional acoustic instruments, and the sounds of nature in a soul-stirring soundscape of harmonic and melodic intention. This album features Vir of Hamsa Lila on sintir, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace on drums, Dilshad Hussein on violin, and a host of other amazing artists with their unique sounds. This album is scheduled for release in Spring of 2006.
In addition, my very first album, called Selassie-I Vibration has been totally remixed and re-mastered for re-release on the Theocratic Record Label. The album includes bonus tracks that are unique dub mixes of some of Jah Levi’s classic songs. Check it out on www.cdbaby.com/ or on my website. In fact, my entire catalog is available both on www.cdbaby.com/ and my website, as well as digital download, through many music download services such as Apple I-Tunes music store, Musicmatch, Bitmonk, MP3tunes, MusicNow, MusicNet, MSNMusic, SonyConnect, and Wrapfactory.
Thank you for your love and support over the years and look forward to many more years of concerts, CDs and videos from Jah Levi and the Higher Reasoning, and the Theocratic Records Massive.
One Perfect Love in the Highest Spirit of Jah Rastafari.

Through his healing musical ministry,
many have found their way home to their hearts.
He is spiritually devoted, gifted, and an inspiration to others.

"Jah Levi's music touched,
transformed & motivated me 2 work
4 the good of the planet."

Jah Levi and the Higher Reasoning: Armageddeon War

This 1989 recording of the Oregon-based Jah Levi and the Higher Reasoning features only six tracks, but covers over 48 minutes with it's spiritual reggae and mellow, contemplative dub. The first three tracks are vocal tracks with the strong roots vocals of Jah Levi (also on bass, guitar, keys, and percussion) and Screwface Passenger (also on drums). "Vision" has strong horns and electric guitar (an interesting element absent from a lot of reggae recently). The title cut, "Armageddeon War" chants: "I come to chant down the walls of Babylon / It's the Armageddeon War" with powerful, church-like religious vocals carrying the vocals. An interesting element in this track is a quiet Indian-style chant midway through the song. However, even with the raw lyrical power of the first two cuts, the third, "Guidance Iniversal" tops both with heavy-duty Rasta ideology: "Guide I Heavenly Father / Lead I from this terrible land / Guide I Heavenly Father / Lead I to Zion ... I am Alpha, I am Omega / And this is the prophecy fulfilled." "Egyptian Dub" makes wonderful use of the rain stick and keys to eeriely layer over the Brukina Faso war drum and the bass drum (all played, along with the bass, by Jah Levi) for a haunted-house mood. "The Living Dub" is strong riddimed, mellow, trombone-laced dub track with crickets as backup. To close this release out is the 19-and-a-half minute "Harmonic Convergence Inna Tradition" recorded live at Positively 4th Street in Ashland, Oregon. Tons of live dub with spacy guitars and simple, but effective, keyboard echo make me want to travel to the west coast to see them perform (throughout May, June, and July they will be in Oregon and Washington). This wonderful release highlights the talents of a very spiritual and talented reggae band.

Jah Levi is a living example of style grace & wisdom, from the moment we met I could feel his heart & refinement in all he does. My time with him was both deeply personally enriching as well as professionally beneficial, I found him to be profoundly intelligent, a keen listener, an engaging conversationalist, & on the cutting edge of producing transformational artistic creative expression that is also entirely entertaining. Jah allowed me to take my Music to greater heights than I have known till now, & in the process modeled what’s possible when art meets with success & balance. My experience with Jah Levi has opened new levels of understanding & given me the best quality of production for my projects. I whole-heartedly recommend him for any & all artists seeking to evolve their creative gifts to the world in the best possible way in both product & content.

Sincerely Positive,

DreamingBear Baraka Kanaan

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