Ardie "Cuban" Wallace (left) and Davies Chirwa.
Synonymous with reggae in Connecticut and New England, Ardie “Cuban” Wallace has promoted Jamaican culture throughout that region for over 50 years. He tells part of that story in ‘The Legendary Reggae Promoter: Ardie “Cuban” Wallace’.
The book was released on October 3 on Amazon through DC Productions Media Group, a company owned by Davies Chirwa, a Zambian businessman based in Washington. The 300-page tome revisits 1975 when the Jamaican made his debut as a show promoter in Hartford, Connecticut.
It is written by Wallace and his wife, Yevette Ann Wallace.
Cuban’s first show featured Bob Marley and The Wailers at the Bushnell Auditorium (now Theater) in Hartford. Although Marley was a rising star, the Montego Bay-born impresario says not much was known about reggae in the United States.
“The book had to focus on 1975 for many historic reasons. It’s a year of all big history with myself and reggae music building in America,” said Cuban. “In 1975, no one knew anything about reggae in America or what it is, so this was the start of it.”
Marley and The Wailers were promoting ‘Natty Dread’, his first solo album for Island Records which was released the previous year.
Since that gig, Cuban has promoted the who’s who of dancehall-reggae, particularly in Hartford where he has lived since the early 1970s. Jimmy Cliff, Sly and Robbie, Yellowman, Steel Pulse, Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers, Gregory Isaacs, Sugar Minott and Super Cat are some of the acts he has brought to that city.
WRITTEN BY HOWARD CAMPBELL