Tarrus Riley

Tarrus Riley (born Omar Riley) is the son of veteran Jamaican singer Jimmy Riley, formerly of the vocal trio The Uniques. Tarrus recorded his earliest singles as a precocious teenager for his father’s Love and Promotion label and first came into the music as a deejay.

Produced by venerable saxophonist Dean Fraser, his 2004 debut album Challenges was an impressive introduction to the Jamaican market deserving of a much wider audience, followed by Parables which featured the most popular reggae song of 2007 “She’s Royal”, which won critical praise throughout the Caribbean Diaspora and almost every music award for which it was nominated, heralding a roots reggae renaissance.

With his third album Contagious, released in 2009, Tarrus Riley reaffirms that he is one of finest singer/songwriters of his generation, and one of the most talented and promising artist coming out Jamaica. The album remarkably shifts between smoothly crooned lover’s rock and artful Rastafarian declarations, provocative commentaries and dancehall’s combustible edge, symptoms of melodiousness, rapturous roots rhythms and hard hitting lyrical realities. Its cohesion is provided by Tarrus’s spectacularly emotive vocals and reliably inspiring words, and the talent of Grafton and Tuff Gong studios, Sly and Robbie on drum and bass, guitarists Mitchum “Khan” Chin and Cat Coore, keyboardist Robbie Lyn and of course Dean Fraser’s impassioned sax styling. With the hit “Good Girl Gone Bad” (featuring rising dancehall star Konshens), Tarrus hit the charts again and Billboard Magazine cited his work as “the quintessence Jamaica’s roots reggae revival”.

After three tours all over Europe, his new album Mecoustic released in April 2012 and widely acclaimed live performances at the biggest festivals (Printemps de Bourges, Artefact in 2012, Paleo Festival, Dour and Roskilde Festival in 2011 ...), Tarrus will be on tour again in August 2012, and the release of his next and fifth album will soon follow early 2013 ... The 32 years-old artist keeps impressing us!

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