St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 156

IVSC4 st. louis post-dispatch MADISON COUNTY POST Thursday, august 8, 2002 Single father from Belleville tries to crack the charts with reggae CD We will gladly donate your papers to Newspapers in Education (NIE), a program that uses newspapers in the classroom to encourage students to read and to learn about current P.ninrr events. If you would rather receive the newspapers you missed, we will deliver them to you when you return. lit of (8001.36.01 tm lZ'rz tor wwro hhwtwotI 00 Tuesday, August 20, 2002 7 p.m. Memorial Health Education Center 706 East Highway 50, O'Fallon To make a reservation or for more information, call: (314) 977-8635 Affordable Concrete Company Fully Insured Free Estimates songs, Kociela said.

Thomas said he already has commitments from at least three area record store chains and one radio station willing to try out his music. Thomas said he has already spent $9,000 to produce his compact disc. He has used two studios in St Louis and one in Chicago to record, mix and master his music. "In my view, reggae music is like the Constitution," Thomas said. "Politics is communicated.

Attitude is communicated." Thomas said his deep love for reggae music started as a child in Kingston, Jamaica. "My childhood was very Jamaican," Thomas said. "I walked around barefooted. Reggae music was the thing there; just like hip-hop is today." He said he started playing reggae music with a self-made guitar. "Just about every kid knew how to play a guitar," Thomas recalled.

"We would put together a banjo with fishing line strings." Thomas recalled recording a song as a youth that was ripped off by a record producer. He now wants total control of his music. While a teen, he came in contact with such reggae legends as Peter Tosh and Bob Marley. By the time Thomas was 21, he moved to New York to join his family, who had moved to the United States a few years earlier. While in New York, he played with a band called The Wild Bunch, which included Bunny Ruggs, who became a lead singer for Third World band.

He also attended Bronx Community College and drove a cab. But Thomas dropped out of college to get married and eventually joined the U.S. Air Force, interrupting his musical career. Eventually, Thomas' military career took him to Belleville. He was a senior master sergeant at Linval Thomas, aha Ashaka, plans to release a single titled "Unite" next month and hopes to put out an album next year.

BY NORM PARISH Of the Post-Dispatch BELLEVILLE linval Thomas knows that Belleville isn't exactly the reggae capital of the world. But Thomas is trying his best to make a name for himself in the form of music that his native country, Jamaica, originated. Thomas, whose stage name is now Ashaka, plans to release his single "Unite" next month and an album next year. lit is hard to be a musician, period," conceded Thomas, who also is splitting his time as a 51-year-old single parent with two sons and a job as a teacher's aide in East St Louis. Mike Kociela, a local expert on reggae, had a similar view.

"It is tough enough to be make it out of the Midwest as a reggae artist," said Kociela, who owns an entertainment company called Entertainment Saint Louis. "But the St Louis area is tougher. And Belleville is even harder than St Louis. The last time there was a reggae-only music club in St Louis was about 10 years ago." Kociela, however, said Thomas is talented. Kociela recalled that Thomas gave a strong performance as part of an opening act for a Jimmy Cliff concert in St.

Louis about three years ago. Thomas' stage name then was Prodigal. "(Thomas) stood out from everybody," Kociela recalled. "He was good." Despite bis talent, Thomas will still have to persuade music stores to sell his music and find radio stations willing to play his Driveways Walkways Patios Dump Truck Bobcat Basements Tearouts Tom Grothaus 667-7120 Mobile: 618-971-5657 ODELU MITCHELL JR. POST-DISPATCH Linval Thomas knows Belleville isn't the reggae capital of the world, but the Jamaican native is working to be a successful reggae recording artist.

1 For A Great U.S.Uf Tu'NCrT BUY I A AA mm "Some of us will live. Some of us will die." His forthcoming album also will contain several songs with religious themes. "I want (listeners) to be moved and disturbed and be happy and act," Thomas said. "With all of this, I want people to make a difference in improving their relationships. Look at the world.

Nothing happens until people are moved." Reporter Norm Parish: E-mail: Phone: 618-235-0260 Huu OFFjnzpRicEiOFR DINE-IN ONLY mm Dine-lnOnly 1 Coupon per Visit miUiiuiHKimim i Coupon per visit Not to be Combined i Not to be Combined i 0 t0 be combined i Expires 83002 Expires 83002 Expires 83002 I BIRTHS SEAFOOD 1511 Johnson Rd. A AAA Scott Air Force Base before retiring in 1997. Later that year, Thomas released a single called "Captured by Love," which he said he pulled from distribution because he said he didn't like the quality of the music. Now, Thomas said he has a single he likes, "Unite." The song, like others on his forthcoming CD, deals more with themes such as social responsibility than love. "If we don't unite, we will fight," Thomas sings in "Unite." Highland A boy, born June 29 to Toby and Kenneth Smith at St.

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