Chris Blackwell, Darcus Beese Mark Island Records’ 60th With Grammy Museum Chat

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Chris Blackwell and Darcus Beese continued the yearlong celebration of IslandRecords' 60th with a wide-ranging GRAMMYMuseum Q&A on Saturday

The London-born, but Jamaica-raised Blackwell, who started the label with a $10,000 loan from his parents, began by selling soul and R&B records he bought for 46 cents in the U.K. to competitive Jamaican sound systems for 200 GBP apiece. His first No.

Beese, who marked his own one-year anniversary in the post this past July after replacing David Massey and moving from London to New York, is a label lifer. He recalled how he started out as a “tea-boy” for the promotions department before finding his calling in A&R, going on to sign, Florence & the Machine, Dizzee Rascal and Jessie J.

A keen A&R man himself, Beese described chasing down Amy Winehouse’s manager for an opportunity to bid to sign the singer, who was fully committed to being a jazz artist at the start. Blackwell nodded when explaining jazz remains his own favorite music genre through the years, telling Santelli how he discovered a young Stevie Winwood, hearing his high-pitched version of Ray Charles emerge from a bar in Birmingham, U.K. while on a business trip.

Beese reiterated how committed Island remains to Blackwell’s original artist-centric vision, introducing new Grammy nominee Jessie Reyez, a 28-year-old of Colombian descent from Toronto, who has collaborated with the likes of Calvin Harris and Eminem.

Afterwards, guests lined up to get their picture with the scruffy, still rakishly handsome Blackwell, while young Beese looked on with admiration.

 

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