Palisadian Rocky Dawuni, an international reggae superstar, will headline this year’s Fourth of July pre-fireworks celebration at the Palisades High School football stadium. ’Rocky’s reggae music will be perfect for the concert,’ said event organizer and recent Sparkplug winner Keith Turner. ‘His songs have positive messages and a nice groove.’ The two-hour concert, ‘Palisades Rocks the Fourth,’ will also feature rockers The House Band, jazz group Set Theory, the classical UCLA Cello Quartet and, for Fourth of July favorites, the PaliHi Concert Band. The evening will culminate with a 20-minute, $21,000 fireworks show, presented by Pyro Spectaculars and paid for by the Palisades Americanism Parade Association (PAPA). Dawuni will be backed by his 11-piece band. His critically acclaimed current album, ‘Hymns for the Rebel Soul’ (Aquarian Records, 2010) was nominated for a prestigious NAACP Image Award for Outstanding World Music Album, and Dawuni won the Best African Artist award at last weekend’s 30th annual International Reggae and World Music Awards in Trinidad. The album was inspired and written during Dawuni’s travels in the U.S. and around the globe, particularly in Israel, Finland, Jamaica and Ghana (his country of origin). His goal was to craft songs that reflect the common spiritual, political and social aspirations of ordinary people the world over. Dawuni’s Palisades performance (‘I’ve always wanted to do a concert like this for my community,’ he told the Palisadian-Post) will kick off a summer schedule that includes a guest appearance alongside Stevie Wonder at the Hollywood Bowl on July 24. This spring, Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism appointed Dawuni as its Ambassador of Tourism, praising him for his music and its message. At Palisades High on July 4, the gates will open at 6 p.m. Admission, which benefits the high school’s music program and PAPA, will be nominal. Visit: palisadesparade.org.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
