On Saturday 6th September 2014, Park Albina came alive as Jera Entertainment hosted its 3rd annual reggae show in the village in Paramaribo Suriname. This year the show as usual featured a few local bands from the country and was headlined by reggae sensation Glen Washington who was backed by the Heatwave Band of Guyana. This marked the return of the popular home band as they were featured at the same event last year as the backing band for another Jamaican reggae artist Warrior King. The event seeks to bring live entertainment to the small village known to love reggae music especially the sounds of the late South African Reggae icon Lucky Dube who was very popular in the neighbouring country. Glen Washing expressed his gratitude to the band for their hard work however this is the second time that they performed with the artist as just over two years ago they worked with him here in Guyana.
The band has been in existence for six years and rapidly became a household name. They have since been making waves being dubbed the most popular string band in Guyana, performing at just about every major event that has been held. Since their existence they have also been the house band for the annual Carib Soca Monarch Competition. They have played for many international artists to the likes of Machel Montano, Rupee, Turbulance, Lady G, Admiral Bailey and Flourgan just to name a few as well as many Guyanese artistes and has recently been the backing band for young dancehall superstar Alkaline who performed at the 2014 Jam zone Regional Night concert; the second band outside of Jamaica to ever perform with him.. The band consists of musicians Anthony Johnson (bass guitarist), drummer Devon Roberts, keyboardists Earl Bishop and Joshua Dennis, lead singers Carlvin Burnett (former first runner up in the GT&T Jingle & Song Competition) and Tennicia De Freitas (two time Junior Calypso Monarch and artist of Kross Kolor Records) who also act as background vocalists. They all along with band manager Chenille Bowen and engineer Jermaine Rollins travelled to Suriname on Thursday 4th to prepare for the much anticipated show which was very well attended. They performed a half hour repertoire of old and new reggae music which put the crowd in a bouncing frenzy, getting them prepared for the main act of the night. Jera Entertainment was also very pleased with the performance and looks forward to continue working with the band for future shows.
The CEO of the band Anthony Johnson promises to do much more for the ending of the year and the years to come as they have already added a number of dancers, sound engineer and DJ. The band is scheduled to perform at upcoming events in and out of Guyana for the remainder of 2014. Photos of the trip and video clips of their performance in Suriname and many others can be found on facebook.com/theheatwaveband.