JoZee finds her reggae revelation with ‘Who God Says I Am’

Italian-American singer, JoZee, may have grown up in Chicago with Sicily in her blood, but reggae has been beating in her heart since she was a little girl.

Her musical journey has taken her from performing at age nine to studying music at university and landing a recording deal with Qwest Records to eventually finding her calling in Christian music. She is stepping confidently into reggae gospel with her new single, Who God Says I Am. For JoZee, this is the fulfilment of a dream that began decades ago.

“I have loved reggae music since I was a little girl,” she said, recalling Third World’s classic 96 Degrees In The Shade as one of the first reggae songs to grab her attention. “It’s been my favourite genre of music and I’ve always dreamt about recording reggae music.”

From there, she went digging. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Jacob Miller and Marcia Griffiths became part of her musical education before she ventured deeper into Jamaican music through Eek-A-Mouse, Barrington Levy, Yellowman, Super Cat and Shabba Ranks.

Growing up around her parents’ Sicilian restaurant, she absorbed everything from Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra to Pavarotti, Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand and Bob Marley. It was a musical melting pot before she even knew she was in one.

Her own family story carries plenty of hustle. Her immigrant grandparents started with a hot-dog stand that eventually grew into the family’s restaurant business.

“We understand the hustle and hard work a family puts into providing and trusting God to make ends meet,” she said. “My connection with Jamaican culture truly happened effortlessly.”

Still, an Italian-American woman entering reggae knows questions about authenticity will come.

“My mission isn’t to sound Jamaican,” she said. “It’s to minister the word of God through a genre of music I am genuinely passionate about.”

JoZee admitted she initially worried about how Jamaican listeners would receive her, but said the response had been overwhelmingly supportive. Curiously, she said most of the limited scepticism she had encountered had come from Americans rather than Jamaicans.

Her long-distance love affair with Jamaican music finally became something tangible through veteran Jamaican producer Danny Brownie, and it happened almost by accident.

Brownie and JoZee’s husband had been friends for years. During a Christmas vacation in Jamaica in 2023, the couple stayed at the producer’s home. One afternoon, Brownie asked JoZee to help with an idea in his studio.

A casual session suddenly became something much bigger.

“Before we knew it, we had written and recorded the very first song for my album,” she recalled.

MASTER OF VOCAL PRODUCTION

JoZee describes him as a master of vocal production who drilled two deceptively simple lessons into her: “stick to the melody” and “ride the rhythms”.

“Danny always knows what to do to get a heartfelt performance out of you,” she said. “He’s a perfectionist, and his ear is impeccable.”

That combination of Jamaican production discipline and JoZee’s considerable formal training has helped bring her latest chapter into focus.

This isn’t her first flirtation with reggae. When she recorded a rock-edged Christian album in 2016, she wanted a dancehall breakdown, on the track, First Love Letter, leading her husband to contact Brownie about getting gospel deejay Prodigal Son for a feature.

Long before reggae gospel became her mission, however, her song Heavy Heart brought her to the attention of mogul, Quincy Jones, and eventually led to a deal with his Qwest Records.

“He believed in me from the start and was excited to fully support the vision,” JoZee recalled.

The experience also gave her a front-row seat to an era of the record business when labels invested heavily in developing talent.

“Nowadays, I don’t see much artiste development happening,” she said, arguing that the industry has become increasingly preoccupied with “social media likes, streams, and followers”.

Perhaps that is what makes Who God Says I Am such a fitting record for this stage of her journey. It puts identity, faith and purpose at the centre of the conversation.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com