WHO’S BAD
Who’s Bad’s live performance is an unrivaled celebration of pop music’s one true King. Their power-packed performance of Michael Jackson’s expansive catalog has ignited crowds on every continent and can only be described as a jaw-dropping, musical must-see. As the longest-running Michael Jackson tribute band, and the only one to predate his untimely passing, Who’s Bad has awed even the skeptics, selling out nearly 50 venues in the United Kingdom, including London’s O2 in December of 2010, the venue where the King of Pop was slated to end his career with a 50-show “This Is It” concert series.

Who’s Bad has earned its name by paying studious attention to Michael Jackson’s every original groove and gravity-defying dance move, boasting over 100 years of professional experience and a team of dancers with resumes that include Broadway productions such as Phantom of the Opera. Vamsi Tadepalli (Who’s Bad founder, composer, and saxophonist) assembled a cast of North Carolina’s premiere musicians and, from Who’s Bad’s inception, believed in the band’s boundless possibilities. The velvety vocals and pinpoint choreography of frontmen Joseph Bell and Taalib York’s combined with the six-piece band’s synchronized dance routines, blaring horns and down-deep rhythms, results in a performance delivered with soul and precision superseded by no one but the King himself. They’ve shared stages with the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, The Backstreet Boys, The Four Tops, Boys II Men, and hip hop superstar, Pitbull. Captivated fans include LIVE NATION’s Anthony Nicolaidis who calls Who’s Bad, “the real deal,” and Michael Jackson’s longtime friend and manager Frank DiLeo who proclaimed after Who’s Bad show in Nashville, TN, “the show was great….Michael would have been proud!”

UMOJAH NATION
Women like Marcia Griffiths, Phillis Dillon, and Tanya Stephens have provided some of reggae music’s brightest moments over the years. Yet too often women involved in the genre are delegated to singing back-up or otherwise providing a minor supplementary role to a dominant male front man. Few realize that quite often the best results are dependent on an equally collaborative effort. Certainly the husband and wife team of Tracey and Stefano Nguma would concur. Together they lead Northeast Ohio’s most inspired new reggae band, Umojah Nation.

The group adopts its moniker from the Swahili word for unity, and while seeded in Jamaican roots and dancehall, Umojah Nation possesses an original style of reggae all its own. Both Tracey and Stefano are gifted singers and crafty songwriters. Intelligent lyrics adore intricate musical arrangements that recall the great British reggae bands Steel Pulse and Aswad from their late 70’s heyday. But Umojah Nation refuses to be pigeonholed. The group is just as likely to punch its way through a dancehall rave up that could give Cecile a run for her money. Stefano’s tasty bass lines provide the perfect complimentary foundation to his wife’s thoughtful material. Umojah Nation is fleshed out by a sturdy eight-piece cast of expert musicians and a heaven-sent chorus of back-up singers.