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Jamaican Me Breakfast Club

Jamaican Me Breakfast Club is a reggae band from New Orleans, LA, that specializes in playing songs from the 1980s and 1970s in a cool, roots reggae style.

The band formed in 2015 when Scott Aiges – known in the city for his longtime involvement in New Orleans’ music industry – came up with the idea of a group that would play (slightly tongue-in-cheek) versions of cheesy 80s new wave songs set to a reggae beat.

After more than a year of fits and starts, the band began to coalesce with Steve Chyzyk on lead guitar and Rueben Williams (known in New Orleans as a longtime manager of music artists including Tab Benoit, Monk Boudreaux, Samantha Fish and others) as the lead singer. The rhythm section included Claude Bryant on keyboards, Boyanna Trayanova on drums and Norman Nail on bass. Antonio Gambrel and Ashlin Parker played trumpet. Derek Douget (known for his work with Ellis Marsalis, Herlin Riley and many others) was the initial saxophone player and still performs with the group to this day. Eventually, background singers Anjelika Joseph, Chrishira Perrier, Kayla Jasmine and Tracci Lee also performed with the band.

In 2016, the group recorded a four-song demo at NOLA Studio in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, with Michael Harvey engineering and mixing. On the strength of that recording, the group began to get gigs in the New Orleans area.

Its first performance was at the New Orleans club Gasa Gasa on July 3, 2016. The band didn’t perform again until Oct. 20 of that year, when it opened for the group Talking Dreads at the famous club Tipitina’s. (Ironically, “Talking Dreads” was a name the band thought of and intended to use for itself, before learning that a band from Florida was already using the name.)

Jamaican Me Breakfast Club began performing regularly around New Orleans and continued recording, releasing its first full-length album, “Pop Rock Steady,” independently on Oct. 22, 2017.

In December 2017, the group was the subject of a feature article in The Advocate newspaper.

A career highlight was performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 3, 2018.

Having performed frequently with the same set of 80s new wave songs, the band took time off in mid-2018 to regroup and begin working on a follow-up album – this one of classic pop, soft rock and R&B songs from the 1970s. The band returned to the recording studio in October 2018 with Steve Himmelfarb (formerly with Capitol Records, and the former owner of South Lake Recording Studio in New Orleans) as producer, working alongside Steve Chyzyk.

The ensuing recording sessions would last well into 2019, and would include guest performances by the singer Susan Cowsill on a remake of the Carpenters’ song “Close To You,” and keyboardist Jon Cleary on a medley of two Cornelius Brothers songs – “Too Late to Turn Back Now” and “Treat Her Like a Lady” – plus “Walk On By,” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and made famous by Dionne Warwick.

In spring 2018 and again in spring 2019, Jamaican Me Breakfast Club performed at official after-parties of the MJBizCon NEXT conference, a business trade show organized by the news organization Marijuana Business Daily.

With several songs finished and ready to release, the band parted ways with singer Rueben Williams. After two shows with Erik Corriveau on vocals, the band settled on Anthony Green (formerly of the Gutter Brothers, a skiffle band that performed frequently in the U.K. in the 1980s and 1990s, and the New Orleans blues band the Fortifiers) as the new lead singer.

Jamaican Me Breakfast Club is scheduled to release the “Too Late” medley independently on Dec. 13, 2019.

Founding members: Scott Aiges Steve Chyzyk Rueben Williams Norman Nail Claude Bryant Boyanna Trayanova Current Members: Scott Aiges, rhythm guitar Steve Chyzyk, lead guitar Anthony Green, vocals John Cannon V, drums J.D. Hill, bass Brian Rini, keyboards Derek Douget, saxophone Jonté Cannon, vocals Kyron Butler, vocals Other musicians who have recorded or performed live with Jamaican Me Breakfast Club:

Bass: Norman Nail Rob Savoy Pat Casey J.D. Miller Drums: Billy Schell Darryl White Boyanna Trayanova Julian Garcia Eric Heigle Russ Broussard John Cannon V Vocals: Rueben Williams Anjelika Joseph Kayla Jasmine Tracci Lee Chrishira Perrier Susan Cowsill Jonté Cannon Kyron Butler Erik Corriveau Anthony Green Guitar: Andy Neubauer Keyboards: Claude Bryant Brian Coogan Jon Cleary Glenn Hartman Brian Rini Horns: Derek Douget, saxophone Andrew Baham, trumpet Antonio Gambrel, trumpet Ashlin Parker, trumpet Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown, trumpet Ricardo Pascal, saxophone John Perkins, trumpet First Album Release: Oct. 22, 2017 Press: The Advocate: Guitarist Scott Aiges' Jamaican Me Breakfast Club reinvents '80s New Wave hits as reggae songs, Dec. 19, 2017

Awards: Nominated for OffBeat Magaazine’s Best of the Beat Award in the “Best Cover Band” category in 2018 and 2019. Performances: December 14, 2019: Chickie Wah Wah, New Orleans, LA November 27, 2019: B Macs, New Orleans, LA October 6, 2019: D.B.A., New Orleans, LA October 4, 2019: Tipitina’s, New Orleans, LA (opening for Temps Petit) July 19, 2019: House of Blues, New Orleans, LA June 13, 2019: D.B.A., New Orleans, LA May 24, 2019: One-Eyed Jacks New Orleans, LA May 18, 2019: Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo Festival, New Orleans, LA May 16, 2019: Venue 182, Raceland, LA (opening for The Fuzz) April 30, 2019: Vaughan’s Lounge, New Orleans LA April 25, 2019: City Park Botanical Gardens, New Orleans LA April 6, 2019: Freret Street Festival, New Orleans, LA March 16, 2019: T-Bois Blues Festival, Larose, LA March 1, 2019: Chickie Wah Wah, New Orleans, LA February 22, 2019: BJ’s Lounge, New Orleans, LA December 28, 2018: Chickie Wah Wah, New Orleans, LA May 19, 2018: Private Party, New Orleans, LA May 10, 2018: Chickie Wah Wah, New Orleans, LA  – Marijuana Business MJBizConNEXT May 3, 2018: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival May 1, 2018: Vaughan’s Lounge, New Orleans, LA April 20, 2018: Tipitina’s, New Orleans, LA (opening for the Lost Bayou Ramblers) April 15 2018: 3Keys at the Ace Hotel, New Orleans, LA April 5, 2018 @ 5:30pm – Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA March 14, 2018: 3Keys at the Ace Hotel, New Orleans, LA March 11, 2018: The Howlin’ Wolf, New Orleans, LA (opening for the Easy Star All Stars) February 15, 2018: 3Keys at the Ace Hotel, New Orleans, LA January 28, 2018: D.B.A., New Orleans, LA January 25, 2018: Generations Hall, New Orleans, LA (OffBeat Magazine Best of the Beat Awards) December 21, 2017: One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA December 16, 2017: Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans, LA October 28, 2017: Chickie Wah Wah, New Orleans, LA October 22, 2017: D.B.A., New Orleans, LA September 29, 2017: Gretna Heritage Festival, Gretna, LA September 27, 2107:  Tipitina’s, New Orleans, LA August 19, 2017: Private Party, New Orleans, LA July 8, 2017: Southport Hall, New Orleans, LA (MOMs Mid Summer’s Night Full MOON Ball) May 20, 2017: Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo Festival, New Orleans, LA May 2, 2017: Vaughn’s Lounge, New Orleans, LA April 8, 2017: Allways Lounge, New Orleans, LA Feb. 11, 2017: Vaughn’s Lounge, New Orleans, LA Dec. 29, 2016: BJ’s Lounge, New Orleans, LA Nov. 12, 2016: Roux Carre, New Orleans, LA Nov. 11, 2016: The Howlin’ Wolf, New Orleans, LA (Lusher Charter School fundraising event) Oct. 20, 2016: Tipitina’s, New Orleans, LA (opening for Talking Dreads) Jul. 3, 2016: Gasa Gasa, New Orleans, LA Reference: