Contributed photo
Javaughn Bond in performance.Garwin Davis, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
He is only eight years old, but if young singing sensation Javaughn Bond continues in the same vein many within the music fraternity expects him to go all the way to the top.
Already, with performances at some of the island's premiere stage shows, including Sting, the inevitable comparisons with other musicians have begun.
"A young Bob Marley"; "He will be a bigger star than Michael Jackson," are but two of the comments made by those who have seen Javaughn perform.
At Sting two years ago where Grammy Award winner Beenie Man introduced him on stage as his son, the youngster tore the place apart with cover versions of Alton Ellis' Get Ready and the Heptones' I lost my Baby. So impressive was Javaughn that he was the toast of all the entertainers back stage.
Dub poet and social commentator, Mutabaruka, was so impressed with Javaughn's first recording single, Good To Be Humble, that he declared on his critically acclaimed talk show programme, 'Cutting Edge,' that the youngster was a star of the future.
"If you notice, this young man is dealing with consciousness," he said. "I want you all to watch him as he is definitely one for the future," the dub poet continued.
Only a few months ago at the Bob Marley celebrations in Nine Miles, St. Ann, he shared the stage with some of the heavyweights in the music industry, including the entire Marley clan. Javaughn not only gave a mesmerising performance, but based on a consensus among patrons, he also stole the show.
Hailing from Portland, Javaughn is a student at Norwich Primary School and is the elder of two children to parents, John Bond and the late Alecia Wilson.
Three years ago Miss Wilson, who was an attendant at the Esso Gas Station in Port Antonio, was tragically killed in a car accident and Javaughn, then five, was already a sensation.
The loss of his mother, though devastating, did not affect Javaughn's singing career.
"If anything, he became a much stronger person," his father explained. "He was very close to her so what he did was just put himself deeply into his music," he continued.
Special talent
Mr. Bond, a musician himself, said he knew from early that his son would have been a special talent. He spoke of putting his mouth on his pregnant girlfriend's stomach and according to him, "sing a few songs."
"Whenever I did that, his mother would scream and said that the child was kicking inside of her," he noted. "That was how I knew that he was responding to the experiment," he said.
Mr. Bond said he continued the ritual until his son was born. But at birth he would play music around the child.
"I also kept instruments around him so he could play with them," he continued.
Today, Javaughn not only sings, but he can play almost any song he hears on the keyboard, bass-guitar or drum set. This kind of versatility has increased his profile and puts him in a class by himself.
"Even at such a young age, he has to be the most all-round musician in the country," his father remarked. "Give him any tune to play and he will mash it up."
Unfortunately, despite Javaughn's appearance on several stage shows and the fact that his enormous talent and age are drawing cards, the financial rewards haven't been forthcoming.
"Because we want the exposure, he pretty much performs for free," Mr. Bond said.
"It is rough though because we are really struggling financially. Since his mother died, I have to be carrying on the struggle with him and his little sister. Sometimes I don't know how we keep going, but I have to be strong for them. Right now we have been trying really hard to get him a new keyboard, but the money is just not available. I know though that nothing can hold Javaughn back as he is a special kid," his father said.
Javaughn, a very energetic kid, said he was bent on becoming a singer-songwriter and also a computer engineer. He said the drum was his favourite musical instrument, but felt he was better on the keyboard.
