Issa Foundation Pools Together Michael Bolton, Tarrus Riley & Ky-Mani Marley For Charity Concert

Last November the Issa Trust staged a Charity Gala in New York with headliners Third World and raised more than US$400,000. They are back at it six months later with a benefit concert headlined by Michael Bolton, Ky-Mani Marley and Tarrus Riley in Ocho Rios St. Ann at Couple San Souci.

In this wide ranging interview Paul speaks exclusively with World Music Views® about the concert, his multi-cultural upbringing and has some advice from the hospitality industry for reggae and dancehall industry players.

Where are you from and how did you get your present job?

I have been working at the House Of Issa, which is the parent company of Couples Resorts, it’s a family business, and currently what we operate are four hotels in Jamaica and that is really our core business, we used to be in a lot of other things finance, motor vehicle, retail but over the years we sorta just narrow the focus to tourism.

What is it about Jamaica that has kept you and your family in Jamaica?

“My father the late Abe Issa was a great patriot, all through the 70s when everybody was leaving he never left, he died in 1984, but we as a family have never left, our forebears came to Jamaica in 1893, my grandfather and his father came from Bethlehem, which was then in Palestine, and they settled here then and and my Grandmother Mary Brimrose was already living in Jamaica, they had migrated here from Syria from Damascus. We have been here a long time and we think of ourselves as Jamaicans, we are Jamaicans. It’s a great place here in Jamaica.

One thing you have done so well is learn how to create the Jamaican experience for international guests, what keeps them coming back?

We have a very high repeat guest ratio, they think of it as their home, Jamaicans have really great hospitable qualities. They are warm and friendly. The resorts are beautiful, I think what keeps them coming back other than the food and the beaches, the staff has a great deal to do with it. The Staff say welcome home.

You studied Drama, did you plan to become an actor?

I have always wanted to be an actor but nobody took me seriously. I went to New York to one of the professional acting schools and studied with one of the great acting teachers of the day. When I started to go on auditions, I just didn’t like the industry, I thought this wasn’t for me. Later I came back to Jamaica and I taught Drama in school, I worked in radio, in broadcasting, I worked in local film productions, did some theatre and some film but never really pursued it. I recently did a part in an HBO film by chance and I had fun doing it but it’s not something I pursued.

So you have produced theatre productions?

I did a theatre production 10 years ago, that was the last thing I did, have been in a few plays since then but it’s a very time consuming art form and it takes a lot of time and effort and my focus these days is the Issa Trust Foundation.

For the last five or ten years I have really been focused on that. We focus on serving the children of Jamaica, whether its pediatric healthcare or education and we work mainly in the rural areas where our resorts are in St. Mary, St. Ann. Hanover and Westmoreland. Our current project is to build our own health centre, for children and adolescents in St. Ann that will be a free clinic to serve the north coast. That gives me the most joy in my life now, trying to find some way to meaningfully contribut​ion​ to the community.

What made you chose Michael Bolton, Ky-Mani Marley and Tarrus Riley for the 2023 concert?

They are all great vocalists, they are all singer’s singers. They are terrific singers in their various genres and I think it will be a great night having these three different style performers. Tarrus Riley is ‘Singy Singy’ and we have three ‘Singy Singys’. Wayne and Tami Mitchel who were great singers in their previous lives will be hosts. It’s all inclusive, food and drink catered by Couples and several of our sponsors. There are not many tickets left but US$250 for VIP and everyone is a VIP. Every penny we earn goes to building this health center.

Who are your top 5 artists of all time?

Oh gosh that’s so hard, I like a lot of different genres, I like everything from the acid rock of the 1960s to dancehall, I like classical, I like show music, I like jazz vocalists.

What do you make of Jamaican music and where it is going?

You still have some young people doing reggae like Protoje, Chronixx and a few people doing dancehall and lifting it up a little bit like Koffee. I remember Ska, Mento and Rocksteady and I think there has been a coarsening of dancehall. I don’t know if the music is reflecting the society or society is reflecting the music and I think that’s wrong. I can’t give advice because I am not out there making music but I don’t know that the music should reflect the worst elements of the experience in our society. In a way it should be aspirational but I am an old guy, what do I know.

If you could give the music industry players a tool to use that you have used to develop your hospitality offerings what would it be?

Attention to details I think. (You can’t) just be churning annoying out and throwing anything out there. I think refining and working on them and paying attention to detail is a good thing for any artist to do, the same way it is in business.

Watch full interview on YouTube here