Christafari Makes Grammy Ballot/European Tour/Departs for Brazil!
Nov. 18, 2007 - CHRISTAFARI FALL UPDATE, 2007
Big tings a gwaan for Christafari! It has been a whirlwind year for us ever since the release of our tenth album, "To The Foundation". We are up for a Grammy, have toured Europe and the USA and are departing for a tour of Brazil today! Here are the details:
CHRISTAFARI ON THE GRAMMY BALLOT
The most exciting news is that Christafari's "To the Foundation" made the 50th Annual Grammy Awards ballot in the Best Reggae Album category! This is the first time ever that we are in the running for a highly coveted Grammy nomination and it is an honor to have even been selected by the Academy. The ballots have already been turned in and the official Nominations will be announced December 6, 2007.
ALL TIME BESTSELLING ALBUM
It all started last May with the launch of our latest studio release, "To the Foundation." We decided to give fans a preview of one track each week for the 15 weeks prior to the street date. This paid off tremendously. About a week before our release date we were surprised to learn that the new album had already become the all-time best seller at GospelReggae.com (through pre-orders alone)! It surpassed the sales of albums that we have been selling for 10 years on GospelReggae.com and Lionofzion.com. This is incredible given the slowing pace of the music industry. But wait, it gets better, by the first week of the album's release, the sales had already DOUBLED the previous all-time best seller (Christafari's Gravity). And even better, the critics agreed with the fans and made "To The Foundation" our best reviewed title to date!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Following the release we added a few new band members; Jennifer Howland (background Vocals) and Ryan Bruce (Drums) and hit the road. We played before all kinds of audiences in the USA. We performed in front of hippies in Santa Cruz, Rockers in Downtown LA (Mosaic), White Mountain Apache Indians in Arizona, a worship leaders conference at Saddleback Community and before music industry executives in Nashville, TN. In Nashville during Gospel Music Week, the Lord opened up the door for us to return to Europe. By July 31st nine of us were boarding a plane for Heathrow International Airport and adventures unknown.
ENGLAND
Having been to Europe three times before you would think that we would know what to expect, but we were not prepared for losing all 16 of our bags/instruments on the very first flight! Nevertheless we took the adversity in stride and a few days later our bags caught up with us. We started off the first leg of our tour in England for Creation Fest in Woolacombe and a few shows in London. This was also the roughest patch. At one point we performed 3 times in less than 24 hours with no sleep! Our best show in England was unquestionably at Jesus House in Brent Cross before thousands of Nigerians. This is the kind of audience that an artist dreams of when they are locked in the studio for six months recording an album. The response was overwhelming and many came to Christ.
SWEDEN
From England we he flew to Sweden to play two major festivals. At Frizon Festival they scheduled us to start playing at 2:30 am! You can imagine how surprised we were to see thousands of fans pack out the venue at such an odd hour--It was insane! It is always great to visit Sweden, catch up with our distributor (Naxos), be featured on the local talk show and hang out with the Frizon promoters. This is one of our favorite countries to visit and is full of so many friends that we love so dearly.
One of the challenges of touring is the rigorous schedule and inevitable lack of sleep. On an average day we travel to the venue, set up our gear, commence the dreaded never-ending sound check, then perform our hearts out for two and a half hours. After this we minister to the fans until the last person leaves, then pack up our merchandise and gear and drive back to our lodging. The toughest days are when we do all that and only get two hours of sleep and then have to get up, pack, drive to the airport, fly to another country, drive to the venue and repeat this cycle. As you can imagine it can become very physically, spiritually and emotionally draining. Our trip from Sweden to Finland was one of those experiences.
FINLAND
In Helsinki we filmed our first live DVD with a 10-camera shoot in a local stadium. We also played a few outdoor events throughout the country. In Turku we played in a big park. As the music kicked off all of the Fins gathered to see what was going on. An estimated 600 came, very few were Christians and most were drinking, smoking and partying hard. However, by the end of the show many had come to Christ. It's a trip to see so many people getting high at the beginning of a show, yet having a personal encounter with the Most High by the end of the night. Their countenance changes in a matter of moments through the work of the Holy Spirit. Given the initial percentage of unbelievers and the great harvest of souls, this was one of the most successful outreaches that we have ever done. I love outdoor events like this where people can truly come as they are and leave transformed. After all, it's the sick that need a doctor.
DO YOU KNOW ANY TRUMPET PLAYERS?
Finland was a high point on the tour, but it was there that we also faced one of our greatest obstacles. The trumpet player that joined us on the tour is a member of Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, a Christian big band. Some of you may recall that Denver used to play trumpet in Christafari. He toured with us for a while and played on a few of our records. He went on to start a big band and we (Lion of Zion) signed his first album "Act the Scat" to our label. Throughout the years many of his horn players have graced our albums including Justin and Reggie who played trombone and trumpet on our latest release "To The Foundation." To make a long story short, Denver and his band made the semi finals for a show on FOX television called "The Next Great American Band". We heard news of this about ten shows into our tour and Reggie was forced to choose between staying on the road with Christafari or flying home to be with his band for an audition on network TV. With 24 hours notice he chose to leave the tour. It was probably the toughest decision that Reggie has ever made and one that left us without a trumpet player.
GOD PROVIDES IN GERMANY
To be honest with you, I think we were all initially very challenged by the whole situation. I personally spent three sleepless nights calling every trumpet player that I knew to no avail. But in the end God worked all things out (as He always does for those who trust in Him). At the next two shows in Germany God provided a trumpet player for us. And when we went to Holland the Lord miraculously provided one of the top musicians in the nation to play with us for all of our shows in the Netherlands. As for Reggie, he played the audition with Denver and they made the finals. For the last few weeks they have been on FOX on Friday nights. They are currently in the top 8 on The Next Great American Band show, so please watch the show and support them with your vote!
THE NETHERLANDS
We went on to play six shows in the Netherlands. It was incredible seeing 10,000 fans jump up and down to our music at Flevo Festival. In The Hague we brought the best dancers on stage and had them write their own dances to our song "Rooftop"-it was amazing! Some of these experiences can be seen on YouTube. At one show in Amsterdam we met a couple that had flown all the way from Italy just to see our concert. They had a special request that we play "No Puedo De Jar" and we couldn't turn them down. Before we knew it other fans started shouting out requests from the audience so we dusted off a lot of old songs that night. It was fun!
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
At one show in Groningen, (Netherlands), we encountered some serious spiritual warfare. The second that I started giving the gospel message someone in the crowd pulled out a knife and tried to stab the pastor and then attacked another audience member. We had never seen anything like this before at one of our concerts. No one was harmed and the security personnel quickly controlled the situation, but it revealed a darkness that is hard to explain. When I was leading the altar call with my eyes closed I kept hearing these weird sounds like murmurings of evil spirits. It literally sounded like the soundtrack for a haunted house. Yet every time that I opened up my eyes the audience was just standing in silence. Despite the drama, many came to Christ that night and since we were on such a massive stage, for the last song I invited the whole audience to join us up on stage for a celebration. It was awesome! When I talked with the band after the show they confessed that they heard the strange sounds too and were mystified by the experience. Believe it or not, the pastor was excited to have encountered such spiritual warfare for he knew that God was doing great things. Many came to Christ that night. The next day five more people called up the church saying that they thought about what was said at the event and when they went home they ended up praying the sinner's prayer on their own!
DENMARK, IRELAND, THE UK AND NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL
From the Netherlands we drove to play at Glow Fest in Denmark, and then flew to Ireland where we were detained in immigration for 4 hours and almost refused entrance! But thankfully they eventually let us in after they sorted out an issue with our visas. From Ireland we flew back to England to play on the main stage at the massive Greenbelt Festival. After that we finished off the tour with the Notting Hill Carnival. Each year at Notting Hill Carnival millions pack the streets partying and dancing to the hottest Caribbean music. We gave a passionate performance just outside of Notting Hill Gate and the crowd went wild. It was by far our loudest audience ever and the perfect way to end an incredible tour!
BEST TOUR EVER
Overall, it was a tremendous experience. Despite the hiccup in Finland with our trumpet player, band unity was at an all time high. It was undoubtedly our best tour to date. In 30 days we played 21 shows in 8 countries, 14 of which were festivals. In fact, we were the only Christian band to play every single major festival in Western Europe! It was the best tour schedule, greatest audiences and the biggest response that we have seen to our gospel presentation in the last 18 years. I gave the gospel message at every single show and throughout the tour we saw thousands of hands raised following the sinner's prayer!
USA SHOWS
Upon returning from our exhausting European tour we only had 2 days to recuperate before we hit the stage again. For August and part of October we played a host of local shows in California and Arizona including the Rock of Ages Festival in Calistoga, CA with Jars of Clay, MXPX and Phil Joel. We also welcomed two new band members, Jezza (keyboards) and Obie (lead guitar).
OFF TO BRAZIL
Today we embark on yet another adventure--a 15-day tour of Brazil! The last time we visited Brazil we only performed in Sao Paulo and Rio. This time we are playing a host of concerts in various cities and states including Sao Luis. This City is known as the "Reggae Capitol of Brazil"! Our album "To The Foundation" released in Brazil this month through Bola Music. Please pray for us while we are in this beautiful country. Pray for our safety, many salvations, band unity, and honest and organized concert promoters. Here is our current concert schedule:
CHRISTAFARI, AVION BLACKMAN AND SOLOMON JABBY BRAZILIAN TOUR 2007:
Nov. 20th / PIB Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Nov. 23rd / Reggae Workshop (Teaching) Sao Luiz, Maranhao, Brazil
Nov. 24th / Ginagio do Colegio Upaon Acu, Sao Luiz, Maranhao, Brazil
Nov. 26th / Bola de Neve Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nov. 27th / Bola De Neve, Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Nov. 28th / Mark Mohr Preaches at Bola De Neve Church In Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Nov. 29th / Bola de Neve, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
Nov. 30th / Bola De Neve Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dec. 1st / Bola De Neve, Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
For complete and up to date concert listings please visit http://www.christafari.com
Thanks for your prayers and support.
Blessings in Christ,
Mark Mohr
Christafari
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