Dukes of Roots isan intergenerationalgroup ofsingers, songwriters,musiciansand producerswhocelebrateroots reggaebut with a universal accent.Themusic heard on their,as of yet,untitleddebut albumdue in 2023viaMigration RecordsLLC/YoungPow Productionsis Jamaican in origin butinternational in itsscope.Dukes of Rootsconsists oflegendary Jamaican bassist George “Fully”Fullwood, an architect in reggae’s developmentwho has played with manyof the music’sluminariesincludingBob Marley, Peter Tosh, Joe Higgs, The Mighty Diamonds, Black Uhuru, DennisBrown and Gregory Isaacs.On keyboards isSean“YoungPow”Diedrick, a Grammy award winning producer who spent19 yearstouring the world withDamian Marleyand playing on Damian’salbums, including the2017Grammy Award winning Stony Hill.Dukes of Roots’ lead singer is Mermans “Mo Faya” Mosengo;originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congoand now based in Los Angeles, Mermans is a featured artistwithPlaying For Change, a multi-media projectthatbrings togethersingers and players of instruments from all over the worldand hehas performed with Toots Hibbert,Jackson Brown, Taj Mahal and Keb Mo among others.On drums is GrammyAward winner Courtney“Bam”Diedrick, one of the most celebrated(Jamaican)drummers of this generation; a longstanding member ofDamianMarley’s band,Courtney’s resumealsoincludescollaborationswith Mick Jagger, JossStoneand Dave Stewart (as part of the group SuperHeavy), Eric Clapton,Nas, and Stephen Marley.“I like to think of Dukes of Rootsas an ongoing movement that will continue to honor roots reggae musicbut the one thing that is clearly different about this project isthat it is truly global,”says Dukes of Roots’guitarist and primary songwriter T Rod.“I’man American; ourlead singeris from Africa;we have three Jamaicansand we also have Brazilians and South Africans associatedwith the project so our listenerswill hear those influences on ourfirst album and in ourmusicgoing forward.”As for the band’s name, Rod explains, “we didn’t want to call ourselves kingsbecause thatiskind of overused,sowe thought,becauseJamaica isa former British colony, “Dukes”was a good way to express how we feel about the level of talent in the bandand thefeatured artists;“Roots”is obviously roots reggae, but it also describes astrong musical rootcoming from the ground.”Although T Rod has played guitar since he was 12 years old, joininga
