Jamm Balaya Caribbean Band from Tampa, FL

Jamm Balaya conjures up "heat and spice" and that's what you get from this dynamic steel pan duo. Their specialty is island music and they perform various types of popular music with an island beat. These tunes can be relaxing and soothing or pulsating and invigorating. Listening and swaying, you will be transported to a quiet moonlit beach or the midst of a colorful island carnival. Jimmy is a jazz guitarist with decades of experience on the New York dance hall and recording scene. Joanne also has a long and varied musical background. She is a Music Festival winner and has done extensive background and solo work. Together in the "Big Apple" Jimmy and Joanne led several jazz and top-40 groups over a period of ten-plus years. Relocating to Tampa in the eighties, the couple restructured by down-sizing the group and focusing on island music. Also, Joanne now enhances her vocals by playing the steel pan. For more than a dozen years Jamm Balaya has been heating up the opening festivities of the Gasparilla celebration at the Tampa Yacht and Country Club, by performing while party-goers don pirate costumes and prepare for a day of carousing. And, for the past eight seasons, the duo has attracted hundreds of satisfied viewers to three daily shows at the Cafe Caribe in the Florida State Fair. Jamm Balaya is popular at area resorts, hotels and college campuses as they provide lively entertainment for conventions, weddings, banquets, pool parties and more. They have also produced a CD of Christmas music done in island style and a second CD of the material they perform at the Florida State Fair.