On Tuesday, August 12, Livré, meaning free singing in Portuguese, performed at Manhattan’s Montana Studios before a crowd of gospel lovers, which included none other than music legend and Keys’ manager Jeff Robinson.
Following the performance the group was presented with the contracts for their new deal with MBK Entertainment and Prodigy Management Group.
The group’s manager, Reverend Roger Hambrick, who also works with brother/sister team Conrad and Clarissa Robinson, said that while the signing wasn’t a surprise, as Livré began recording the week before, the performance itself was one to remember. His charges agree.
“When I got on stage it was so overwhelming to see so many people there and enjoying what we do,” the group’s eldest member, 25-year-old André Plaskett, recalled. “I was like, ‘Wow,’ that was a venture I’d never had before.”
The group’s opportunity for success began years ago when Robinson met Hambrick at the Bronx Mass Choir.
Robinson was a young songster at the time with a passion to make music, while Hambrick’s musical desires led him to direct the choir for the past 22 years.
The two reunited last year when the Bronx Mass Choir proudly celebrated its 25th anniversary. Coincidently, another young group of talent, Livré, entered the picture and quickly gained Robinson’s attention.
“After Jeff heard our group he loved them so much that he came back again and again and then he decided to sponsor them,” Hambrick explained.
As a Livré supporter, Robinson provided funding for the group to travel and perform in the National Baptist Convention of America for a week in mid June. Hambrick said he also supplied them with $50,000 to help begin their studio work.
But it was their most recent performance that sealed the deal.
After an overwhelming show of support from everyone in attendance, the group officially signed on to the big time music scene backstage.
“So things are really looking good for this little group from the Bronx,” Hambrick said. “This is a really special thing for these kids.”
Hambrick added that he’s increasingly proud of the 13-member group that writes, orchestrates and, up until now, produced all of their own music.
“They’re very talented young people,” he said.
But even more excited than being signed to a label, Plaskett said, is being asked to join an R&B, Hip Hop label. “That’s a miracle in itself,” he joked.
As for his goals, Plaskett said he’d only aim at what he knows Livré can achieve.
He said, “I see this going international because I think the music speaks for itself and I know everyone can be blessed by its message.”
