ABOUT Magic Flute
Born Joshia Beckford in May Pen, Clarendon to musician parents Janet Denton, harmony singer, and Lascelles “Guitsie” Beckford, lead singer/guitarist and founding father of the Crucial Vibes Band. While growing up at McCorner, Palmers Cross, Clarendon, the talented scion received the moniker Magic Flute from his older brother.
Heavily influenced by both parents who were singers, young Magic Flute started writing songs at the tender age of eight.
Ultimately Magic’s first recording was at age thirteen on the Daddy Gone Riddim for a producer named Laurie Stafsnes in 2006 titled Daddy Gone. Daddy Gone was written to pay tribute to Magic’s father, who passed away. A year before his father’s death, Magic, along with his mother and siblings, recorded songs on the Riddim.
At age sixteen, Magic migrated to Kingston with his brother to follow his passion; there, he found himself spending a significant amount of time in a studio. While in Kingston, Magic recorded a song for a producer by the name of Keron, however, his time in Kingston was short-lived due to the untimely death of the producer, so it was back to Palmers Cross.
While never giving up, Magic continued to write music; eventually, he met another producer named Ryan Singh, who had a label called Mobys. Magic’s career with the label lasted around eight years, and during that time did the Gideon Warrior mixtape and also released several singles. While at Mobys, Magic was introduced to Dave “Macten,” who produced the single called Weh Dem a Go Do on the Soulmate Riddim.
As we fast forward to a couple of years, Magic Flute later says in an interview, “When I reunited with Macten, I was at an indecisive point in my life/career and the direction I wanted to go because nothing seemed to work. On a phone call one day, Macten told me this, and I will never forget after I told him I was going to be a laborer. He said to me, Laborer? Fam if yuh couldn’t sing mi woulda say gwaan, but yah big singer so stay right deh so, mi a go help yuh get the ting together“ that was October 2019. After the conversation with Macten, Magic asked him to send some Riddims; once he did, that spawned the 2020 release of the song, Dancing With The Devil.
Macten surrounded Magic with a superb team consisting of his son David “Spanky” Luckain, Sir Owen “Bassie” Renalls, Marvin “Wacko “ Jackson, Ricky “Madman” Myrie, and Michael “2000” Williamson, to name a few.
Presently Magic Flute is a top 10 finalist in the Jamaica Festival Song Competition 2022, with a song titled I’m a Proud Jamaican. The song has an old school mento feel, mixed with a little dancehall, as Magic would say “mixed like lemonade”.
To date, the team has recorded over thirty songs; so far, only four have been released, and are slowly picking up. Magic’s latest music video release has a unique twist to the Frank Sinatra song titled That’s Life, which is captivating audiences globally.