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Steelpan Jazz Sold Out Saturday 16th

June 19, 2007 1 Comment

Steelpan Jazz at the House of Jazz at Lincoln Center featuring headliners Robert Greenidge (pan), Ralph MacDonald (percussion) and David Rudder (voice) has come and gone. This event, organised by Abstract Entertainment Inc. (AEI), took place in Lincoln Center’s Allen Room in New York this past Saturday, June 16 to a full house crowd, sold out to overflowing – outside.

Each of these top draw artists performed select compositions from their extensive repertoires to highlight the steelpan since this was a celebration of the one instrument to have been invented in the twentieth century, and most importantly, in the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

According to the website of “When Steel Talks,” MacDonald performed the unforgettable “Just the Two of Us.” (I still own a well preserved cassette recording of that track from Grover Washington Jr.’s Winelight album (1980).

Greenidge was the pan soloist to carry the torch for the pan. However, he was admirably supported by a cast of Caribbean Jazz icons in the persons of Nicholas Brancker (bass), Arturo Tappin (sax), Etienne Charles (trumpet), Scott Galt (guitar) among other notable extra-regional practitioners of the Jazz music genre, Buddy Williams (drums) and Onaje Allan Gumbs (keyboards).

Read the official press release on Steelpan Jazz at this link>

If exposed to or aware of any independent reviews of Steelpan Jazz, do share in Comments

Filed under Barbados, Barbados Jazz, British Virgin Islands, BVI, Caribbean Jazz, Jazz, Jazz Music, Life, Music, Pan Jazz, Steelpan, Tortola, Trinidad, Trinidad Jazz Tagged with Acoustic Revolution, Etienne Charles, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz saxophone, Nicholas Brancker, Ralph McDonald, Robert Greenidge, Scott Galt

About M. Minchie Israel
I have a modest artistic background in the arts, especially in the realms of poetry, theater and radio. I have done a bit of acting as well as writing and directing for the stage before dropping out upon leaving the Caribbean a few moons ago. I am hoarding volumes of crudely-bound poetry dating back to my teenage years. Publishing any of them is not on the cards...yet. I spent a total of seven years moonlighting as a general programming announcer and Jazz jockey, primarily on DBS Radio in the Commonwealth of Dominica back in the eighties and the very early nineties. I did a short stint on Kairi FM in Dominica in the late nineties while "in transit" between Canada, where I completed a five-year programme of study, to the British Virgin Islands where I currently reside. Jazz and Other Improvisations (coincidentally, J.O.I. are my daughter's initials; her name is Jazmin) have become the theme of my life outside of work. I study the history of Jazz with a passion, more so about Caribbean-Jazz and Jazz musicians of Caribbean descent. I spin nothing but Jazz in the CD player, really. Jazz is what excites the pants off me. However, I love listening to national radio stations from the Caribbean and the Americas if for no other reason but to keep a tab on popular musical trends happening in our region and the world over. After all, Jazz musicians are notorious for incorporating pop music sensibilities into Classic Jazz and Blues structures. The Woodshed is meant to attract Caribbean-Jazz artists, Jazz artists born of the West Indies, Jazz producers and programmers, Jazz writers and curators...and of course YOU the aficionado. If you fall into any one of these categories, you really need to reach out to us at The Woodshed to learn about our goals and objectives to build a loose network of Shedders dedicated to sharing every piece of Caribbean-Jazz news there is from around the Jazzosphere. Knock on Wood at the Primary Menu at the top of this blog for all of our Contact information. Please send us a note or an email to let us know that you wish to have a key to the Woodshed. Now...go forth and spread The Jazz.