A heck of a week of Jazz in Trinidad and Tobago (updated May 10) →

Caribbean Latin Jazz band, CANEFIRE played TOBAGO JAZZ EXPERIENCE, APRIL 25

April 25, 2009 Leave a comment

Canada Cuba Trinidad

update 3 on April 25

The Arbor Room, Hart House, University of Toronto was the venue of a free concert on March 12 given by Canefire, a seven piece band featuring pan men, Jeremy Ledbetter, and Marc Mosca from Trinidad; Cubans Alexis Baró on trumpet, drummer Chendy León, Alberto Suarez on percussion and bassist Yoser Rodriguez; and Canadian saxophonist Braxton Hicks.

The previous weekend (Saturday, March 07), the band was at the Millpond Centre at 106 Victoria St. W., Alliston, Canada where, as simcoe.com has reported, “Canefire brought the house down with a blend of saxophone and steel drums, with an infectious rhythm of the island beat.”

Canefire’s sound is grounded on Trinidadian Calypso, Latin, Jazz and Blues. No wonder since Ledbetter has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba.

His experience in and with Trinidad has seen him share the stage with all-out Calypso bands and the calypsonian, David Rudder – with whom he has a seven-year working relationship as his pianist, musical director, arranger and producer – and artists like Ralph McDonald and Andy Narell who have found a happy medium at the Calypso-Jazz junction.

Jeremy Ledbetter, who can now be said to be at home there too, earned himself a degree in Jazz performance from York University in Toronto.

Canefire goes back to Trinidad off and on and was originally scheduled to return to the Caribbean in April for the Tobago Jazz Festival, now deceased. They in fact made the trip on April 25, but to the replacement festival called Tobago Jazz Experience.

The band was on the same Latin Jazz stage with Trinidad’s Élan Parlé led by pianist Michael Low Chew Tung aka Ming, and Mungal Patasar.

Canefire has one CD on the market, a 2005 recording of original material called Kaiso Blue. Narell is in there as a guest. But that was then; this is now: The Andy Narell Group, steel pan Caribbean Jazz, 8 p.m. April 3, UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium; and April 22, Pan Jazz in d Yard, Tobago Jazz Experience with Liam Teague and others.

Filed under Canadian Jazz, Caribbean Jazz, Cuban Jazz, Entertainment, Jazz, Jazz Music, Latin Jazz, Music, Pan Jazz, Steelpan, Tobago, Trinidad, Trinidad Jazz Tagged with Alberto Suarez, Alexis Baró, Andy Narell, Élan Parlé, Braxton Hicks, Calypso-Jazz, Canefire, Chendy León, David Rudder, Jeremy Ledbetter, Liam Teague, Marc Mosca, Michael Low Chew Tung aka Ming, Mungal Patasar, Pan Jazz in d Yard, Ralph McDonald, Tobago Jazz Experience, Yoser Rodriguez

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.