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Dominica’s Shades of Green, bring The Jazz to light

November 21, 2011 1 Comment

DOMINICA

Catching up on The Jazz in most Caribbean festivals nowadays can be quite the juggling act. Either it is buried somewhere in the middle of the roster or the bands are “disposed” of at the top of the schedule before the fans start showing up in earnest. To be fair, so to the modern and indigenous dance troupes and the “Dub Poets” at Creole in the Park, Commonwealth of Dominica in the week leading up to the World Creole Music Festival.

A tidbit of Jazz was slipped into the four-day event between midday and 05:00 pm on October 25, 2011. The lucky souls were Shades of Green, a Dominican band which has been part of the Jazz revival in the Nature Isle.

I got to the Botanic Gardens ahead of time not to miss the performance of this band, which I had only heard about but never seen live, braving the inclement weather and the muddy conditions resulting from days of torrential showers.

Fortunately, on this particular afternoon, the umbrellas could well have been left tied up or bagged as Shades, dressed all in black, broke through the murmur with a mind-awakening piece drenched, not in rain, but in Mazouk. Great! After all, it was Independence time and everyone was expected to eat creole, talk creole, dress up in madras, dance the quadrille and bélé, tell the unbelievably tall tales in the ‘kont‘ tradition, listen to and play recorded Jing ping music, Cadence-lypso and Bouyon music…and, yes, take in The Jazz spiced up with creole rhythms.

I am being carried away here…

Quanti Bomani

That opening song was all the creole Jazz Shades of Green would play. They quickly turned to what they are probably most comfortable doing, Smooth-Jazz. But theirs was less clichéd than expected mainly because of the addition of rock guitar and the straight-ahead tenor saxophone of fleeting guest, Yusufu Quanti Bomani, the Dominican Jazz troubadour visiting from the US.

Still in this edgy vein, Shades presented a curious composition called “Arise,” a composition with a funky back beat, bridged by Salsa and Latin sensibilities underneath a lead guitar reminiscent of Carlos Santana.

The band cooled down the pressure by bringing on the wonderful Tiffany to do my one-time radio theme song, “Smooth Operator” and “Route 66.”

To close, Shades of Green completely transformed “My Favorite Things” into a Jump-Blues romp setting the stage beautifully for the rest of the Creole in the Park acts to follow.

Filed under Caribbean Jazz, Commonwealth of Dominica, Dominican Jazz, Dominican Music, Jazz, Jazz Music, Music Tagged with Creole in the Park, Shades of Green, Tiffany, Yusufu Quanti Bomani

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.

One Response to Dominica’s Shades of Green, bring The Jazz to light

Ras Mo Moses says:

December 4, 2011 at 1:35 PM

Minchie, thank you for a wonderful review of the Dominican based band, Shades of Green at Creole In The Park. The band is versatile and are really creating an original sound by treating the standards like a Caribbean recipe, by dabbling into these various rhythms & flavors of Latin, World & Francophone Creole and even rock, pop & soul. The band has a talented line up of musicians especially the multi-instrumentalist Ross Leblanc who I think is the band leader and plays keyboards & guitar among other instruments.

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