The week in Caribbean Jazz ending June 29, 2012 – a sampling from the Woodshed

The Week in Caribbean-Jazz – a sampling

The unqualified highlight of the week was the CD launch of Dion Parson & 21st Century Band: “Live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Vol 2” held at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), NY on Wednesday, June 27. The band’s two sets on that night was in fact the start of a five-night residency at Dizzy’s. Their run ends on Sunday, July 01.

The CD release party got under way, not with a live performance, but a panel discussion on “The Origins and Future of Caribbean Jazz” just before the first set on Wednesday. 21st Century Band invited trumpeter Marcus Printup of the JALC Orchestra to be their special guest at the discussion of “the origins of the group’s unique sound, inspired by their Caribbean-African cultural heritage and modern American jazz.” Printup is appearing with 21st Century throughout their stay at Dizzy’s.

Fans were delighted to experience the band live online on Thursday, June 29 in HD quality. JALC streamed the scheduled 09:30 in full. The Woodshed will publish a review of the concert here shortly.

21st Century Band is Dion Parson (drums), Ron Blake (sax), Marcus Printup (trumpet), Reuben Rogers (bass), Carlton Holmes (piano), Victor Provost (steel pan) and Alouine Faye (percussion).

The Wall Street Journal writes in its June 29, 2012 paper that their “…book juxtaposes Caribbean treatments of jazz classics (like “Seven Steps to Heaven,” heard on their album, not coincidentally recorded live at Dizzy’s) with jazz treatments of calypso (“St. Thomas”) and reggae (Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”). 

Experienced through the band’s bright rhythms and vivid tonal palette, the 21st century looks and sounds like the best time to live.”

21st Century Band, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola June 2012

Other notable performances were Ebe Gilkes Trio at Waterfront Café on the Careenage in Bridgetown, Barbados on Tuesday, June 26 and Courtney Pine at the Sweet Sixteen, St. Kitts Music Festival at Warner Park Stadium, Basseterre on Friday, June 29. The Courtney Pine band was Pine (saxophone), Cameron Pierre (guitar), Robert Fordjour (drums), Omar Puente (violin), Darren Taylor (double bass).

This is what Toni Frederick of WinnFM thought about Courtney Pine at Sweet Sixteen:

St. Kitts Music Festival: Night Two

“By the time U.K.’s premier jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine and friends took [to] the stage, the grounds were packed from the front of the stage to the VIP stands.

The charismatic Pine stole the audience’s heart when he shared with them, that he had attended the St. Kitts Music Festival for years, since its days at the Fort Thomas grounds dreaming that someday he would be on the stage.

“Tonight, my dream came true,” he told the crowd.

Pine…presented a crowd-thrilling and eclectic set, hitting notes with his soprano sax that had the audience gasping.  He also introduced them to the masterly musicianship of Cuban violinist Omar Puentes, who made the instrument sing and  the crowd burst into applause.“

Otherwise, there was Brownman Ali, the busiest Toronto Jazzfest musician, according to CBC Canada, continuing his jaunt around his city, sitting in on a Modern Jazz set with Strange Attractors at Cherry St. Restaurant on Monday, June 25 and a Latin Jazz one with Arecibo, Friday, June 27 at Winchester  in Cabbagetown; and leading his own Cruzao Latin Jazz Trio at Poetry Jazz Cafe on Augusta Avenue, Wednesday; and the Brownman Akoustic Trio at Winchester on Thursday.

Brownman’s compatriot Mikhail Salcedo was not half as busy, but he was busy enough on Tuesday, June 26 at a JazzQuartersTT presentation of the Mikhail Salcedo & The Salcedo Quintet at La Casa de Ibiza, 163 Tragarete Rd., Woodbrook, Trinidad. Pannist Salcedo stretched The Salcedo Quintet along a gauntlet that lead to the transformation of “Bacchanalist” into a Jazz/R&B hybrid and other “world fusion” interpretations that involved the leader wielding 4 pan sticks and playing the piano (on Bacchanalist) and his cohort supporting him on tabla, conga and electric sitar (Dean Williams).  The most impressionable of them all, as listed on Nigel Campbell’s Facebook Timeline, were Chick Corea’s “Spain,” Ray Holman’s “Memory of Your Smile” and, well, “Bacchanalist.”