Barbados Jazz Festival: 0 – Jazz’N Barbados: 1 — A Caribbean Context (updated with NATIONNews, January 27)

BARBADOS

First published on January 19, 2011; updated, January 22, 2011

Heard of the cancellation of the Barbados Jazz Festival, did you?  Yes indeedy, the BJF crashed and burned on re-entering the 2011 Jazzosphere.  The producers, GMR International Tours Inc. headed by Gilbert Rowe laid the blame gingerly on the festival’s main supporter, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) for not being forthcoming.  But reports are that there was a conflict between GMR and the BHTA, which resulted in the eventual deferment of the festival. Whatever the problem – and we will go deeper into that – the festival is off for 2011.

Then there was the Cayman Islands Jazz Fest.  That one too hit the dirt.  Well, we understand Cayman’s position, having been dealt a serious blow by Hurricane Tomas, the downturn in the economy worldwide and the pressures being applied on Offshore Banking by the United States and most recently a former banking executive who worked in the Cayman Islands.

The Jazz Showcase in the BVI has also suffered, but for different reasons. Since past President of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, Dr. Michael O’Neal, retired from the institution, the “young people” went to the Jazz with a scalpel, succeeding in reducing the offering of three concerts per season to just one.

And In the past few months, the single Jazz station in the Caribbean, WMJX, Trinidad, went off the air.

Add to that the relegation of authentic Jazz in the surviving Jazz Festivals and you have a bleak future for The Jazz if something does not give.

Thankfully, St. Lucia Jazz is staid and is expected to hold fast.  The one year, 2009, when they drifted a little away from The Jazz, they got an earful.  In 2010, they reverted to the old formula. The prospects for St. Lucia Jazz look good.  Fingers crossed.

At this moment in time though, it is the Barbados Jazz Festival that lights up the bulbs at the Shed.

GMR’s Gilbert Rowe sat down with Kaymar Jordan, Editor-in-Chief at the Nation newspaper of Barbados in December to clarify the issues.  This followed the publication of an Official Press Release on the producer’s website. Asked what specific challenges he faced, Rowe placed the blame squarely on the economic recession.

However, that was a hard pill to swallow since in the same breath, Rowe claimed to have “managed to hold on to all our other sponsors,” which implied that it was only the BHTA that hit the skids and could not come up with their percentage of the sponsorship monies.  Either that or the BHTA was just playing hard-ball with Rowe and would not cut him a cheque early enough to give him the six months head start he needed to promote the festival.

In fact, Rowe would have us believe that the latter is true.  But why?  His explanation in the Nation interview was that the BHTA was only prepared to take responsibility for the international marketing of the festival, which they knew to be inadequate for an event the size of the Barbados Jazz Festival. For the matter, the BHTA supported the BJF with a cash infusion all seventeen years since the first edition in 1993.  Rowe made no bones about it; the Barbados Jazz Festival could not survive without tangible support from the BHTA.

And compromising the integrity of the festival by scaling the brand down from an international spectacle to a Caribbean or even Barbadian one was not a viable option for GMR.

The death of the Barbados Jazz Festival thus left a gaping hole in the Barbados Jazz calendar for the month of January 2011.

When a shoe loses a foot, there is always another foot to step in it. Enter Jazz’N Barbados.

Jazz’N Barbados mounted a major coup in drawing some major Caribbean Jazz acts from neighbouring St. Lucia, Trinidad and Venezuela to join their local Barbadian cast for five nights of Jazz, January 12 – 16, mainly in the outdoors.  It was like – how should I put it? – some sort of “Town Hall Jazz,” bringing the sound to the people where they are most comfortable, in De Street,  in De Hall, under De Mango Tree, on De Gap and De Second Street and in ‘De Woods’ (my coinage) of Naniki.  The one night that The Jazz was taken indoors, it was for a traditional concert under the roof of the Frank Collymore Hall in Bridgetown.

Jazz’N Barbados was pulled together by Limelight Inc. within one week – nine days to be exact – after Gilbert Rowe announced the cancellation of the Barbados Jazz Festival.  There to lend a hand was the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Authority (BHTA) that spurned Rowe’s GMR Tours because they would not provide the BHTA with the details of the contracts they were due to sign, presumably with BHTA money.  Some of those funds went instead to Limelight for Jazz’N Barbados.

“…[W]e’ve gotten a lot of logistics support from them…we’ve got a lot of guidance, moral support and a little bit of money.  Not a lot of money, but even the little bit of money that we received made a big difference,” Grady Clarke of Limelight told NationNews Mobile.

And the people trucked to the Mango Tree at Peronne Gap, Worthing, to take in Trinidadian music educator and pianist, Dave Marcellin & Friends at Jazz’N De Street on Wednesday, January 12, 2011.

The Thursday, January 13, was set aside for the sit-down types to savour The Malcolm Griffith Septet with Michael Cheeseman and the ‘Barbalucian’ (Ok, Drakes was born of Barbadian and St. Lucian parents, but lives and practices her art in Barbados) pianist Rhea Drakes and her St. Lucian band at Frank Collymore Hall.

On Friday, January 14, the fans trekked to Mahagony Ridge for Jazz’N De Trees to hear and see Barbadians Roger Gittens Big Band and Friends, saxophonist Arturo Tappin and songstress Rosemary Phillips.  Visiting the Ridge on the night was Trinidadian multi-instrumentalist Michael Boothman whose primary instrument these days is the electric guitar.

The next day, Boothman was ferried to the mecca of live music in Barbados, St. Lawrence Gap.  The name of this event? (You guessed it!)  Jazz’N De Gap.  The date?  Saturday, January 15.

Now, those of us who have been to De Gap are well aware that the live bands hardly ever unplug, taking the night owls through the night, literally to daybreak.  No wonder then that Jazz’N De Gap featured a fat cast that included Barbadian drummer Antonio “Boo” Rudder & Friends, Rudder’s compatriots David “Ziggy” Walcott on his tenor pan and Tappin at Hal’s; Mike Sealy Quartet, Ricky Aimey and Boothman at Paolo’s; the Barbados Community College’s BCC Ensemble featuring Kirk Layne and Reggae Fusion All Stars at the Reggae Lounge.  Returning home, so to speak, for this Jazz action was Trini pianist Raf Robertson.

YVETTE BEST filed this report for NationNews Mobile. We have reproduced it here unedited.

St Lawrence Gap was a jazzy zone Saturday night as Jazz’N Barbados made its fifth stop for the season. The parking lot between Paulo Churrasco Do Brazil and Sweet Potatoes was the central place for Jazz’n De Gap, where patrons gathered to hear some of the finest talent in Barbados and the Caribbean, and the developing talent out of the Barbados Community College. Under mostly clear skies, and with a cool night breeze blowing through, patrons were treated to selections from Boo Rudder and his group, the Ziggy Walcott Band, Raf Robertson and friends and Rickey Aimey and his friends. It was not the original concept where the gap was closed off and music playing from the various establishments and on the street, but fans had a delightful musical treat that took them close to 2 a.m. And for those who still had not had their fill, the vibe continued with a reggae fusion jam in Reggae Lounge with John King and his group.

Clifton Henry of NATIONNews.com also had something to say…

David “Ziggy” Walcott one of the best, if not the best, steel pan player on the island, was met by screams of approval from both locals and visitors.  He did not disappoint.

Songs like Never Too Much by George Benson and Through The Fire soon had everyone in a dancing mood.  Following would be David Rudder’s Bahia Girl, and a Mighty Sparrow medley that included The Lizard, Melda, Drunk And Disorderly, Jean And Dinah and Big Bamboo.

Walcott would eventually rock the street with Rihanna’s current No. 1 selection Only Girl In The World.

There are no more adjectives that can aptly describe Arturo Tappin’s musical genius.  Badd by Michael Jackson, Independent by Neo, Green Light by John Lennon and Roll by Alison Hinds were among his servings  in a most spectacular performance.

Cadogan (on mic), Luther (sax) Photo, Lennox Devonish

The Jazz fans would have had a busy time of it on that Saturday – I can tell you – if they would have had any chance of taking it all in for home-grown C4 Kaiso Jazz Fusion, a quartet from the Barbados Community College (BCC) and a St. Lucian contingent comprising of the Luther Francois Quartet (with Luther’s brother Ricky on drums and Barbadian singer Kellie Cadogan) and Blue Mango, a group of Lucian and Martiniquan musicians, disturbed the peace at the Naniki Amphitheatre of the Lush Life Nature Resort in St. Joseph, Barbados, from 1:00 till 06:30.

YVETTE BEST of NationNews Mobile was on tap and filed this edited report.

The hills, up north, came alive with music as the first day of Jazz At Naniki – A Caribbean Jazz Festival, started in St Joseph… The Luther Francois Quartet, with singer Kellie Cadogan, was among the acts that serenaded the audience…

Actually, Jazz’N Barbados served up a two-day menu of Jazz at Naniki in parallel event with their Jazz’N this and Jazz’N that all over the place. Saturday’s course was the first serving.

Come Sunday, January 16, the Elan Trotman Quintet and Arturo Tappin out of Barbados assembled with Trinidadian bassist David “Happy” Williams for the second go round the Jazz buffet, held within earshot of Naniki Restaurant.

The fanatic who would have imbibed The Jazz at Naniki would then have had to Jazz’N up Second Street, Hole Town, like bats out of hell to catch Trinidadian elder pianist Robertson, Aimey, Walcott, Tappin and Venezuela’s Ernesto’s Salsa Band featuring Trinidad’s Rellon Brown on trumpet.

Now that Jazz’N Barbados has staked a claim for an expanded event in January of next year, it will be interesting to see how it coalesces with a possible return of the Barbados Jazz Festival.

Other resources: Jazz coming to the street, some Jazz’N Barbados artiste profiles

Haiti, We Love You – Pauline Jean and Her Sisters in Jazz too (updated April 05)

Haiti, We Love You

The world now revolves around Haiti as peoples from the four corners of the globe mobilize in response to the tremendous human suffering wreaked upon it by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Central to this outpouring of support is music.  Artists from across all genres have already begun to lend their talents and star power to draw in support, in cash and in kind, for our brothers and sisters who occupy one-third of the island of Hispaniola that they share with the Dominican Republic.

Not to be left out of the loop, Jazz artists are no more swinging their axes, blowing their horns, wielding their sticks, beating their drum heads and exercising their pipes just because, but rather for the cause.

For instance, Haitian Jazz artist Pauline Jean, instead of preparing for her tour to Haiti for the International Festival de Jazz de Port-au-Prince, was otherwise engaged with Project S – “Sisters in Jazz” in putting on a Benefit Concert for Haiti Earthquake Relief.  The Tuesday, January 19 Exclusive that resulted from this collaboration was held at Tutuma Social Club, New York, NY.

Joining Jean were five other lead females, drummer Shirazette Tinnin, bassist Mimi Jones, keyboardist Miki Hayama, saxophonist Camille Thurman and percussionist Paula Green with support from Luis Perdomo on keys and Obed Jean Louis on guitar.

The Pauline Jean Quintet and other Talented Artists United for the Cause, performed at MIZIK POU AYITI/Music For Haiti Benefit Concert on Friday, January 29 at the Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, Brooklyn Public Library.

PAULINE JEAN, Miriam Sullivan (b), Elio Villafranca (p) photos: Gregg Richards

Pauline Jean Quintet performing traditional Haitian folk song YOYO

…and Pauline Jean Quintet performing “Dey/Rasenbleman” (Mourning/Gathering Calls) by Toto Bissainthe (below)

The evening of music in support of relief efforts in Haiti also featured Buyu Ambroise (with Paul Beaudry, Steeve Belvilus and Allan Mednard in the Blues in Red Band), Mozayik, Jean Caze, Markus Schwartz (Tanbou Nan Lakou Brooklyn), Chardavoine, Melanie Charles, The Altino Brothers, Lou Rainone, Tiga Jean Baptiste and more…

All proceeds will be donated to the Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund.

Jean gets back to her charitable ways at il Casale Italian Bar, Belmont, Massachusetts on Monday, March 15  2010 with Her Sisters in Jazz band (Pauline Jean (vocals), Mimi Jones (bass), Shirazette Tinnin (drums), Miki Hayama (keys) and Paula Green (percussion).

Heritage and Heart for Haiti will celebrate the vibrancy and history of Haitian culture through its music and art.  Pauline Jean and the Sistas will perform classic Haitian music while narrating the long-term needs of the Haitian people who have become victim to the devastating earthquake of January 12.

Part proceeds are earmarked for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Canadian flautist Jane Bunnett, who was due to perform at the International Festival de Jazz de Port-au-Prince from this weekend, had a cause of her own to fulfill on January 28, 2010.   Bunnett organized a fundraiser for that day at the Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas St. W, Toronto to, as she told InsideToronto, “…make as much money as we can…to go to Doctors Without Borders.”  Her assemblage comprised of the Spirits of Havana with special guest Hilario Durán and others.

More than that, Bunnett has pledged to do a whole series of such fundraisers for the people of Haiti.   Thus, the same soprano sax that would have wowed the Port-au-Prince Jazz fraternity from January 23-30  sounded a clarion call to Jazz Fans in Toronto to reach out on January 28 and lend their helping hands.

Jane Bunnett has a history with Cuba, which serves as a hub of sorts for her Latin forays.  Several collaborations with Cuban and other Latin musicians have resulted from that relationship. Interestingly, she became inadvertently tied to the Haitian experience through musicians of Haitian origin who migrated to Cuba.

Now we go across the waters to Jamaica for an example of Haitians helping Haitians.  Singer, songwriter and producer JeanPaul Solomonoff, born to a Haitian mother and a Russian Polish Jewish father, performed with Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander at the 2010 Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, Jan. 28th.  All proceeds are destined for the Clinton/Bush Haiti Fund.

JeanPaul teaming up with Alexander was not an ad hoc pairing by any means.  In fact, Alexander appears on JeanPaul’s début single Eyes for You from a forthcoming album entitled Introducing JeanPaul.  The single drops on iTunes on February 14, 2010.  I figure it might well be a Valentine for Haiti.

Heading further south into the Caribbean Sea, Barbadian musician/artists undertook a massive Relief Concert and Telethon on Saturday, January 30 from mid-morning til nightfall.  From first glance, one would think that every single singer of songs and player of instruments were lined up backstage at Farley Hill to touch nerves and coax the goodness out of the pockets of their country folk.

Haiti, Barbados Loves You – Relief Concert and Telethon was an eight-hour marathon featuring 114 local Barbadian artistes and 7 bands.  David Rudder, the special guest for the occasion, was no doubt a must-have on the strength of his “Haiti” apology.

These hundred plus artists ran the gamut of Gospel, R&B/Alternative, Spouge, Reggae/Dancehall, Calypso/Soca and, yes, the Jazz of Kellie Cadogan, Arturo Tappin, Nicholas Brancker and  Marisa Lindsay.

The other women and men of honour are:

• Allison Norville, De Warrior, Hozia Hinds, Kareem Clarke, Lillian Lorde, Mya Daniel, Paula Hinds, Shane Forrester and Sister Marshall from the Gospel field;
• Carolyn Leacock, Dwayne Husbands, Kirk Browne & Strategy, Omar McQuilkin, Philip 7, Ria Borman, Richard Stoute, Rosie Hunte, RubyTech, TC, Toni Norville and Kim Derrick from the R&B/Other Alternative field;
• Kirtorah, Mike Grosvenor, Mike Thompson and Tony Grazette from the Spouge field;
• Albert Olton, Brimstone, Buggy, Danielle, Fully Loaded, LRG, Oracle, Prosperity, Ras Al-I, Seth Billy, Super Ruben, Tabitha, Black-Clay-Soil from the Reggae/Dancehall field;
• Adrian Clarke, Allan Sheppard, Colin Spencer, Edwin Yearwood, Gabby, Grynner, John King, Khiomal, Little Rick, Mikey, Mr. Dale, Natalee, RPB (Red Plastic Bag), Merrymen, AC, Dazzle, Sir Raule from the Calypso/Soca field;

The MCs for the marathon are Ferdinand Nicholls, Peter Coppin, Admiral Nelson, Jamar Browne and Mac Fingall.

From Barbados in the middle of the Lesser Antillean arc, we make a great big loop to the north-western end of the Caribbean region.  We land in the Cayman Islands where the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Grand Cayman organized Cayman’s Jazz musicians for Haiti.

The island’s Grand Old House, on Wednesday, February 03, was ground zero for a silent auction Haiti Relief effort featuring saxophonist Gary Ebanks and Leyannes Valdes, Chris Bowring, Big Eye Squirrel and Cool School.

Swedish Jazz musician Ed Epstien, a friend of the Woodshed Collective from early, has mobilized the Jazz fraternity over there for a Haiti benefit tentatively scheduled for February 13 at Martas Cafe in Lund, Sweden.  Weeks in the making, Ed tells us that “it looks like it is finally going to happen.”  We do hope it does, Ed.

Coming back around from the Caymans, we touch base with the Haiti Community Support (HCS) of the United States Virgin Islands.  The HCS had been active in their support of Haiti for seven years before the earthquake struck and were already in the habit of mounting an annual Fundraiser and Family Fun Day to fund the school that they built, a hot lunch programme for the 200 pupils at that school, a medical clinics that has been treating quake victims from day 3 and water projects.

This year, the HCS held its seventh fundraiser on Sunday, February 21, 2010 at Mt. Victory Camp in Federicksted, St. Croix, not as a one-off event, but with a special mission to raise US$80,000 over the entire year.  This project, called “Eighty for Haiti” will go towards maintaining the clinics over the long run.

Of course, no fundraiser would be complete without music.  So for the Jazz, in came the VI Rhythm Section; for the Quelbe/Fungi/Scratch/Folk (call it what you will), Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, for a swing through Cuban Son, there was Seite Son…and the list goes on.

Show your love to Haiti by lending a hand…

Dominican Marie Claire Giraud for Jamaica Jazz and Blues – and beyond (updated with news on JA Jazz artistes)

Commonwealth of Dominica

updated on February 10, 2009

Dominica has, in the past thirty years, made an indelible mark on Caribbean music, starting with the creation of Cadence-Lypso by Gordon Henderson’s Exile One and Jeff Joseph’s Grammacks International. Ten years after the heyday of Cadence in the 1970’s, keyboard whiz, Cornel ‘Fingers’ Phillip and his WCK Band updated the Cadence genre by fusing the indigenous folk rhythm of the ‘Nature Isle’, Jing Ping, with Cadence to come up with the ever-popular Bouyon.

However, improvisational music has not gained half as much ground on the consciousness of Dominicans and probably never will, Jazz being what it is, a niche genre.  Still for all, there is a cadre of Dominican Jazz musicians who continue to plug away, hoping to build a Jazz scene on the island.

At the forefront of this movement are some of the best musicians Dominica has ever produced: locally based electric bassist Freddie Nicholas, pianist Armstrong James, pannist Athie Martin and the unconquerable vocalist Michelle Henderson (equally at home delivering the modern incarnations of Cadence as she is Jazz) among them.   It need not be said though that all of these artists are well-rounded instrumentalists, as they must be, to survive in the Dominican music business.  Thus, for them, Jazz is a pastime (used loosely), albeit to varying degrees.

However, there are a few outstanding Dominican musicians who ply their trade strictly as Jazz musicians.  Guitarist Cameron Pierre, one of the most notable of them all, operates out of Britain.  Pierre is a Caribbean Jazz icon now, but that is after a lifetime of ‘woodshedding‘.

Then there is budding Jazz singer Marie Claire Giraud.   Giraud is really a classically trained singer whose secondary interests rest in pop music, hip-hop and Jazz.  Jazz would probably take top billing in the second line of interests, if Giraud‘s self-described major influences – Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington – are taken into account. Notwithstanding this, Marie Claire‘s accomplishments seem to rest more heavily on her commitment to blending opera and hip-hop, reggae – and Jazz.

Nonetheless, Jazz has a prominent place in Marie Claire‘s musical lexicon as exemplified by her immersion into the genre.  This brought her to the now defunct Dominican Jazz club called Jazz Walk, a tiny performance space, owned and managed at the time by Armstrong James in Roseau, Dominica. There, she performed the Classic Jazz standards of George Gershwin and Cole Porter.

Additionally, Marie Claire has hosted live TV shows in Dominica, one of which, Jazzlive, featured the best Dominican Jazz musicians on the island.  The objective of that show was to provide the artists with a platform to express their art.

Dominican Jazz singer Marie Claire Giraud (DNO/Edona Jno. Baptiste)

Marie Claire Giraud placed herself front and center on the Caribbean Jazz scene with an appearance Saturday, January 24, 2009 on the small stage at the just concluded Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, accompanied by Jamaican pianist, Dr. Kathy Brown.

Speaking to Dominica News Online beforehand, Marie Claire said her goal was to captivate the Jazz and Blues audience with her melodious voice and leave with them her unique Jazz-Opera slant.  She seemed to have done just that according to Images Newsletter.  Newsletter reported that “Marie Claire delivered stunning vocals..to an appreciative audience of music lovers.”

Marie Claire Giraud for Red Bones Café, Kingston, JA, January 31, 2009

Marie Claire revisited the Jamaican Jazz audience on January 30, 2009 at The Red Bones Blues Café, 21 Braemar Avenue, Kingston 5, Jamaica.  She was once again be accompanied by Dr. Brown on piano.  Show time was at 09:00 pm JA time/10:00 pm Eastern on the night.

Brown followed Giraud with a show of her own on January 25 & 26 at the Ritz Carlton in Montego Bay.

In February (19th) and March (21st), she entertains at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

Then it is off to Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands for a March 25th date.

Brown has one CD on the market, a 2007 recording entitled “Mission: A Musical Journey.”

Of course, and thankfully so, Dr. Brown was not the only Jamaican Jazz musician on the Jazz and Blues roster. Absent for the most part, non-Jamaican Caribbean Jazz artistes.

Anyhow, it was good that the organisers put Jamaican talent on the secondary stage to entertain during the band changes up on the main stage.  The list reads like this: E-Park Band, Karen Smith and Michael Sean Harris.

E-Park Band

The E-Park big band is a three-year old all-star outfit comprising of a rhythm section, brass and woodwinds and vocals.  The band roster tends to fluctuate, but Musical Director Peter Ashbourne fields a minimum of five rhythm section players and a six-piece brass and reeds lineup.

This band attracts some of the biggest names in Jamaica going back thirty years.

Currently, the group is Peter Ashbourne (piano and conducting), left; Hopeton Williams and Vivian Scott (trumpets); Romeo Gray and Calvin Cameron alternating on trombone; Ian Hird (alto saxophone and flute); Nicholas Laraque and Everton Gayle alternating on tenor saxophone and flute; Dean Fraser (baritone and alt saxophones); Desmond ‘Desi’ Jones (drums); Glen Brownie and Michael Fletcher alternating on bass; Dwight Pinkney (guitar); Othneil Lewis (keyboards); and vocalists Karen Smith and Michael Sean Harris;

Ashbourne, a Berklee College of Music graduate is presently a lecturer at the School of Music – Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica, has been variously the leader, arranger and pianist with ‘Ashes’ a Jamaican pop-Jazz band that acts principally as a studio band.  As such he has commanded the keys in the studio for Paul Simon, Manu Dibango, Eric Gayle and David Rudder.

Deserving a special mention are Karen Smith and Michael Sean Harris both of whom fronted the E-Park Band at Jamaica Jazz and Blues.

Karen Smith: earned herself the title "Songbird of Jamaica," and the Order of Distinction (OD), officer class for memorable performances as an entertainer over her twelve year career.

Michael Sean Harris: graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston USA, Harris acquired a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Synthesis/Contemporary Writing, with voice as his main instrument

C’mon, are we having a Jazz Festival or what?

We may have to change the name of this site to “Broken Jazz Record Collective” because we keep saying the same thing over and over again with regards to some Caribbean Jazz Festivals.

Here is the problem: The blatantly misleading marketing surrounding the Tobago Jazz Festival is legendary and needs not attract any more diatribes, certainly not from this Collective.

The Cayman Islands Jazz Festival back in December may not have been as disdainful of Caymanian Jazz artistes as Tobago Jazz was earlier on in 2008, but we fail to see how Cayman Jazz can be considered to be worth much salt when the producers ignore Caribbean Jazz artistes for the most part, not to mention their own.

Jazz Festival producers around the Caribbean should take a page out of the book of the Martinique International Jazz Festival 2008 for example.

Now, with the Barbados and Jamaica Jazz Festivals looming, we do not yet know what to make of either of them. We have been unable, in spite of our best efforts to figure out what value the Barbados Jazz Festival will be to the Barbadian Jazz scene. Also, we have no biographies to share of the Bajan talents to be featured when the festival comes on stream, January 12 – 18, 2009.

But unlike Cayman and Tobago, Barbados has promoted its Caribbean content in Hilario Durán, Raf Robertson and Errol Ince. That though does not negate the essential argument being made here in favour of the Barbadian acts.

The Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival is somewhat different. We at the Woodshed are confident that there will be a considerable presence of authentic Jamaican Jazz artistes in play from January 22 to 24, 2009. However, no mention is being made of them in the promotional packages thus far, which is disheartening.

The closest Jamaica Jazz and Blues comes to the real thing is Cuba’s Los Van Van. But that is not close enough for our liking.

What all this means is that the Barbadian and Jamaican Jazz artistes are being relegated to the base level of a footnote.

While all genuine Caribbean Jazz fans get a thrill out of watching the big-name Jazz icons, the downer is not having any prior expectations regarding the very artists, our Caribbean artistes, whom we depend on for entertainment all year round.

If we go to a festival outside of the Caribbean, we always yearn to hear the fusions of indigenous rhythms, whatever they might be, with Classic Jazz.

Similarly, we in the English-speaking Caribbean should be sharing our fusions – Calypso, Reggae or what have you – with the thousands of visitors who visit the Caribbean, maybe not just for the Jazz, but the Jazz anyway. Therefore, it is important to foster that interest; hence the local acts ought to be marketed as heavily as the international ones. Seriously.

In the entertainment industry, name recognition is important. We need to know who the local Caribbean Jazz musicians are that we are likely to see when we travel to a festival. Without these names, we have no real incentive to book a flight. Really.

This is our problem with the Barbados Jazz Festival and the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival. The incentive to travel is insufficient to get us off our lazy couch. What about you?

Cayman Jazz Fest 08, here and now

Cayman Islands

update 3, December 05, 2008

Cayman Jazz Fest 08 (version number 5) sounded off again on Grand Cayman on December 04 and will run through December 06.  J-Fans have been flocking to Pedro St. James and Pageant Beach for a serving of the typical BET J fare of Classic and Smooth Jazz, R&B with some variations, and of course, Jazz with Caribbean inflections.

Making the rounds of the main stages are Adult Contemporary Jazz vocalist Anita Baker; Smooth Jazz saxophonist/bassist Gerald Albright; the eclectic Cassandra Wilson; and 23 year-old bass phenom Esperanza Spalding, among others.

Without an official outfest, the band Mainstream and singer KK Alese lead the pack of opening acts at Pedro and Pageant.  The other local acts who have been signed up for the festival are Jonathan Ebanks (guitar), Impulz (show band) and Stuart Wilson (guitar, vocals) & Love Culture.

KK Alese

No stranger to the Cayman Jazz Fest, KK Alese will bring to bear her unique fusion of Nu-Jazz in the vein of Jill Scott, the quirkiness of Nina Simone, the adult contemporary stylings of Baker, the classic soul of Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin with the Reggae of Jimmy Cliff.

 

 

And the influences do not stop there.  Nor will the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alese performs on the final night, Saturday, December 06, with bassist Esperanza Spalding, pop instrumentalist Norman Brown and Baker at the top of the bill. Also on this night is the blue-eyed soul of Robin Thicke.

Mainstream

On opening night, Thursday, December 04, at Pedro St. James, Mainstream ushered in Albright and Wilson, with Terrance Howard as the undercard.

 

December 05, one would have dressed casually for the heaviest offering of Caymanian talent – on any one night – in Impulz, Jonathan Ebanks and Stuart Wilson & Love Culture.

Then work your way as far forward as possible for the start of the Pageant Beach Pop Fest 08 featuring Algebra, Angie Stone and Michael Bolton. (Disclaimer: I must have been high on something when I typed this last line.)

Previous Post: Will the St. Croix and Cayman Jazz Fests benefit the islands’ Jazz musicians? 

Cayman Gary Ebanks wins award for Artistic Excellence

Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands’ Jazz-oriented saxophonist Gary Ebanks of such bands as Intransit, The Gary Ebanks Quartet/Trio and his new outfit Triggerfish, landed an award for Artistic Excellence at the Cayman National Cultural Foundation (CNCF) annual awards ceremony held on Thursday, June 26, 2008.  Ebanks’ award was in recognition for his work at developing the Jazz genre and his own personal growth as a musician in the British Dependent Territory.

Ebanks joined a host of awardees in the fields of dance, theatre, Art Education and Visual Arts.  Other awards given were the Heritage Awards for traditional music and writing, the Cultural Heritage Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of Caymanian Cultural Heritage, the Volunteer of the Year Award in part for Language Arts, the Sponsor Award and the Chairman’s Award for support given to the Cultural Foundation.

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Previous Post: What’s the word on Cayman’s Jazz talent? None, really!

What’s the word on Cayman’s Jazz talent? None, really!

                  The Cayman Islands Jazz Festival is the epitome of what is wrong with some Jazz Festivals in the Caribbean.  I complained last year about the Plymouth Jazz Festival in Tobago and St. Croix’s Blue Bay Jazz Festival, festivals that did not bother to profile their local Jazz artists who they put on the bills. 

In the case of the Tobago Jazz Festival, the debate was more about how gay Elton John is and how he would destroy the moral fibre of Trinidad and Tobago rather than about the value and integrity of the very artists that the Jazz Festival is supposed to nurture.

Cayman Jazz did better than either Plymouth Jazz or St. Croix’s Blue Bay Jazz Festival in this respect.  At least, the Cayman organisers put their local Jazzers under the spotlight during the promotional campaign for the festival and on the center stages at the Westin Casaurina Resort and at Pageant Beach, Grand Cayman.  So much so, Shomari Scott, Deputy Director of Tourism, International Marketing was moved to express the pride that he felt when considering how well the Caymanian Jazz units stood up against the impressive international line up that included the likes of Monty Alexander and Mike Phillips – fresh from the Anguilla Tranquility Jazz Fest – and the Jazz powerhouses in the persons of Dianne Reeves and Alex Bugnon.  Scott said this to caymannetnews.com: “Each of the international artistes gave an incredible performance, however the highlight was watching our local talent hold their own alongside the big names.”

Unfortunately, that was pretty much it as far as an exposé of the local Caymanian Jazz talent who performed at the November to December Jazz Festival was concerned.

So as far as I am aware, having researched the Cayman Jazz Fest vigorously for the past two months, the Cayman Jazz musicians got little more than lip service in the mainstream media.  All of the gushing was for Brian McKnight and to a lesser extent saxophonist Mike Phillips.

But as for K K Alese?  Nothing to speak of.  Gary Ebanks Quartet + 2?  Zilch!  Triple Play?  Plus mal!! (that means “worse still” in French)

Now if the mainstream media or the blogging community do not fly the flags of local Caribbean Jazz artists – or all artists in general – I do not know who will.