St. Lucia Jazz 2011 is on…updated May 07

ST. LUCIA

Now, it is on to St. Lucia Jazz…

St. Lucia Jazz is off and running again.  That sun did not, however, rise in the east; rather it came up on the fringe located to the South of St. Lucia, at Laborie and Vieux Fort.

As reported here, that was not the original plan.  Bad weather forced Jazz in the South to push back its first event on Saturday, April 30 by one day. Thus, their Sunday, May 01 show at the Coconut Bay Resort and Spa in Vieux Fort shared the starting line with Jazz on the Beach, the Beachfront of Royal by Rex, and the Fire Grill Restaurant and Lounge Bar.

An all-St. Lucian lineup led by the premier Lucian saxophonist and Caribbean Jazz icon, Luther François, rang in The Jazz at the Jazz on the Beach. Tailing off behind Francois’ conga line were the likes of Blues guitarist Robert ‘Zi’ Taylor among others – Stacy Charles & Phaze Band, 4th World, Pantime Steel Band and Teddyson John.  Luther François could be seen again at Carellie Jazz – in the park on May 02.

Over at the Fire Grill on May 01 was the Derek Yard Project together with a lapo kabwit (goat skin) drum ensemble. Jazz on the Grill is a three-day fringe event, which ends on May 03.

Boo Hinkson & Friends manned the Fire Grill on Monday, May 02; Zi & the Vibe Tribe served up the menu on Tuesday, May 03.

Boo Hinkson doubled the fun, again and again.  Firstly, he was at the J Q Charles Shopping Mall on Tuesday, May 03 during Jazz Rhythms @ Rodney Bay Mall; the Derek Walcott Square in Castries had him early afternoon Wednesday, May 04; then at sundown on that same day, the St. Lucia Golf Club received him in a collaboration with Roger Eckers.

Hinkson’s lunchtime appearance at Derek Walcott Square for Jazz on the Square on Wednesday sandwiched him between St. Lucia’s E’vion, which had as its special guest, the award-winning Barbadian singer Kellie Cadogan. Cadogan was voted Barbados’ 2010 Jazz Artiste of the Year.  This marked Cadogan’s second consecutive visit to St. Lucia Jazz, having performed with Rupert Lay and Red Clay last year.  The Derek Yard Project was the other act on the Golf Club bill, dubbed Jazz on the Green.  

Lay was himself on the Square the following day, Thursday, May 05.  That Thursday action included Trinidad and Tobago’s Elan Parle, the St. Lucia School of Music Orchestra and Alibi.  (Alibi: Teddison and Francis John, and Richard Payne)

Jazz on the Square shut up shop for another year on Friday, May 06 at which time St. Lucian guitarist Harvey Millar played in the middle of a three-band bill.   

The leader of Elan Parle, Michael Low Chew Tung aka Ming mentioned on his Facebook page Tuesday that the band would be flying in to St. Lucia on Wednesday and with them would be guitarist Clifford Charles.  By the way, Ming and Charles’ bands just played separate sets on closing night, Sunday, May 01, at Tobago Jazz Experience.

The Fire Grill stayed lit through Thursday, May 05, thanks to Alibi.  Guitarist Carl Gustave and the Cali Kats performed there on the Wednesday, May 04.  

The Black Ants Band, a faction of the St. Lucia School of Music Orchestra, did Tea Time Jazz at 03:00pm in La Place Carenage on Wednesday while Barbara Cadet’s Sisterhood held it down on Thursday.

  

The one-day only Jazz on the Pier – Pointe Seraphine Duty Free Shopping Complex – outfest is actually a three-segment marathon that started at 03:00 Friday afternoon with a Warm Up Segment of steelpan music and ended with what was presumed to be an advertisement for St. Lucia’s 2011 Carnival.  

The bachannal was tempered by a Jazz Segment from 04:00pm till 08:00pm.  All of the acts for this show – Harvey Millar, E’Vion featuring Kellie Cadogan, Rob Zi Taylor and Luther Francois – were making comebacks, having played at various locations during the first week of St. Lucia Jazz.

MAIN STAGE

For some, St. Lucia Jazz is really bracketed by the last five nights at The Gaiety Rodney Bay (two nights) and Pigeon Island National Park.  

Gaiety opened its doors on Wednesday, May 04 to Allison Marquis and Eclectic Pan Jazz, Regina Carter and Ledisi. A former member of Third Eye out of St. Lucia, Marquis has performed with Andy Narell and the Bernard Brothers of Martinique.   He has collaborated with folks like Harvey Millar and recorded with his countryman Emerson Nurse, Barbadian pianist Adrian Clarke – recently deceased – and Michael Boothman of Trinidad and Tobago.  Marquis’ last appearance at St. Lucia Jazz was in 2009.

On Thursday, May 05, Augustin “Jab” Duplessis was on tap.  Jab Duplessis was, like Marquis, a member of Third Eye.  Jab toured independently with the West Indies Jazz Band of Luther Francois and otherwise performed with the Bernard Brothers, Fourplay and Earth Wind and Fire.

Currently, he is working on a solo project that will fuse Caribbean rhythms and traditional Jazz. Jab Duplessis returned to St. Lucia Jazz after an eight-year absence.

St. Lucia Jazz 2010, more than just Jazz

St. Lucia

Some time ago, Iguane Xtet announced a new show for Vieux-Fort on May 04, 2010 at Coconut Bay Resort & Spa as part of the Jazz in the South outfest of St Lucia Jazz. Jazz in the South opened on Sunday, May 02 with a free concert at the Rudy John Beach Park, Laborie with the Wendell Richards Quartet (Mahurney Augier (keyboards), Ron Louis (bass) and drummer Herman Hercules) and Tropix (Michael Seraphine and Shanon Pinel on vocals, Ezra Joseph on bass and keyboardist Shomari Maxwell) of St. Lucia, Dobet Gnahoré, Ivory Coast and Martiniquan band, Bamboolaz. The paid concerts were from May 03 – 05 at Coconut Bay in Vieux Fort.

Jazz in the South has taken on a new image this year with a formula spanning four days including a free beach concert (Sunday, May o2) in the village of Laborie followed by three concerts at the Coconut Bay Resort and Spa, Vieux Fort, May 3, 4 and 5.  The Festival also offered master classes for musicians.

The formula may be new, but the emphasis is still the same, Caribbean Jazz but with a welcome foray into the land of the Metal Zouk of Bamboolaz, the headliners for the May 02 concert.

The program is dedicated to Haiti and the musicians of St. Lucia.

Jazz in the South, autonomous as it is from St. Lucia Jazz, is actually hosted some Haitian Jazz greats in the Mushy Widmaier Sextet – Widmaier is a founder of the group Zéklè and Thurgot Théodat, a saxophonist and composer who has performed elsewhere in the Caribbean,  at the Festival de Jazz de Pointe à Pitre, two years ago.

The Mushy Widmaier Sextet had their play on Monday, May 03.  Opening for Widmaier was the pianist Rhea Drakes Jazz Quartet while Théodat had his say on Wednesday, May 05 with the JATT All-Star Ensemble of Trinidad and Tobago.

Théodat busied himself  with two Master Classes in Vieux Fort and Castries on May 03 and 04.  The first, on May 03, was for music teachers in Vieux Fort; the second was at the School of Music in Castries with members of the school’s Jazz band.  The theme of both these classes was the connection of Haitian Voodoo music to Modern Jazz. (gather.com)

The JATT is a quintet made up of the biggest names in Trinidad Jazz: pianist Clive Zanda, trumpeter Etienne Charles, bassist Douglas Redon and band director, drummer Sean Thomas.

In addition, Jazz in the South staged a collaboration called An tonèl, May 05, between St. Lucian poet, Kendel Hippolyte and the master of Ka, Roger Raspail.  That collaboration was created for Festival Vibrations Caraibes 2008 and was recently reproduced at the L’Artchipel in Guadeloupe.

Four days earlier, on Saturday, May 01, Raspail conducted a two-hour Master Class for the benefit of professional and amateur musicians alike at the Blue Oasis in Vieux Fort.    The class focussed on techniques and methods to Jazz and Afro-Caribbean (Cuban, Guadeloupe Gwoka and Reggae) drumming as well as the history and morphology of the drum. (gather.com)

The other invited guests for Jazz in the South was the guitarist Cameron Pierre Trio, a native of Dominica living in London and the St. Lucians Ricardo François and Emerson Nurse, the leaders of Kléwé (with percussionist Athanasius La Borde and Gene Leon on bass guitar).

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Jazz in the South

Dominican guitarist Cameron Pierre met St. Lucian opposite number, Ronald Boo Hinkson at Coconut Bay Resort and Spa at “Jazz in the South” on May 03.

This Festival is organized by Labowi Promotions, the same cultural group which has organized the festival for the past twelve years.

The complete program is available on its website at www.labowipromotions.net.

Jazz in the South 2010: from 2 to 5 May, 2010, Laborie Beach and Coconut Bay Resort and Spa in Vieux Fort. (adapted from Jazz in the South – unvéritable festival de jazz caribéen)

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Soufriere Creole Jazz

Soufriere Creole Jazz took place at the Mini-Stadium in South St. Lucia on Friday, April 30.   The Main act: Jeff Joseph and Grammacks of Dominica, for two nights.  Also performing at Soufriere Jazz was Cuba’s Klimax, which according to the official Klimax website, is one of the “most sophisticated and original of timba bands…created by Giraldo Piloto.”

St. Lucia Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet told Helen FM 100 it was a “very, very good decision to bring Grammacks to Soufriere Creole Jazz.”  He also promised to take the founding members of Soufriere Creole Jazz to Dominica to learn from World Creole Music Festival.  For his part, Jeff Joseph of Grammacks said that “Playing Sulfur Springs is like magic…It was a nice show…It was a pleasure…Just tremendous…People really enjoyed it.”

Soufriere Creole Jazz continued on Saturday, May 01 and concluded on May 02.

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Jazz on the Square, the Derek Walcott Square

The Main Jazz acts: Michael Boothman & Kaiso Fusion on May 03; the St Lucia School of Music Jazz Band, Macadam and Cuba’s Klimax on May 04; and Freewinds Band featuring Carmel and Dominican songstress, Michelle Henderson on May 05.

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The St Lucia School of Music Jazz Band gave Charlie Parker a confusing calypso/soca treatment, did a fair Tarrus Riley, some Big Band Swing, bass heavy Funk and salsa.  The St. Lucia School of Music has in excess of 300 students with about 70 of them studying woodwind instruments.  The School of Music has about 40 children from the Primary schools according to Ryan, the Coordinator of the Woodwind section.

Macadam from Martinique livened up the Square doing traditional Beguine-Jazz.

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Cuban salsa band Klimax was making its second appearance at St. Lucia Jazz in two years.

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St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Jazz on the Pier

The NDC (St. Lucia’s National Development Corporation) produced “Jazz on the Pier” at Duty Free Pointe Seraphine just outside Castries central on May 04.  The Main Jazz acts: Red Clay featuring vocalist Kellie Cadogan of Barbados and Trinidad born, St. Lucia resident, Ovid Alexis Rhapsody Band.

“Jazz on the Pier” is dedicated, as it has been since 2004, to showcasing home-grown St. Lucian talent during St. Lucia Jazz.  It was usually on the last Friday before the Main Stage events of St. Lucia Jazz.  However, Tuesday, May 04, 2010 is the new date for the event.

The official launch of “Jazz on the Pier” was on Tuesday, April 20.

Referring once again to Iguane Xtet, we found them before St. Lucia Jazz at Habitation Birloton (April 17) and Coco Grill, Bouillante, Guadeloupe on April 30; and after the festival, Xtet will be at Green K’fé, Deschaies (May 08) and then at leMarboeuf, La Retraite, Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe. (Source: artistdata)

Speaking of St. Lucia Jazz, the line-up has an expected fare of international and Caribbean heavy-hitters.   In regards to the Caribbean contingent earmarked for this year’s 19th edition of the festival that runs from May 01-09, there is the Saint Lucia School of Music Jazz Band (Black Ants), a group of young and gifted music students whose repertoire consists of, among other styles, swing and bossa-nova; St. Lucia’s Monty Maxwell and guitarist Harvey Millar; and pannist Allison Marquis at the Gaiety on Rodney Bay, Thursday 06; Teddyson John of St. Lucia at Pigeon Island National Landmark, Friday 07;  Cubans “Eliades Ochoa” and “Amadito Valdés”, stars from Buena Vista Social Club, guitar hero Ronald “Boo” Hinkson and friends featuring Tempest and Claudia Edward, May 08; and St. Lucian six string bluesman Carl Gustave on finale night, May 09, 2010. (Sources: caribbeannetnews, stluciajazz.org)

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Fond D’Or Jazz, May 01

The theme for Fond D’Or Jazz is “A decade of music, a blend of cultures”

Main Acts for Fond D’Or Jazz: Shane Ross, Ronald ‘Boo’ Hinkson…

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Arturo Tappin…

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and the Kings of Cadence from Dominica, Midnight Groovers (slide to 05:20:00 for Groovers video).

One other name for Fond D’Or Jazz is that of Linda ‘Chocolate’ Berthier with a fusion of Jazz, Reggae and Dancehall, and gospel.

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St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Jazz on the Grill, the Fire Grill Restaurant, Rodney Bay, Gros Islet, May 02-06

Then there was “Jazz on the Grill,” Fire Grill Restaurant, Rodney Bay, with Rob Zi Taylor Sound of St Lucia Sax, May 6, 2010.

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Jazz on the Edge, The Edge Restaurant, Rodney Bay Marina, Gros Islet, May 04-06

Rob Zi Taylor moved over to the The Edge Restaurant, Rodney Bay Marina for “Jazz on the Edge,” May 6, 6:15pm.  (Fire Grill is at 08:00pm)

The Edge Restaurant welcomed St. Lucian saxophonist Barbara Cadet on May 4, 2010.

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Carolie Jazz, May 07

Another Jazz event during St. Lucia Jazz was “Carolie Jazz.”  Appearing at Carolie Jazz was be St. Lucian, John Polius’ Cosmic Rhythm and brothers Ricardo and Luther Francois with separate bands.

Cosmic Rhythm is a band started by St. Lucian, John Polius while in Italy.  The unit comprises of three Italians and three  Lucians and a Japanese.  However, the Italians (or some of them anyway) cannot make it to St. Lucia  for the festival and will be replaced by local Lucian artists.

St. Lucia Jazz Notes: Main Stage, Pigeon Island National Landmark, May 05-09

Monty Maxwell (Jazz/Blues guitar) teamed up with Harvey Millar (guitar) and Allison Marquis (pan) for an all St. Lucian band, Troisem (3M) on May 06 at the Gaiety on Rodney Bay.

“Millar’s musical style is highly percussive and rhythmic reflecting the combined influences of Bebop, Caribbean idioms…hip hop.” (St. Lucia Jazz website)

19-year old Stacey Charles of  theTempest crew led by Ronald Boo Hinkson will be at St. Lucia Jazz. TEMPEST, featuring Stacey, Zionami, Cylva J and Alpha, will be hosted by Boo Hinkson for his first St. Lucia Jazz set, May 08.  Then Boo goes solo, performing music from his forthcoming CD, on the second set.

The CD tentatively entitled “Shades” follows his ’95 solo debut of “Alive and Well,” “Beyond,” (’03) & “Urban Drift” (’06).  It features Emerson Nurse on keyboards (St. Lucia), Arturo Tappin on Sax (Barbados), and vocals by Stacey Charles (SLU), Baltimore native Tracy Hamlin, Sean Paul (JA) and Teddyson John (SLU).  The CD was expected to be released in the second week of May, before the end of St. Lucia Jazz 2010.

Charles is the one who did the St. Lucia Jazz theme “Come for the Jazz, Stay for the Cricket.”

Stacey Iman Charles has a new song on Boo Hinkson’s upcoming release.  The track features Sean Paul.

Carl Gustave did some “high-energy” tracks from his CD’s “Too Hard” and “Searchin’ ” on the Main Stage at St. Lucia Jazz, Sun., May 09.

Additional resource: LIME Strengthens its Support to St Lucia Jazz | by carpetmagazine.net

Once again LIME is stepping up to the plate and providing support to St Lucia Jazz.

For the 19th year in a row the company is providing sponsorship support to the premier entertainment event in St Lucia and the Caribbean.

LIME is sponsoring five of the St Lucia Jazz side events – Jazz on the Square, Tea Time Jazz, Jazz on the Pier, Jazz in the South and a brand new event created to add a new brand of entertainment to the St Lucia Jazz season, Caribbean Divas…