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.