Plymouth Jazz is a no go; Tobago Jazz Experience is on the go…

Trinidad

On Tobago Jazz Experience

update 3 on April 24, 2009

The Plymouth Jazz Festival in Tobago, Tn’T is the first big casualty of the global economic meltdown. The major sponsor of the event, CLICO, collapsed this year under the weight of a US$8146 million loss over the past two years. And to think that CLICO had statutory fund surpluses for three years running, from 2004 to 2006. Compounding matters further, interest from potential patrons abroad was less than satisfactory thereby casting doubt on the viability of the event. This was being blamed squarely on the economic crisis gripping the world and by extension the Caribbean region.

Unable to continue their commitment to the festival, CL Communications Ltd., the promoter of the festival, has pulled out forcing the cancellation of the event for this year at least.

Plymouth Jazz Festival was scheduled for April 24 – 26, 2009.

However, all was not lost.  It was not inconceivable that an alternative, but smaller event, would be organized for the same time to save face and keep the festival alive, somewhat.  So said Oswald Williams, Tourism Secretary in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

Not to be cynical and overly insensitive to the plight of a hitherto successful company that is CLICO, it must be said that while Plymouth Jazz may have been a boon for the service industry on Trinidad’s sister island, it was for the most part a prostitution of the Jazz theme.  The festival built a shameless reputation of plugging itself as a Jazz Festival without exhibiting even a meagre semblance of tokenism in patronizing the rich and verdant Jazz practitioners that the twin-island Republic has birthed.

In simple English, Plymouth Jazz was never really a Jazz Festival.

But the question is this: if a festival can be successfully marketed as Jazz and in so doing draws aficionados to the Caribbean shores, what is the point of packing the front of the stage with pop acts?  Answer me that!

If Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival is taken as a point of reference, 69 per cent of first-time visitors to Jamaica for the festival came specifically for Jazz; 77 per cent of repeat visitors came for Jazz; and 72 per cent of visitors indicated that Jazz was the specific reason for them visiting Jamaica.  If that is the case, would you not say that Jazz music can sell itself, without the help of pop? And on top of that, these Jazz fans spend money.

According to a Jamaica Observer report, the visitors spend 14 times more (US$187 per night) at the festival than the local patrons (US$13 per night).  Consequently, if the idea of using pop acts as head liners at Jazz Festivals is to draw the local population, forget it.  On that basis, the following Mark Dennis graph is a good illustration of the contributions made to the economies of Caribbean festival countries by the largely foreign crowds.

So farewell, my dear Plymouth Jazz Festival.  You have one year to find a formula that is true to the Jazz that sits in the middle of your name.  Use that time wisely.  In the meantime, we wait…

(Sources: caribworldnews.com, imagesnewsletter.com)

But we did not have to wait for long because of Harold Homer…

It is a pity that your exhortation to the producers of the Plymouth Jazz Festival “to use their time wisely to arrive at a formula that is true to the Jazz that sits in the middle of its name” will neither be heard by them nor if it is, would it be taken into their consideration.  And I say so because I am convinced that the driving force behind the promotion group has insisted on several occasions that their formula is/was correct.

The good news, if any can be gleaned, is that in seeking to salvage the situation and prevent an absolute failure of the single, largest revenue-earner for the island, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has moved to establish a THA-produced Jazz Festival Season that will seek to convert some of the traditional fringe events into the main Festival.

Pan Trinbago with its Pan Jazz in the Yard presentations, and which has over the past two years carved out the Wednesday and Thursday night spots, will be the THA’s highlighted shows for those nights.  These shows will take place at the Redemption Sound Steel Orchestra Pan Yard.

Friday night the Festival will move to what will now become the main Festival stage located at the internationally acclaimed Pigeon Point.  THA has retained this night for itself and, word on the ground has it that the opportunity will be used to feature some local, but unfortunately not-so-Jazz, performances.

The Pigeon Point Stage will on Saturday night be turned over to the group, Production One, which has been producing Caribbean Jazz concerts on the sister island of Trinidad since 2003 and took a significant step by presenting a predominantly Latin Jazz show during the Plymouth Jazz Festival Season last year.  Production One will this year again present a mix of local and international Jazz performers.

On Sunday evening, the THA will use the main stage at Pigeon Point to present the festival’s main act George Benson.

If the THA, or better yet the “converted fringe events”, prove to be successful, it could mean not only success at saving face but it could lead to a weaning away from the stifling C.L. Communications Ltd.’s dominance that some in the local community have been railing against for some time now (especially since they had flat out refused to include any Jazz).

Following is the Revised PROGRAMME for TOBAGO JAZZ EXPERIENCE

22nd April	Pan Jazz in d Yard featuring Andy Narell Liam Teague Ronald ‘Boo’ Hinkson (St. Lucia)                            Tilitz Quartet (Germany) Victor Provost                                   Kersh Ramsey                                                           Silver Stars…Redemption Sound Setters Pan Yard, 7.00 pm	PAN TRINBAGO (www.pantrinbago.co.tt)
Thursday, 23rd April	Pan Jazz in d Yard featuring Len Boogsie Sharpe Rudy Smith Mavis John Caribbean Airlines Invaders Kariwak Players…Redemption Sound Setters Pan Yard, 7.00 pm	PAN TRINBAGO
Friday, 24th April	World Music Night featuring Caribbean INXS Princess Adanna Guardah Knight Fire Fusion Shadow 3 Canal Ella Andell Calypso Rose Shurwayne Winchester and the Y.O.U.…Pigeon Point Heritage Park, 7.00 pm	THA (www.visittobago.gov.tt)
Saturday, 25th April	Latin Jazz featuring Élan Parlé Canefire (Canada) Bellita y JazzTumbatá (Cuba) Mungal Patasar and Pantar – Pigeon Point Heritage Park,Jazz on de Beach, 7.00 pm – Mt Irvine, 10.00 am Beach Jazz – Speyside, 4pm, featuring local TNT Stars.	PRODUCTION ONE, MT IRVINE BAY HOTEL…THA (www.jaotg.org or visit the new Festival site)
Sunday, 26th April	Beach Jazz Fiesta – featuring Kariwak Players Caribbean INXS Mike Boothman Theron Shaw Clive Zanda David Rudder   International Grammy Award Artiste – George Benson…– Pigeon Point Heritage Park – 1pm – Jazz on de Beach, Mt.Irvine, 10.00am	MT.IRVINE…THA