The weekend of July 20-22, 2012 – a sampling of Caribbean Jazz from the Woodshed

Ever the busy bee who sings, The Tessa Souter Quartet rolled up to the Unitarian-Universalist Church at 28 Mugford Street, Marblehead, Massachusetts on Saturday, July 21 with Marvin Sewell (guitar), Sean Smith (bass) and Satoshi Takeishi (drums/percussion) for the Marblehead Jazz Concert Series.

Founded in 1985, Marblehead Jazz Associates present up to eight regular season concerts and a few in the off-season out of a passion for good classical and contemporary Jazz.

Shirley Crabbe had her turn on Saturday, but at 76 House, Tappan, NY with Jim West at the piano.

Earlier in the week, Paquito D’Rivera and Friends uprooted for Chile where they played for two consecutive days at Festival de Jazz de la Patagonia in Fruitilla on Wednesday, July 18 and Thursday, July 19 and one at Teatro Universidad de Concepcion with the Paquito D’Rivera Sextet in Conception on July 23. 

Arturo Sandoval for his part appeared with Arturo O’Farrill at Bric Arts Media’s Celebrate Brooklyn! under the Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn, NY, July 21, one day after whipping out his horn at Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, Massachusetts. “It’s a great space, it’s a great stage, and it’s an environment where people are encouraged to express themselves,” O’Farrill told The Brooklyn Paper, perfect for the blistering rhythms of mambo and salsa-infused red-hot Latin Jazz, straight from the heart of Havana.  

Alexis Baro was also in action on Saturday, playing at Sunlife Financial UpTown Waterloo Jazz Festival. 

As a solo artist, Baro has two albums under his belt, “Havana Banana” and “From the Other Side.” He has been nominated for “Best Jazz Trumpeter” by the National Jazz Awards in the years 2006, 2007, and 2008. Although born in Havana, Cuba, Baro has become one of Toronto’s premier trumpet players.

According to the festival website, SLFUWJF was founded 19 seasons ago with the stated mission to enhance the broad cultural experience in Waterloo through the delivery of an accessible jazz music festival in UpTown Waterloo and in so doing to sustain and promote their local Jazz. It has grown into a 3 day event with 2 stages while maintaining its commitment to be a free festival.

Miguel Zenón’s foray into Europe is well under way now. So far the Quartet has visited Spain, France, Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Portugal. From Europe, the Miguel Zenón 4tet took to the skies headed for Hotel Tropico, Luanda, Angola for a five-day swing starting July 19.

From Europe, the 4tet took to the skies for Hotel Tropico, Luanda, Angola for a five-day swing starting July 19 through the weekend.

Other events worthy of mention: Alfredo Rodriguez at Festival da Jazz at the Dracula Club,  St. Moritz, Switzerland, July 20. And St. Thomas transplant Sonny Rollins in Victoria, Spain, July 21.

The weekend of June 29-July 01, 2012 – a sampling of Caribbean Jazz from the Woodshed

The Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival celebrated its 35th anniversary, June 30-July 01 with the likes of the Cubans Pedrito Martinez (percussion) and pianist Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Grammy winner Michel Camilo of the Dominican Republic.

Camilo, in Saratoga for his fifth festival appearance, introduced his 2011 “Mano a Mano” album with master conguero Giovanni Hidalgo and bassist Charles Flores at the Amphitheatre in Saratoga Springs, NY on the afternoon of June 30. Martinez performed at the Gazebo Stage a couple of hours later that same evening. The ALJO played the Amphitheatre on July 01.

John Santos, a percussionist out of the Puerto Rican tradition, made his John Santos Sextet available for a benefit at Yoshi’s, San Francisco, California on June 30. Across the country, Virgin Islander Shirley Crabbe and David Budway were present at 76 House, Tappan, New York for their own benefit.

The weekend of June 15-17, 2012 – a sampling of Caribbean Jazz from the Woodshed

This past weekend in Caribbean-Jazz – a sampling

Another one of those busy times for paternal Jazz fans all over is Fathers’ Day. The Woodshed abounds with listings planned for that day, June 17. However, the Father’s Day concert of the Jamaica Ocho Rios Jazz Festival and Abstract Entertainment’s 2012 production of PanJazz, “Music – The Original Social Media,” stood out from the heap.

As a prelude to the Jamaica Ocho Rios Jazz Fest’s Father’s Day concert, a Dinner Jazz session was held at Glenn’s Jazz Club, Tower Isle, St. Ann in addition to the Sonny Bradshaw School Band Competition and Jazz Treasures at the Two Seasons Guest House, Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on the Saturday. Then on Sunday, June 16, Jamaican fathers celebrated the Closing Father’s Day concert in the Turtle River Pk., Ocho Rios.

More here…

This weekend, on Saturday, June 16, the eighth annual presentation of Abstract Entertainment’s Pan Jazz 2012′s production of Music – The Original Social Media took place at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th & Broadway, New York City.

For this show, vocalists Alison Hinds of Barbados and Thandiswa Mazwai were backed up by an All-Star band led by Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles, whose participation in PanJazz was his seventh overall and his fourth as musical director. Notable band mates were Jacques Schwarz-Bart playing saxophone, Leon Foster Thomas and Victor Provost of St. John, USVI playing steelpans.

Returning, after an exciting collaboration last year, was the legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, St. Lucia’s famed guitarist Ronald “Boo” Hinskon and Suriname’s Etienne Stadwick. Appearing for the first time with PanJazz was the multi-faceted Martiniquan percussionist Mino Cinelo.

This year’s production was dedicated to Ralph MacDonald, Grammy award-winning percussionist, songwriter and producer.

Trinidad and Tobago had its Saturday night action too, mind you. Saxophonist Jesse Ryan fronted a band of Theron Shaw (guitar), David Richards (drums) and Rodney Alexander (bass) at the Fiesta Plaza, Movietowne.

The ever-present Blackberry Bro, Nigel Campbell, lamented that Jesse’s original compositions like “Algun Dia” although fleshed out with “dissonance, swing, improvisation, rhythm and time changes, alternative chording,” had little impact because local audiences, save for a selected core of a few dozen fans, are not comfortable with new music and do not reflect that accepting energy to the artist.

Also on Saturday, June 16, Trombonist Reginald Cyntje of St. Thomas, USVI helped promote an appreciation for African-American history and culture at the fifth annual Juneteenth celebration at Watkins Regional Park in Maryland.

Juneteenth commemorates the abolition of slavery in the US.

On the lighter side, Smooth Jazz saxophonist Eric Darius, whose heritage is traceable to Haiti and Jamaica (the birthplace of his father and mother), flamed the Red Cat in Houston, Texas while Shirley Crabbe, a descendant of the British Virgin Islands did her thing at Old 76 House in Tappan, NY.

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• The weekend of June 08-10, 2012 – a sampling of Caribbean Jazz at the Woodshed (woodshedentertainment.wordpress.com)

Her Favorite Shade of Yellow by Victor Provost – The Preamble

Ah, what a relief…a CD by a Caribbean Jazz artist that swings, I mean swings and swings really hard, straight up and straight ahead – no chaser. Not to discount any of the recorded works by Caribbean artists in the most recent past especially, I have longed to hear an attempt by anyone of our artists to place and pit our music against the gold standards of Jazz – Classic Jazz.

Check 1 for “Her Favorite Shade of Yellow” by pannist Victor Provost for he has.

There is the issue of  the rank and file unrecorded Jazz artists and upstarts from the English-speaking West Indies, not given to tackling Classic Jazz standards, Indeed they avoid it, opting to record strictly original material  that is more Smooth than edgy and familiar covers of sub-regional composers. Though commendable, this approach rarely succeeds in attracting critical acclaim beyond the white sands and pellucid waters of our tropical borders.

Some have baulked at my kind of thinking. I am nevertheless throwing out this challenge to the aficionados who do to think Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles, arguably the most prominent upstart from our neck of the woods today. He surveys the compositional minefield of traditional folkloric tales and Calypso and has excelled beyond all conceivable expectations. Add to that Charles’ involvement with Jacques Schwarz Bart’s Voodoo-Jazz Racine experiment.

Pick up the gauntlet and think Shirley Crabbe, a daughter of the British Virgin Islands, based in the US. Largely unknown at home (pun intended) in the Caribbean Sea, her debut album “Home” is trending stealthily upwards since its release in late 2011 to the point where it is being featured in the March issue of the acclaimed Down Beat magazine.

For perspective, think of Andy Narell, an American cum honorary Trinidadian whose solo work in the sphere of Calypso-Jazz and his collaborations, particularly with Mario Canonge, that have extended the range of the pan as a lead instrument from Calypso to French Caribbean rhythms and sensibilities. 

One horn, one voice, one pan…and another pan, Victor Provost’s.

Check 2 for “Her Favorite Shade of Yellow” by USVI’s own Victor Provost!

Go back in time to find yet more fine examples of Caribbean Jazz artists swinging their butts off or concocting fresh approaches to syncopation. The examples abound. The few I have given are not necessarily representative.

As for the Pan…the Steel Pan…the Steel Drum – call it what you will – it might be synonymous with calypso and light-weight tropical fare to some, and rightly so. But do not call on Victor Provost to perpetuate this stereotype for he is past that. He has in his debut CD “Her Favorite Shade of Yellow” mastered two originals, six standards and a reinterpretation of Bob Marley – with a walking bass line and then some .” It is not until track 8 that Provost even touches The Calypso, and that is it.

Mark you, if I were to ask Victor about that (and I will), he would probably say that “Her Favorite Shade of Yellow” was not a deliberate attempt to distance himself from Calypso-Jazz.  Rather, his song choices afford the steel drum a credible chance of garnering desperately needed prominence in the competitive Jazz market. Or is acceptance the word?

I’ve picked up the glove here, taken my challenge. That is what I think.  What do YOU think?

Shirley Crabbe, Jazz Vocalist, Producer & Voice Artist on CoffeeTalk Jazz

VIRGIN ISLANDS (Br.)

The Ladies of CoffeeTalk Jazz Radio are taking over! Jazz Vocalist Shirley Crabbe holds nothing back as she announces her artistic presence with the authority and confidence of a seasoned veteran.

She brings an adventurous, contemporary style that will satisfy the most discriminating of vocal jazz lovers. Making old school new and cool. Join the Jazz Conversation from December 6th with your host Ms. Bridgette Lewis aka the CoffeeLady and Shirley Crabbe.

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Joseph “Macarldie” Nibbs & Shirley Crabbe’s November 12 VI Showcase, an uneven event

VIRGIN ISLANDS (Br.)

(Charlie Parker: Now’s the time)
A local Jazz concert! What a rarity around these parts. Now imagine the anticipation…and the nervousness too. You want this one to go down well if for no other reason but to bolster the confidence of the producers in the genre to repeat the feat. I mean, there is less Jazz in the HLSCC (H. Lavity Stoutt) Concert Series these past few years since the scope was broadened to include Blues, Dance, Reggae, Theatre and World.

Even more unsettling to this writer was the slowness at which the Eileene L. Parsons auditorium was filling up. Where were the die-hard patrons who never miss a show, anyway? Something did not seem to be right. That was the floor. How about the stage…it’s show time.

Ok, Joseph “Macarldie” Nibbs and Friends, tackling a Charlie Parker composition like “Now’s the time” requires a certain amount of reverence, respect. So to state such a classic tune in reggae and not make it work was off-putting. And for the drummer not to swing it especially while the bassist is walking the five string electric hard body guitar was a further travesty. The greater disappointment still for this scribe was the lack of unison between the saxophonist and the pianist. But admittedly, those Parker changes are indeed difficult, to put it mildly.  Bebop is no joke even though the bop is removed and reggae substituted for it. Not a good start, I’m afraid.

The band got themselves back on track and in sync on the leader’s ‘reggaefied’ original, which came next. Saxophonist Jeremy Vanterpool was more comfortable on this one; and so was the rest of them, drummer Nehassie Chalwell included.

(Begin the beguine)
“Begin the beguine” (Cole Porter) was where the concert really went up a notch. It was time for Macarldie’s guest, Shirley Crabbe, to add her voice to the proceedings. Whatever it was, her presence seemed to do something to the guys. Vanterpool was now back to his usual high standards as demonstrated in the past, inflecting his notes with a subtle warmth that the singer’s delivery demanded. Shirley’s voice came through as beautiful as ever. Was that a CD playback or what?  Just kidding!

(So Far Away)
Speaking of which, “So Far Away,” a ballad taken from Crabbe’s debut CD “Home,” was exquisite, the singers soft lines complemented well by a seamless rhythm section, now on cue and in tune.

(Autumn Leaves)
“Autumn Leaves” rose the temperature of the room just enough to light up the pianist too who, since Shirley hit the stage, had relegated himself to the respectful accompanist. Not a good idea.  Bassist, Brandon Powell, who had up till this point been buried deep down in the mix, came to the fore with an unassuming embellishment of the theme.

(Caravan)
Tremendous liberties were taken in rearranging the Duke Ellington gem called “Caravan.” The pianist introduced the song saying that what we were about to hear is how the Duke would have written “Caravan” had he been bred on Tortola. What I do know is that the composer would not have recognized his own work had he been at the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium for the Caribbean treatment given “Caravan” was devoid of any discernible hint of the original.

(Original)
I was late returning from intermission having gotten all caught up in a critique of the first set over a glass of wine. However, from outside the hall, I could hear the strains of Joseph “Macarldie” Nibbs and Friends, sans Crabbe, filtering through. For a moment, I wondered whether another band had taken to the stage unannounced. Of course not. Understandably, Macarldie Nibbs and his Friends – like so many of our Caribbean Jazz outfits who play Jazz – was more at home with Smooth-Jazz a sub-style that requires a command of swing.

That was precisely the problem Nibbs and Friends encountered when trying to accommodate Shirley Crabbe’s advanced vocal phrasing while playing to their strengths. Sadly, there was no happy medium to be found hence the unevenness of the programme, the exception being “In a Mellow Tone.”

“In a Mellow Tone” (Thelonious Monk) was just as remote from the original as “Caravan” was earlier on. However, the deviations were forgiven once Chalwell and percussionist Dylan Penn were let loose. Chalwell’s extended solo spot in particular had the audience lapping milk off his feet in the wake of identifiable zouk beats sprinkled with clever tom rolls and crashes.

(Straighten Up and Fly Right)

(Home)
By far the most emotionally charged rendition of the night though was the title track from Shirley’s “Home.” All of the instrumentalists came together on this pensive ode to Tortola. The pianist was never more the essayist here. Drums and bass talked to each other with one voice as percussion accented the conversation. Soprano saxophone added harmonized snippets that tugged at the heart-strings. Bass kept time unobtrusively. If only the playlist was all like that.

(Summertime)
All of sudden, the empty spaces the band had previously left unplugged at intermission were filled by “Summertime.” Macarldie caught the bug and handed the audience undoubtedly his most attractive choruses of the night. Vanterpool had by now hit his greatest high; every note, every phrase, though suppressed under the singer – and rightly so – hit the sweet spot every time and without reservation.

(Original)
To shut the party down, Nibbs sought to raise the roof and the audience with it. That did not work out as planned. However, the band persevered, hitting another stride as they went, thanks again to the remarkable interplay between drums and percussion, with interpolations by the saxophonist who cued the players on the revolving motif that anchored the improvisations.

Joseph “Macarldie” Nibbs and Friends featuring Shirley Crabbe was a showcase of lows and highs, valleys and peaks, weaknesses and strengths. A times, the band dipped into the pothole that is the bane of many a Caribbean Jazz band, swing. They resurrected themselves off and on when playing to their strengths, Smooth-Jazz and were at their measured best backing Shirley Crabbe. However, I missed the straight up, straightahead underpinning Shirley might have lavished on us had she brought her own band for this date.

I sincerely hope she does some time soon.  I could do with some of that.

U.S-based Virgin Islands performers in Jazz Showcase at HLSCC

VIRGIN ISLANDS (Br.)

by HLSCC with additional reporting by WEC

Joseph ‘Macarldie’ Nibbs

The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s Performing Arts Series will feature several United States-based Virgin Islands performers in a Jazz Showcase on Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m. at the college’s Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium.

Heading the list of performers will be Jazz pianist Joseph ‘Macarldie’ Nibbs. Alongside him will be saxophonist Jeremy Vanterpool, bass guitarist Brandon Powell, and percussionists Nehassie Chalwell and Dylan Penn. There will also be a special appearance by soloist Shirley Crabbe.

‘Macarldie,’ as he is familiarly called, grew up in the British Virgin Islands performing religious music with his father and sisters. In his teenage years, he was in nightclubs and hotels performing the island standards and top 40 hits of the Caribbean and U.S.

After moving to the States, he studied Jazz and Classical Piano and Vocals at Florida Atlantic University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Piano performance, and began pursuing his dream of performing around the world. His music blends Jazz, Blues and Caribbean styles into a sound that is instantly identifiable as his own, one his audience has defined as Caribbean Jazz.

‘Macarldie‘ has been a sideman with many musical greats, including Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin, Trinidadian pan player Othello Molyneaux and many more. He has opened for Gregory Isaacs, Chuck Mangione and Dizzy Gillespie.

As a session musician, he has lent his instrumental skills to numerous recordings. Recently he has been playing at music festivals and clubs promoting his unique style of music. Some of these include the Miami and Dominican Republic Jazz Festivals.

Music education is also a huge part of his mission and, over the years, he has taught in high school and college and run specialised music seminars. ‘Macarldie‘ now combines a career as a Teaching Artist with his passion for writing and performing.

Shirley Crabbe was born in the Bronx to parents who hailed from the British West Indies (that is how it is put). Crabbe became intrigued with Jazz as a teenager when she saw Ella Fitzgerald doing ‘A-Tisket A-Tasket in Abbot and Costello’s “Ride ’em Cowboy.

Her interest in Jazz led her to explore the classic recordings of Ella, Carmen, Billie and Sarah even while she was pursuing Classical Studies at the Manhattan School of Music. Crabbe also attended workshops in New York where she was exposed to Jazz masters, Harold Mabern, Dakota Staton and her mentor Etta Jones all of whom gave encouraging words of advice to stick with it.

Then just as she was about to break into the club scene, tragedy struck. Crabbe suffered a debilitating vocal chord injury that eventually made her voice “unusable,” as she put it. “I couldn’t sustain anything,” she explained in her EPK biography. “I really had to face the possibility that I would never be able to sing again. I had to re-focus my brain on what makes a singer a singer,” Crabbe opined.

Five years after her 2006 surgery to correct the problem, Crabbe is starting all over again with her debut CD entitled “Home.” This recording has nine standard titles, some of them variously arranged by Leonard Bernstein and McCoy Tyner; others, Jazz interpretations of Carole King and Stephen Sondheim; and yet more that deviate starkly from the original treatment or given judicious respect. Either way, the tracks on “Home” will beam you up if you not firmly tethered to terra firma.  So to should Shirley Crabbe’s performance at the Eileene J. Parsons Auditorium on Saturday, November 12.

President of HLSCC Dr. Karl Dawson noted that, in the past two to three years, the College has sought to include performers from the Virgin Islands in its concert series, whether they are based at home or not. He said the aim is to expose the community to local and international talent, as well as to expand the Performing Arts Series to include more genres of music and types of performances.

Tickets, $20 each, are available from LIME, HLSCC Bookstore, Sunny Caribbee, Road Town Bakery, and UMI Fashions; or call 852-7223. LIME and First Bank Virgin Islands are platinum sponsors of the College’s Performing Arts Series.