St. Lucia
And the best goes on in St. Lucia…
update 6, May 20 2009
Check out St. Lucia Jazz
St. Lucia Jazz 2009 is currently in warm up mode. With the Main Stage events another couple of days away and the international J-Fans and other festival goers preparing to head to the destination, St. Lucians are being turned on to the music – not only Jazz at this point – at both free and paid events around the country. After all, the visitors cannot be allowed to fly and boat in to a country in an entertainment slumber. The land must be alive to the sound of music that wafts through the air, drawing all and sundry to the sources.
One such source is Soufriere to the south of St. Lucia where Jazz at the Waterfront – Going My Way, Sulphur Springs Jazz – Grooving on and Jazz at Fond Gens – Libre Reggae En Bas Piton took place on Friday, May 01, May 02 and May 02 respectively.
Also on Sunday, May 03, there was Jazz on the Beach on the beach side at The St. Lucian by Rex Resort. Among the acts surfing the music was Bluesman Rob ‘Zi’ Taylor and Jazzman Luther François. And to the south of St. Lucia, Labowie Promotions, a fifteen-year old not-for-profit community-based organization whose objective is to bring quality cultural performances to Laborie, put on Jazz in the South at the Rudy John Beach Park. The three-course Jazz music meal, which comprised of the Rhea Drakes Quartet, Barbara Ann Cadet and Bluemangó followed an appetizer of the Laborie Steel Pan Project.
Rhea Drakes
Rhea Drakes, a Jazz pianist whose parentage is one part Lucian, one part Barbadian, was first introduced to us in the Woodshed when she appeared with the Luther François Quintet at the 2007 edition of the Martinique Jazz Festival. But in that year, she also acted as one-fifth of the Ray Holman Quintet at the Barbados Pan Festival.
For Jazz in the South, Drakes was backed up by bassist Kirk Layne and drummer Petra Welsh. Drakes had the crowd singing and dancing to Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley who died twenty-six years ago this month, Ray Holman‘s Charlotte Street and and ode to the now departed Barbadian pianist Adrian Clarke called Doxy Round-about.
Rhea is based in Barbados where she practices her art while at the same time pursuing a Law degree at the University of the West Indies.
Barbara Ann Cadet
Barbara Ann Cadet is a musician, writer, composer, singer and producer who studied in England, but built her career in St. Lucia over decades. Formerly head of the Woodwind Department at the Saint Lucia School of Music, Cadet is now a folk theatre music archivist who splits her time between this cultivated passion and that of performing as a solo artist or with the all-female group, Sisterhood.
Cadet was in the company of Moroccan percussionist (tabla), composer and writer, Khalid Kouhen, Shomari Maxwell, Zackieus Popo, Albert Eugene, Velon Joseph and Claudius Henry.
Cadet and Kouhen are destined to show up again on May 06 at the Gaiety, Rodney Bay with Luther François and Emerson Nurse. Sisterhood was at Fond D’Or on Saturday, May 02.
François‘ Gaiety show was undoubtedly a solemn affair for him. It was a musical tribute to the memory of his elder brother, Mervyn ‘Cisco’ François, an electric and double bassist of note in his time. Mervyn would have been 53 on the day.
The show was recorded live with all new material including an original by the pianist on the date, Emerson Nurse,for possible release later in 2009 on the LRF Soundworks Inc. label. LRF put out its first project, Luther‘s Castries Underground, in 2008. That CD climbed to No. 3 on the UK Top 20 Jazz Releases for 2008.
The other musicians in the quintet were Luther‘s younger brother Ricardo ‘Ricky’ François on drums, Charlie Chomereau-Lamotte on percussions and Raymond D’Huy on bass.
The festival’s first nine years featured what we would call more serious jazz hardliners, and in the past have showcased such impressive personalities as Anita Baker, Isaac Hayes, Nancy Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, and McCoy Tyner. Dionne Warwick even graced these shores. But as the audiences for sophisticated jazz dwindles, the festival by economic necessity had to open up to the more popular R&B, and also feature some world music personalities.
So I found myself particularly enjoying local jazz figures such as Ronald “Boo” Hinkson, a red-hot guitarist who mixes serious jazz and Calypso. And there’s St. Lucian saxophonists Barbara Ann Cadet (who is featured on the most recent edition of the island’s phone book) and Luther Francois, who both rock. All these offer the kind of inventive improvisation my ear yearns for that the R&B artists, no matter how dynamic and charismatic, don’t offer.
Robert Hilferty is a critic for Bloomberg news, and writes for Gramophone, The Advocate, and other publications and websites.
Bluemangó
Bluemangó bases its existence on a quest to integrate indigenous St. Lucian styles with Smooth, World and the avant-garde.
Put together by pianist Richard Payne and bassist John Francis, the band boasts diverse artistry from the Anglophone and Francophone cultures that dominate the Caribbean archipelago: guitarist Eric Bonheur (French Guiana), drummer Dominique Bougrainville (Martinique), saxophonist Andre Woodvine (Barbados), Percussionist Miki Phone (Martinique) and vocalist Teddyson John (Saint Lucia).
The warm up for the Main Event of St. Lucia Jazz at Pigeon Point continued on Monday, May 04 at the Derek Walcott Square. (Sources: St. Lucia Jazz, Labowie Promotions)
Then, it was on to the Main Stages for the ‘cream of the crop,’ should we say? Yes indeed, Monty Alexander started that ball rolling at the Gaiety on Rodney Bay, Tuesday, May 05 with his Jazz and Roots Ensemble, a band he has been touring with for the last two years or so.
Having personally experienced Monty Alexander’s Jazz and Roots Ensemble live in concert, I have every reason to vouch for the honesty of Toni Nicholas of the St. Lucia Star who concluded in his review, Monty mixes it up!, that “the Saint Lucia Jazz festival was off to a great start…at the main stage at Gaiety.” The audience obviously concurred because they called Alexander back on stage for an encore, which culminated with Bob Marley’s sing-along anthem, One Love.
Monty‘s concept is one of coalescing standard American Jazz with his cultural sensibilities rooted and grounded as they are in the Reggae of his Jamaican upbringing. Hence the suspension of a Classic Jazz trio with a Reggae band and a guest saxophonist who has straddled both sides of the genre fence. I am speaking here of Dean Frazer.
Frazer was introduced to the Gaiety one hour into Monty‘s set on another Marley composition. But unlike One Love, that makes a clarion call to the heart, Frazer helped Monty appeal to the our collective wisdom in Redemption Song, that offers a way to the heart for the fulfillment of peace and good will.
Then Monty called a couple of Marleys, No Woman No Cry and War, two songs that would have moved the emotions from the lofty to the socio-political vagaries of the real world.
Monty finally let it all loose with a set closer, Jammin‘, that shed all pretensions and had the Gaiety wanting more.
Now, is the trend clearly discernible here? Of course, Monty has been channelling Marley for some time now and has interpreted Bob’s canon on a number of tribute Cd’s. No surprise then that Marley was all over Monty‘s play list on Tuesday, May o5 at the Gaiety.
Monty Alexander showed his versatility as he put a Jazz spin on popular Bob Marley songs
Strewn among the Marley covers were some originals (Hope and The River), and as is Monty‘s want, a few West Indian folk songs too including Day-O, which was his time to add the moniker, vocalist, to his credentials. Otherwise, the singing was left to his guitarist, Wendell Ferarro. (Source: St. Lucia Star)
Alexander then flew off with his Jazz and Roots Ensemble to the Artists Collective in Hartford to close the Jackie McClean Arts Festival on May 17th. Let Chuck Obuchowski tell you about it.
Thursday 07 and Friday 08, all roads led to Jazz on the Square in Castries for lunchtime guitar performances. Boo Hinkson and Friends are first up on Thursday, to be followed by Canada-based St. Lucian Harvey Millar on the Friday).
Millar did double duty on that day with Monty Maxwell, the featured guests of G-String. They teamed up for an afternoon show at Pointe Seraphine, a duty free plaza on the edge of town.
Millar and Arturo Tappin had a double-bill of their own at the Square on Friday 08.
Hinkson preceded his appearance in Castries with a 06:3o freebie dubbed Jazz on the Green at the St. Lucia Golf & Country Club, Windward Road, Cap Estate on Wednesday. Thereafter, it will be a paid event on the biggest stage at Pigeon Island, Saturday, May 09. He opens for Michael McDonald and the George Duke Male Vocal Package that includes another St. Lucian, vocalist Teddyson John.
The following weekend, May 16, he returns to Trinidad for the 10th edition of Jazz Pointe. Producer Ivan Hinkson has also booked Trinidadians Errol Ince (trumpet), Leston Paul and pannist Jason Baptiste.
The reviews are coming in so stick and stay here…
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