Creole, Christmas and Jazz by Barbara Bully-Thomas: CD Review

DOMINICA

I overheard myself say emphatically, “That was great” after the very first listen to Barbara Bully-Thomas’ new CD release, Creole, Christmas and Jazz. Perched on my favourite couch several hundred feet above the Caribbean Sea, I thought I was on vacation in paradise somewhere…I thought it was “National Day” there…I thought, no, it must be Christmas time.

As I came around and the ambient sounds of the real world began coursing again through my unconscious mind – by then the CD had come to a stop in the carousel – I welcomed the sensation that I might have been to this wonderful place at those celebratory times of the year.

I could have been in a dream state or in a trance. Whatever it was, I seemed to recall hearing a folk ditty, “Selebwe Nwel,” inviting me to give thanks for everything because Christmas is nigh and the year is coming to a close. I distinctly heard the call to clean house, do the mandatory painting, then gather around to serve up the kindness, love and prayers along with the seasonal feasts.

There was also that sense of longing for a “Christmas Kiss” from you. It’s just one of those things, I guess, that the season is embodied by anticipation and hope, that you will return home for the holidays in a spirit of forgiveness. Carried on a lilting samba, prosecuted by Fred Nicholas’ bubbling bass lines and Rob “Zi” Taylor‘s emotionally charged soprano waves, “Christmas Kiss” exudes the pure joy of knowing that we can leave the past behind and write a new page into life.

Still not fully recovered from the trance, a story emerged of a reunion of the lovers taking a walk, hand in hand, on the Caribbean sand, resolving their issues. “Maybe ‘Cause It’s Christmas” was the song that kept being replayed in my head. Of course it was. I do recall Barbara swinging and scatting with the big band and St. Lucia’s Ronald “Boo” Hinkson taking the time off from the arranger’s chair to sing a couple of choruses on the guitar.

Love lost…love found, it was time to rejoice. “Gloria”– no more sullenness. This thirty-odd year old Alwin Bully composition in the hands of producer Cornell Phillip is smelted into Bouyon gold.

Originally done in the playwrights’ “Folk Nativity” easter musical (1977), Barbara’s arrangement of “Gloria,” as well as “Come to Dominica” and “Dou Dou Mwen” are reminders to some of the Bouyon practitioners of how the Jing ping sensibilities that inform the Bouyon is still relevant in spite of the harshness they have imposed on the style.

And what better place to celebrate Creole, Christmas and Jazz with Maxine, Tasha P and BARBARA BULLY-THOMAS  than in Dominica. So go to Dominica. No, “Come to Dominica” “Dou Dou Mwen,”…the most beautiful island in the world.

Come and see what we have here
Come to Dominica
Come we’ll welcome you
Come to Dominica
Come and hear what we say here
Come to Dominica
Come and see what we do
And you can do…you can do almost anything
You can come for Creole Festival
You can come to spend Christmas and all
You can come to jump up for Carnival
Just come to Dominica

Creole, Christmas and Jazz is, to this scribe, a portrayal of Barbara Bully-Thomas, the singer/songwriter. She sings and does it remarkably well on “Maybe ‘Cause It’s Christmas”. But apparently, she is comfortable letting Dominica’s Maxine Alleyne-Esprit and Tasha P (reigning Calypso Monarch of Dominica) vocalize her songs and Cornell Phillip and Boo Hinkson produce them for her. Honourable mention goes to the Sixth Form Sisserou Singers of Dominica who provided the chorus on “Selebwe Nwel.”

The other striking feature of this piece of work is its accessibility. Additionally, it is a document to be sustained beyond the first listen or radio play. There are tracks here for Christmas, lent, Independence and all occasions in between. The Francophone crowd will appreciate the beguine embodied in “Dou Dou Mwen.”

As I regain consciousness and my legs, I find that I thoroughly enjoyed being in that 20 minute trance, much too short by any measure. I am hoping, therefore, that Barbara will consider reissuing a full-length CD when the time is right for her.

…and I still hear myself exclaiming, “That was great.”

Ah go play it again. You can too. 

Pick up your copy at Cartwheel and Choices in the Commonwealth of Dominica.

Creole, Christmas and Jazz with Maxine, Tasha P and BARBARA BULLY-THOMAS