Tuesday 18 November 2014

What a Saturday night…Jazz! Song! Performance! Fête!

Oh Lawd! Wat a night! Wat a night!
What a Saturday night!
Oh Lawd! Wat a night! Wat a night!
What a Saturday night!
—"Linstead Market". Lyrics according to Walter Jekyll's 1907 book, Jamaican Song and Story

A busy Saturday night it was. Cool and dry, thank God. The 15th of November was busy with the simultaneity of entertainment options for the like minded.
Jazz! Song! Performance! Fête!
An inspiration. A revelation. An investigation. A celebratory coda.


I: Chantal's Vision

Chantal Esdelle is doing what few others have dared to try by launching a jazz studio—a home cum studio for creativity and improvisation—in her grandmother's home. The jazz salon is alive. I remember the Boothmans—Mike, David, Roger, Pops—had private jazz salons in their home. An effort to bring a select audience into direct contact with the creative energy of the local jazz musician is an inspired endeavour. The jam session, "the jazzman's true academy" according to writer Ralph Ellison, was being allowed to take root again after a few years of stasis. It serves as the jazz equivalent of networking events and that aspect is wanted if we are to build a viable industry beyond simple talent.

Friday 14 November 2014

Shades of Vaughnette III: Milestones - a review¹

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Resplendent, as always, in the couture of southern design team, Zadd & Eastman, Vaughnette Bigford made a successful return to her annual concert series, Shades of Vaughnette, at the Sundar Popo Theatre at the NAPA South Campus in San Fernando after a two-year break for the recency of motherhood. With a mix of local and jazz/R&B covers, Bigford reclaimed her status of the premier jazz stylist in these islands whose palette knows no geographic boundaries. She is well known for handling the American jazz songbook, international hits in many languages, and especially for her take on the local song catalogue and suffusing these tunes with the dissonant harmonic tones of jazz. And that night, Saturday November 8, she did not disappoint.

This year’s show, the third in the series and subtitled Milestones to celebrate a decade as a professional performer follows a pattern of expanding the local audiences' understanding and appreciation of a global repertoire of songs, and reinforcing the idea that the local song—whether it is calypso, soca or island pop—can become a celebratory anthem beyond a narrow Carnival season cycle that predominates the industry. Opening the show with a nod to American jazz singer Carmen Lundy with a cover of her hit “Wild Child”, Bigford soon engaged the senses with a phonetically accurate reading of French chanteuse Annick Tangorra’s “Lolita Fleur Creole.” Language is not a barrier for the appreciation of great songcraft.

Saturday 1 November 2014

Caribbean Beat Reviews – November/December 2014ª


#LiveAndUncut Elan Trotman Group

Barbadian saxophonist, Elan Trotman serves up on this eighth album #LiveAndUncut (“Live and Uncut” for the Twitter hashtag averse) a tropical feel that defines the elements of smooth jazz that have a legion of fans reaching for a Rum Punch and the resort menu. Combining catchy hooks and warm melodies, with the purposeful blending of danceable calypso and reggae rhythms is a strategy that would separate Elan from the rest of the pack of smooth jazz saxophonists. Lead single, “Smooth ‘n’ Saxy” aptly describes the mood of the album that introduces the listening audience to the steelpan sound as an ambience enhancer. The track “Simon Paul” slyly mimics Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” melodic charm to cheerful results finding the Caribbean jam where there was a hint before. “Bop & Run” is a calypso re-invented while “Funkalypso” is a jazz soloist’s paradise. This album should be a must-have on any jazz or Caribbean playlist.

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  1. More Caribbean Playlist reviews appear in the November/December 2014 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.