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On Saturday night, Vaughnette Bigford gave a performance at the sacred space, The Little Carib Theatre in Port of Spain that had an impact beyond mere words. The superlatives have been expounded on Facebook and elsewhere about her performance, the song set, the production, the guests. What has not been expanded upon so much is the seismic shift that has occurred in how we as an audience now expect local shows to be gauged.
To say that Vaughnette’s show has gone back to its roots, back to square one, would be to minimise its impact on a sold out audience. The tropes of her successful southern shows were all there: the range of songs from the jazz, local and World music songbooks (see song list below), the multiple languages flawlessly rendered, the hauntingly beautiful bass guitar and voice duo song (
Putting Up a Resistance), the regulars shouting picong from the rafters! I have been to her Southern shows,
Shades of Vaughnette, and have reviewed them for the newspapers
here and
here, and
elsewhere. (Take your time, and read the reviews to get a sense of Vaughnette’s art.) I was there when she made the determined transition to the creole chanteuse who was born to shine and
“owned” the local songbook of calypsos and 1970s island pop. Shit, I was there when she headlined
Jazz Artists On The Greens - JAOTG in 2017 and graced the cover of my magazine,
Jazz in the Islands.
