Meet the Artists Live Concert Series: Tony Paul celebrates Lord Kitchener and Ralph MacDonald

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After the 2 year shutdown and restriction of the live music industry, Production One Ltd (POL) is returning to live music and jazz concert production. As the company prepares for the relaunch of its signature event, Jazz Artists on the Greens ™ in 2023, it introduces The Meet the Artists Live Concert Series. First up is Trinidadian saxophone jazz lion Tony Paul (Anthony Woodroffe, Jr.), in concert on Saturday, May 7, 2022 from 6:00 PM at the Queens Hall, St. Ann’s.

This popular, in-demand saxophonist and senior instructor of music at UTT-APA will perform two themed sets honouring and celebrating the music and legacies of two of Trinidad and Tobago’s greatest composers, Lord Kitchener and Ralph MacDonald. KITCH, A Centenary Celebration, is a recognition of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Grandmaster in 1922, and in this set, Tony Paul relives those tunes that made us jump and prance, and had steelbands singing; "Pan in Harmony", "Sugar Bum Bum", "Pan in A Minor", "Margie", and more. He notes that, “the difficult thing, sometimes, is to take something that people know so well and re-envision it in a way that people are not going to be like, ‘why did he do that?’ There’s really a lot to work with where Kitchener’s melodies and even the progressions. I’m really looking forward to it.” He adds, “connecting the traditional with the contemporary is one of the ideas I am playing with. In terms of the team, it’s a lot of really really excellent young musicians. So, it means that, as much as these are classic songs, we are able to use some of our youth — I’m probably like the oldest one in the ensemble — to connect it with a modern spin. I’m really excited about the arrangements, I’m really excited about working with these guys and girls.”

All Star Tribute to Ralph MacDonald – a concert review¹

On a picturesque plateau above Arima overlooking the distant Caroni plains, the Holy Cross College Alumni produced a jazz event for the ages—Jazz on D Hill—featuring an All Star Tribute to Ralph MacDonald on Mother’s Day, May 11. The music of the late Trini-by-blood musician, composer and producer resonated in the night as some of the best and most famous musicians in jazz covered the songs spanning MacDonald’s solo career from the 1970s to his untimely death in 2011 and beyond.

Led by trumpeter, Etienne Charles, this aggregation of superstars of jazz included multiple Grammy award winner Marcus Miller on bass guitar, Buddy Williams, one of the most recorded drummers of all time, pannist extraordinaire Robert Greenidge along with other MacDonald album alumnae, vocalists Nadirah Shakoor and Dennis Collins, Barbadian stars Arturo Tappin on tenor saxophone and Nicholas Branker on keyboards, and Charles’ Creole Soul band mates Alex Wintz and Kris Bowers on guitar and keyboards respectively.

The most significant inclusion in this All Star grouping was Gary Fritz, MacDonald’s cousin who had the joyous responsibility of recreating the percussion parts that audiences have grown accustomed to over the years from MacDonald. The classic “Jam on the Groove” has a percussion break that utilized toy hammers that exemplified how the mundane can become extraordinary in the hands of a master. For the disco hit, “Calypso Breakdown,” MacDonald’s son Atiba joined the All Stars to play the iron and enhance the “engine room” to joyous ovation. At that point the rains came down, but the magic lingered.