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.”

Caribbean Beat Reviews – July/August 2014ª

Jazz Racine Haïti Jacques Schwarz-Bart

Guadeloupean tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart, as a child heard Haitian vodou ritual songs played by his mother and celebrated author, Simone Schwarz-Bart, as a soundtrack to their life of literary idyll in the Caribbean. That memory of the music, and his own yearning to create jazz that is reflective of his French-Caribbean heritage propelled Schwarz-Bart to first perform and later, to record Jazz Racine Haïti as a document of the spiritual journey beyond Haiti all the way back to Africa. To re-arrange vodou music for this band featuring jazz musicians and two houngans (vodou priests) was an exercise to engage with the greatness of this music. “That dialogue with silence [music] creates a doorway to the unknown.” “Legba Nan Baye” fuses, in real time, ritual music and jazz, voice and tenor sax. African-Caribbean grooves that drive this music beyond spirituality achieve a synergy where modern jazz and vodou are one.

  

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TriniJazz Project Various Artists

Michael “Ming “ Low Chew Tung is the architect of 21st century jazz recording and performance in Trinidad and Tobago, following on from mentors like Clive Zanda and Mike Boothman, prolifically producing original music to add to the local canon. Now, he acts as mentor and producer for a new generation of young jazz musicians and singers with a new CD, TriniJazz Project. Polished arrangements and smooth jazz elements shouldn’t suggest any sell-out to the aesthetics of Caribbean luxe tourism or middlebrow leisure culture, but in the hands of the players, Tony Paul (sax), Rodney Alexander (bass), Modupe Onilu (percussion), Dean Williams (guitar) and smoky voiced chanteuse Vaughnette Bigford these ten tunes are a celebration of how we sing, dance and live in these islands. The reframed calypsoes of Bigford, the rhythmic pulse of Onilu, and the improvised joy by the others say “trinijazz” is the definition of accomplished.

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1. More Caribbean Playlist reviews appear in the July/August 2014 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.