Jazz in the Islands

Music buzz | Reviews (Nov/Dec 2025) ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 17:30:00 +0000

Dezòd Jean Caze

(Self-released)

On his third album, Miami-based Haitian Jean Caze is a horn specialist — trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, conch shell — who continues his successful blend of Haitian heritage with modern American jazz influences. The interplay between trumpet and saxophone showcases engaged improvisation while the rhythmic bed (djembe and other percussion) allows for feet to chip and hips to move. Thirteen tracks — including a sublime solo version of the Haitian national anthem, “La Dessalinienne” — define new pathways for Caribbean jazz in the world.

Dezòd by Jean Caze

Scratch Band Ron Blake

(7tēn33 Productions)

The minimalist instrumentation of his native quelbe music bands of St Croix, USVI was a starting point for saxophonist and SNL band regular, Ron Blake, to retrace and reform legacy island music production towards new compositions and improvisations. With just double bass and drums in tow, calypsonian Shadow’s “Bassman” is recast as melody and rhythm alone — harmony implied — to great effect. Begun during COVID lockdowns, this LP allows listeners to hear sparse yet soulful one-on-one jazz conversations.

These reviews appear in the November/December 2025 issue of Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Sep/Oct 2025)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 23:06:00 +0000

Introspection Richard Payne

(SojoMusic)

More than 20 years after his Bluemangó debut, St Lucian jazz musician and composer Richard Payne returns with a dizzyingly spectacular album of Creole jazz, featuring hints of broader inspiration than these Antilles. In the opening track, "The Call", we hear wordless vocalisations, reminiscent of the Pat Metheny Group's Grammy-winning, mid-to-late 1980s oeuvre. The album positions original compositions and traditional Creole and "classical" folk songs within a contemporary milieu, showcasing both island innovation and Creole sophistication. Recorded in France with some of the world's finest Creole jazz musicians — many living there — the album showcases Payne's keyboards, anchoring sublime improvisational conversations between trumpet, saxophone, electric guitar, and Kwéyòl voice with elan and elegance. Introspection is a welcome addition to the Caribbean jazz canon.

This review appears in the September/October 2025 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Jul/Aug 2025)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:10:00 +0000

Island to Island Victor Provost and Alex Brown

(Dark Fire Records)

Victor Provost continues to provide listeners with an ever-expanding range of jazz music possibilities for the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago, the steelpan. On this, his third official album — this time with pianist and frequent collaborator Alex Brown — Provost explores more Caribbean and Latin American rhythms including the Venezuelan joropo, the Brazilian baião, and the Creole mazurka of Martinique, and applies the language of jazz (expanded harmonies and improvised melodies) to a satisfying result. Brown counters with three compositions that speak to this tropical jazz vibe with elegant touches of virtuoso playing, allowing for the interplay of steelpan and piano that does not seem overly cerebral but assuredly sensual. The Brown composition “Victor’s Tune” is their 10-minute swan song on the album that encapsulates the idea that calypso and Latin rhythms, together with moving tempos, work well to smartly celebrate pan jazz.

This review appears in the July/August 2025 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Mar/Apr 2025)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sat, 01 Mar 2025 07:14:00 +0000

Penta Ronald Snijders

(Night Dreamer)

Flautist Ronald Snijders is a hero of Surinamese jazz, rarely heard outside that diaspora (the Netherlands and its former colonies). His music on this new album continues his notable efforts over nearly five decades of layering modern jazz fusion music over the native kaseko rhythms, along with regional influences for global uptake. Marketing terms like “ethno-jazz” don’t do this album justice; its grander vision is placing the Caribbean heartbeat front and centre. And it does! Penta by Ronald Snijders

This review appears in the March/April 2025 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Nov/Dec 2024)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 06:52:00 +0000

Psalms and Proverbs Godwin Louis

(Blue Room Music)

For centuries, music has been an adjunct to prayer and liturgical texts. When European colonists came to the “New World”, hymns and psalms were ritualised, with a mission to convert the populations they encountered (and subjugated) to Christianity. In the contemporary Caribbean, the music inspired by these ancient words of faith and control have taken on new dimensions. Haitian-American saxophonist Godwin Louis is a global traveller who has used his Caribbean perspective to reinterpret and remake this body of sacred texts, music, and traditional hymns. Haitian, Cuban, and Trinidadian musicians are all in the mix, transforming the music for your soul into relevant idioms. Hard bop madness blends with Afro-Caribbean rhythms to fine effect. Jazz “with a West Indian accent” imbues this album with a new aura of responsibility for positioning Caribbean creativity and ideas beyond old totems. A Kreyòl djaz celebration for any soul.

This review appears in the November/December 2024 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 21 – Anthony Pierre

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 02:42:00 +0000

Anthony Pierre represents a pioneering effort of a Caribbean musician to establish a sustained island jazz presence in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. That multi-decade journey has resulted, by the 1990s, in the formation of the Caribbean jazz sextet Kalabash, which focused on "using the steel drum as a lead voice in a jazz ensemble, while experimenting with the layering of rich jazz harmonies over the folk and popular rhythms of the Caribbean, from reggae, son and salsa in the north, to calypso, soca, rapso and zouk from the Eastern Caribbean." With two albums under the band's belt, the self-titled debut in 2001, and the follow-up, Keep Them Close in 2013, Pierre relates the historical journey to establish a popular contemporary jazz fusion outfit with an island vibe within the metropolitan and increasingly multicultural space that is Canada's largest city. Tue, 26 Mar, 2024.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 20 – Vaughnette Bigford

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 02:28:00 +0000

Vaughnette Bigford is the Creole Chanteuse, the island songbird who "has made the local [Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean] songbook the new jazz standard in the Caribbean...the premier jazz song stylist in these islands whose palette knows no boundaries. Tone, beauty, presence: the definition of the New World African." An apt description from the pages of Jazz in the Islands magazine that also signals an artist ready to make the leap outwards and internationally. We chat with Vaughnette about her recording and live performance career, and her growing reputation regionally. Her move towards concert design and promotion for her art is a winner that links Caribbean fashion and music in a way that suggests a tropical Met Gala aesthetic. An international career beckons. Sat, 20 Jul 2024

Music buzz | Reviews (Jul/Aug 2024)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 11:00:00 +0000

D-Day Monty Alexander

(Peewee!)

An artist of the calibre of legendary Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander — more than 70 albums over a 6-decade career — when making new music, it can be argued, is “making events, not just records.” A grander vision than a collection of songs, a thematic story woven into a sequence makes this project, D-Day all the more revealing of the grandeur of Commander Alexander. June 6, 2024, marked the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-Day, and Alexander’s 80th birthday. Coincidence allows for a musical celebration that takes the listener on a sonic journey of moods, from pre-war France ambience to “Aggression”, to a contemplation in the midst of war (“Oh Why”), and the subsequent “Restoration” of a nation with victory down the line and the joy of peace. Bob Marley’s classic reggae transcription of Haile Selassie’s 1963 U.N. speech, “War”, spoken by Alexander as a call for peace, bookends this epic tribute to the idea of war and peace.

Monty Alexander "D-Day" by Monty Alexander

Creole Orchestra Etienne Charles

(Culture Shock Music)

The history of creole big bands in the Caribbean harkens back to a golden age in the French Antilles before WWII, and a counter evolution in the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking islands post war. Early islands migrants made a name in orchestras in pre-war UK. Etienne Charles from Trinidad brings a new recognition of a creole aesthetic to jazz music and calypso in his arrangements for big band. The blend of trumpet, trombone and saxes is angular, yet the rhythm never escapes into examples of academic dissonance. The music on this album, a blend of jazz song, swing and calypso, enhanced in a few cases by the sublime voice of Grammy nominee René Marie, swings with a tempo that never accelerates beyond the danceable human heartbeat. The U.S. footprint in the Caribbean, enhanced by the presence of Naval Bases during the War had an impact that resonates in music heard here. Charles nobly captures that ethos returning the gaze magnificently.

Creole Orchestra by ETIENNE CHARLES

These reviews appear in the July/August 2024 issue of Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Mar/Apr 2024)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:28:00 +0000

Gentle Touch Reginald Cyntje

(Self released)

On this his seventh album, Reginald Cyntje — pronounced SIN-chee — continues his musical exploration of emotional themes and the intangible through instrumental jazz. With his trombone as lead, this US Virgin Islander explores in a quiet contemplative way the vulnerability of being in love. “Vulnerability is key to authenticity,” he says. “Being vulnerable takes strength, courage, and emotional intelligence. A gentle touch.” That gentle touch is revealed in five tunes on this short EP. They sashay smoothly, and exist within a fine balance of subdued tempo and an earnest reach for moods that showcase languid tropical vibes through bossa nova, reggae, neo-soul, and jazz. Celebration, hope, empathy, the memory of the first time, and growth are the themes highlighted here. Excellent musicianship by his quartet takes centre stage; Allyn Johnson on piano shines. An island perspective on love is always welcomed. Inspiration and reflection are encouraged.

Gentle Touch by Reginald Cyntje

This review appears in the March/April 2024 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 19 – Garvin Blake

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 19:40:00 +0000

Garvin Blake, pan jazz musician based in New York has re-discovered his intention to preserve and promote the idea of steelpan and jazz as global music. After a pair of significant albums in 1999, Belle Eau Road Blues, and 2015, Parallel Overtones, Blake is now in a place in his life to continue to record and let the music of the steelpan be the 'new voice' in the conversation that is jazz. Island Jazz Chat catches up with Blake on this annual Carnival return to Trinidad to speak about his career, his work with South African Tony Cedras, Vincentian Frankie McIntosh, and a number of important American musicians on the creation of new music for jazz ensembles with a starring role for the steelpan.
Sat, 17 Feb 2024

Programme Date: 17 February 2024
Programme Length: 01:15:47

Etienne Charles: The Road March in Concert – a review²

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000

An edited version of this article appeared in the T&T Newsday as, “Etienne Charles celebrates road march history in concert"

Etienne Charles’s engagement with the Carnival and its music is ongoing — his albums Kaiso (2011) and Carnival: The Sound of a People, Vol. 1 (2017) and the subsequent live performances here, the evolution of Carnival music on the road with his music/masquerade band Riddim, Brass & Mas, his recording kaiso/soca collaborations with Kes, Terri Lyons, David Rudder — and on Thursday, February 1 at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain, he delved deeper into the magic of this music that moves a society and defines celebration. The Road March in Concert was a review of those songs that are the most popular song on the road, at Carnival competition spaces, in fetes.

The concert began as a historical showcase of the chants, lavways and leggos of Emancipated folk, and almost sequentially moved towards a veneration of popular calypsos and soca tunes, highlighting the personalities who made these Carnival music hits. It was a timeline; what began as a contemplation of music history, ended in celebration and the cheeky marketing of Charles’s 2024 Carnival band, Magnificent. And that was a good thing as it targeted the two aspects of an audience in search of Carnival entertainment outside the sweaty jam of modern fetes. That juxtaposition of contemplation and celebration is at the heart of Carnival and was the ultimate ethos of the event.

Starting the concert with a drum-accompanied chant of “Pas de six ans. Point de six ans!” (“No to six years. No more six years!”) — the refrain of the crowd gathered to hear the conditional emancipation proclamation by the governor in Port of Spain on August 1, 1884 — Charles invited the audience to interpret this as the first road march, the protest song of the people, possibly sung by prison turnkey Congo Barra. From this noble genesis, the audience was then led through a few patois songs that represented the zeitgeist of an era before organised competitions with rules and government subvention: the 1899 chantwell lavway “Prisonié Lévéz”, itself being a version of an 1830s kaiso; jamette matador Sophie Mattaloney’s reworking of a Guadeloupean folk song as “Pauline” from 1906; Lionel Belasco appropriation of a Martiniquan melody “L’Année Passée” in 1907 later to become Lord Melody’s “Rum & Coca Cola” tune, and; Wilmoth Houdini’s “Sly Mongoose” from 1923.

The use of the genius of jazz to reconsider history and legacy as art is a trope of Etienne Charles in his recording and performing career from the beginning. From local folklore characters to historical incidents in the Black Atlantic like the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, and to the Carnival as a whole and its development in the society, the blending of local rhythms and jazz harmonies to add context and contrast to ideas continues. From this point on in the show, Charles grouped the songs by the artists, and in one important case, the arranger Pelham Goddard, the “architect” of 13 road marches from Charlie’s Roots frontline singers Tambu Herbert and David Rudder to Calypso Rose and Superblue.

Cuatro and clarinet, cajon and marac, and the Creole piano of Cuban pianist Axel Tosca and the chantuelle horn of Charles laid the foundation for a journey through the Golden Age pre-Independence road marches of Roaring Lion (Mary Anne, 1945), Lord Kitchener (Jump in the Line, 1946), and Mighty Sparrow (Jean and Dinah, 1956). The 1955 outlier, “The Happy Wanderer” (“valderi-valdera”) by the Obernkirchen Children’s Choir, is still fairly well known, creating an interactive audience participation.

The songs of Kitchener were sung by his son, Kernal Roberts, just as “Soca Baptist” by Superblue, then Blue Boy, was sung by his daughter Terri Lyons giving credence to the idea that soca genes are a thing; look at the Lord Shorty clan. Capping the first half of the concert were ethnic jazz fusion reinterpretations of Patrice Roberts’ Band of the Year, and Bunji Garlin’s Hard Fete that incorporated Haitian rara rhythms including the playing of konets (metal horns similar to the plastic vuvuzelas that dominated the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa) by Charles and saxophonist Godwin Louis of Haiti.

Critical Sun was an opening second half interlude by a reformed youth group that positioned raw personal rapso and spoken word — “me was not born a criminal” — within a framework that sees the broader range of calypso. Creole Chanteuse Vaughnette Bigford, reflecting a similar fashion palette as Charles, sang Duke’s “Thunder” and Shadow’s “Stranger” both tunes economising the calypso brio and adding a touch of vocal sophistication to the accustomed calypso phrasing and tone.

The movement towards party songs introduced the front line singers of Riddim Brass and Mas, Lima Calbio and Roger George both interpreting the road marches of Sanelle Dempster, Calypso Rose, Tambu and Superblue. The arc of music created by Pelham Goddard for many artists transformed the sound of Carnival and made legends. Nigel Lewis sang his “Moving to the Left” and reprised the songs of Kitchener. The big surprise of the night was the appearance of David Rudder to sing his “Bahia Girl” creating pandemonium in the Hall, to be followed by Mical Teja to sing what many are predicting would be the 2024 road march, “DNA” and his “Runaway”. More pandemonium.

The scarves of Magnificent danced onstage as Riddim, Brass & Mas sold a Carnival experience. The audience was dancing by this time so that exchange of energy was palpable, and stamina became a necessity as the concert approached the three and a half hour mark. MX Prime of Ultimate Rejects closed out the show with an extended set including the biggest road march winner on record “Full Extreme”, and a new track “Unforgettable Feeling”. The memorable impact of Rudder’s performance — surprise entrance, solid quick performance, sudden exit leaving patrons wanting more — was a template that could have been used to ensure that a performance did not become forgettable.

Barbadian poet genius Edward Kamau Brathwaite in the 1960s wrote that, “The West Indian musical form, where it has any general area of application at all, is basically a music for dancing.” He could not reconcile that original jazz from this region was “jazz”. He came too early. Etienne Charles has shown how the music that moves the people at Carnival everywhere can be interpreted within a jazz framework and still make people dance, celebrate and contemplate. The Road March in Concert is a template for reconsidering all the music that comes out of Carnival in T&T.

Music Buzz | Reviews (Jan/Feb 2024)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 12:07:00 +0000

Of Love & Life Ava Hutchinson

(Self released)

Ava Hutchinson is a treasure in her native Trinidad and Tobago, carving out a niche as one of the few female jazz pianists leading a band. On this, her debut album, another side of Hutchinson is revealed: she is a talented composer, brave enough to bare her inner self in lyrics that transcribe her life and loves, good and bad. The melodies are noteworthy with a keen sense of style, and are enhanced by a production from innovative producer Roger Israel and a crack cohort of local musicians. That support becomes necessary to move the music towards a point of distinction, allowing the 18 songs here to provide a clearer picture of Hutchinson’s life. We are no longer left to wonder. Musical autobiographies can either be rigid relaying of facts as rhyming couplets, or figurative lines that allow listeners to fill in some blanks. This album captures a life with lyrics that sing, with words that neatly identify remembered relationships and emotional ups and downs. Revealing.

This review appears in the January/February 2024 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Music buzz | Reviews (Nov/Dec 2023)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 06:10:00 +0000

Re-Potted Jonathan Scales Fourchestra

(Le'Rue)

The angular harmonies and rhythms of modern jazz fusion present a rare context for the steelpan to interact, to play to its potential, to exist. Jonathan Scales is an American musician and composer recently transplanted to Brooklyn, New York. And in his hands, the instrument — in the company of his trio’s sublime bass and poly-rhythmic drums — heralds another way to engage with one’s soul outside a Carnivalesque celebration. On this, his eighth album of steelpan jazz, he explores “what it means to ‘uproot and replant’ into a more expansive yet more challenging environment”. How that translates on the instrument is a heady mix of musical modes, melodic adventures, and varying soundscapes — rap, wordless vocals, found-object percussion, strings and horns — where challenging rhythmic changes make for a focus on how this juxtaposition of instruments brings resolution to a journey. Steelpan, “the audacity of Creole imagination”, has evolved beyond the islands.

RE-POTTED by Jonathan Scales Fourchestra

Live in San Francisco, vol. 1 Etienne Charles

(Culture Shock Music)

Prolific recording artist and composer Etienne Charles is taking his Caribbean jazz trumpet to important venues to play to audiences everywhere the music gleaned from the wanderings of his Creole soul. The Black Cat, “in the historic jazz district of Tenderloin in beautiful San Francisco”, is the setting for the recording of a live album that excerpts his Carnival opus; charts the arc of Caribbean composers Lord Kitchener, Bob Marley, Winifred Atwell, and Juan Tizol; and incorporates his new composition, “Greenwood”, which elucidates a monumental episode in American history. “Greenwood” musically translates the violence, chaos, angst, and pathos of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre against African-Americans in “Black Wall Street”. The wilful attempt by others to erase this history is countered here by transcendent musicianship and sound recording clarity that enlivens excavated histories and recalled stories from survivors. One can’t wait for Vol 2.

Album available exclusively from the Etienne Charles website

Mango Hugh Masekela & Siparia Deltones (Single)

(Monk Music/Gallo Record Company)

Sitting under a fruit tree has been inspirational — for centuries. The story of Isaac Newton under an apple tree coming up with the theory of gravity is apocryphal. For Trinidadian jazz musician Carlton “Zanda” Alexander, a mango tree was the key to a composition that celebrates tropical idyll. Sitting under de mango tree / Watching baby mangoes fall / Making room for more to come, with tiny stems and all / Suddenly, I heard a song / Dancing through the leaves / A lonely mango fall. That song has taken a long journey to release. A decade in the making, a musical project (From Siparia to Soweto) among Zanda, the iconic South African flugelhornist “Bra” Hugh Masekela (1939–2018), pannist Akinola Sennon and his steelband Siparia Deltones in Trinidad was a major collaborative cultural event on the island. With its soothing, twee, island vibe, this lilting Caribbean ballad sung by Masekela is a hopeful entré into the long-awaited album’s release.

These reviews appear in the November/December 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 18 – Etienne Charles

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 02:39:00 +0000

Etienne Charles is a creole soul. A Caribbean intellectual and sublime musician who positions the "native gaze" to reflect a new perspective to the wider Americas beyond a boundary. From Trinidad, with a trumpet in his hand and a rhythm in his veins, he has, over an 18-year recording career, observed and composed music that "re-charts the ruins," excavates supressed histories, and elevates island ideas over metropolitan ideals. Post-pandemic, he was busy with his "San Juan Hill: New York Story" commission from the NY Philharmonic, and the release of 2 limited edition albums: unique quartet music, Traces, and a live recording of his Creole Soul band in San Francisco where a new piece recalling the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre had its debut. With more recordings to come, the creole soul never sleeps. Thu, 28 Sep 2023

Programme Date: 28 September 2023
Programme Length: 00:58:56

Music buzz | Reviews (Sep/Oct 2023)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:04:00 +0000

The Lone Pilgrim Woods

(Jamwax)

Trinidadian Wilfred Trevor Woodley — “Woods” to his friends and associates — was a prolific composer, and innovative jazz musician, whose oeuvre was disappointingly never professionally recorded before his death in 2010. His life was one of pioneering creativity, and unfortunate personal tragedy. Beginning with his calypso jazz innovations in the early 1960s UK, he was shunned by media there. And for his audacity to marry a white socialite, he was possibly framed for an uncommitted crime. Aptly titled The Lone Pilgrim, this new three-song EP begins the worthy task of bringing his unique compositions, possibly in the hundreds, to the world. These songs retain the magic of surprise that is a hallmark of jazz, and centres the impetus around an Afro-Caribbean base of rhythm and instrumentation; Jason Baptiste plays steelpan here. This is a heritage keepsake and the start to a promised tribute collection by this international band of devoted musicians.

The Lone Pilgrim by Woods

Live Mario Canonge Trio

(Aztec Music)

This live album by Martiniquan master pianist Mario Canonge and his fellow high-accolade Antillean musicians — Michel Alibo on bass and Arnaud Dolmen on drums — is a record of possibilities to make the Creole universal. Canonge is a singular icon in jazz circles here in the Caribbean and in France (where he is now based), who has the ability to incorporate the French Antillean rhythms and melodies into a jazz setting that is admirably effective in bringing the region’s music onto a global stage. This new album, his 17th, brings these talented, individual musicians into a collaboration that emphasises their ability to subtly make zouk, gwo ka, bélé, and other French-Caribbean grooves and genres a base for improvisation. Tackling some of his previous compositions alongside new ones in this trio format demands individual talent to shine, yet makes space for sublime musical conversation. One hour’s worth of Caribbean elegance.

Mario Canonge Trio Live by Mario Canonge

Kula Wroko Kibri Fra Fra Sound

(Pramisi Records)

Fra Fra Sound is an instrumental jazz big band — born in Suriname more than 40 years ago and now resident in the Netherlands — which utilises the native genre kaseko (a complex fusion of styles derived from Africa, Europe, and the Americas) to make its music a tangible tribute to the ethos of Caribbean celebration. The marketing blurb tells us that the album’s title “stands for the process of navigating, creating, documenting and continuation.” Effectively, this new album touches on the musical range of the band over its history, and signifies that the music is still evolving, and still moving people here and there to dance. Songs sung in Surinamese Creole (Sranan Tongo) invite new listeners to discover the richness of Caribbean culture and language. At a deeper level, this album’s music, we are told, is a contemplation of 150 years since the abolition of slavery in Suriname and the Netherland Antilles and, inspiringly, a reflection of another Caribbean.

Kula Wroko Kibri by Fra Fra Sound

These reviews appear in the September/October 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Freedom Jazz Jam, a review²

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 03:59:00 +0000

An edited version of this review first appeared in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday as “Vaughnette Bigford jazzes up the Bowl” on 30 July 2023.

As the unending post-Carnival 2023 jazz season overlaps with the 2024 Carnival band launch season, the Naparima Bowl became an all-encompassing sold-out space for live music magic and fashion statement making. Vaughnette Bigford, the Creole Chanteuse, on Saturday, July 22 continued her evolution from “jazz singer” to producer of live music experiences that go beyond the stage to touch and encourage audiences to show their true colours. Freedom Jazz Jam was described by her as a “celebration of us,” and on the weekend before the Emancipation Day festivities the Jam manifested in a real creative industry mix of music and fashion, pride and pulchritude.

An hour before the showtime was a pre-concert reception in the Bowl’s courtyard that showcased more than fan appreciation for this southern songbird, but a manifestation of local fashion design and couture celebration, and a display of individual attachment to heritage in all the colours under an African sun. Local designer names were spoken: Prindela Fashions, Kimo, Diane Carlton Caribbean, Rack.PDH plus, Nadroj, and others that put into perspective that real commercial synergy of sectors in the creative industries at this event.

A Caribbean aesthetic that interpreted an echo of Africa, in drums and rhythms that welcomed patrons, in the regal draping of fabric over hips and hair of the many women present — women significantly dominate the audience demographic — in the décor and merchandising choices, singularly and collectively were hallmarks for a holistic experience defining freedom.

But this was primarily a music event, and that aspect of the experience was not short-changed. In the cool Auditorium that evening, stage production design superseded other technical aspects in this show, enhancing what would become ninety minutes of curated music excellence. Local designers again were named: Zadd & Eastman for Bigford’s outfits, Ecliff Elie for master of ceremonies Adrian Don Mora’s suit, and Prindela Fashions for kitting out the musicians and background vocalists on stage. A poem celebrating the African spirit in these islands by Roger Bonair-Agard followed by a sung Orisha chant to Ogun, made famous by Ella Andall and perfected by Bigford, prefaced the musical journey that went beyond her usual Trinidad and Tobago songbook sojourn towards a global mix of the African diasporic musical experience.

Songs from the African continent, the Caribbean, South America and the U.S. made for a recognition of the diversity of the African presence in the global world of popular song. Songs from Brazil (Milton Nascimento’s “Cravo e canela”), Jamaica (Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me [No, No, No]”) and Trinidad and Tobago (Shadow’s “Looking For Horn”, Nelson’s “One Family”, Merchant’s “Um-ba-yao”, and more) mingled with songs from Tanzania (Adam Salim’s “Malaika” made famous by Miriam Makeba) South Africa (Hugh Masekela’s “Soweto Blues” and Makeba’s “Pata Pata”) and Nigeria (Burna Boy’s “Anybody”). Swahili, Xhosa, the pidgin English of Afrobeats music, and Português brasileiro were all the languages wonderfully sung, adding to the idea that a Vaughnette Bigford concert requires an international mindset and freeing from the narrow strictures of “we own ting.”

The African-American retro girl-group pop of Sister Sledge’s “Frankie” segued perfectly with New Orleans funk of The Meters’ “Hey Pokey A-Way” allowing the audience to change the old creole Mardi Gras Indian battle cry, “Tu way pocky way,” and let ring the expletive chant heard at many a party and school bazaar from the 1970s. Decorum be damned! Is freedom time now.

The local songbook, for which Bigford is well known for reinterpreting with an ear to diverse world music influences was not discarded. Together with the aforementioned songs, “Reason”, a recent original from her former drummer Khalen Alexander of Tobago, gave Bigford a platform to give a voice to kaisojazz harmony. With arrangements by, among others, her accompanists, the highly regarded musicians and recording artists Michael ‘Ming’ Low Chew Tung and Theron Shaw, the music of the islands swung in a way that dancing was inevitable. Shoes were discarded early. House rules be damned.

A highlight of the evening was the walk-on by Bigford’s 9-year-old son, Isaiah, to sing Nelson’s “One Family” with her. A natural entertainer with no shyness or sense of awe. He owned that five minutes of fame. Part of that re-orienting of the native mindset was the mid-show live performance of new tunes by kaisojazz band élan parlē lead by Low Chew Tung, from their recently released album 47 on Strand Cape Town, an album inspired by a trip to South Africa that melds rhythms, vistas and encounters there to create a new way to converse with local music.

The after concert pan jazz lime on the Bowl compound featuring the Siparia Deltones with its leader, recording artist Akinola Sennon, celebrated the cumulative impact of the Freedom Jazz Jam. An all-inclusive event with cocktails, fried ice cream, bespoke teas, and meat and vegetarian options for finger food, all with lingering patrons dressed to the nines, put this event over the top for value for money. As noted before, the almost 85% female patronage — “it had a sprinkling of man,” according to Bigford — and the attendant fashion element that is a signature of Vaughnette Bigford’s many themed concerts, puts truth to the social media joke that “a VB concert is the local Met Gala.”

That mix should be a signal to personnel at FashionTT and MusicTT, the State-owned companies under the Ministry of Trade dealing with the fashion and music industries respectively, to be present in order to map this event as a bellwether and template for how live music concerts, and local jazz concerts specifically, can be and are economic multipliers within the creative industries locally. The local siloed, time-restricted music industry needs the example of Vaughnette Bigford to break the artificial barriers that sometimes curb our understanding of our music, and our potential to discover a new way of seeing ourselves.

Music buzz | Reviews (Jul/Aug 2023)ª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 14:50:00 +0000

47 On Strand Élan Parlē

(Parlemusik)

The album title references an address in Cape Town, South Africa, and a point of reflection and unique perspective for a Trinidadian wanderer there. In this instance, that explorer is the architect of 21st century kaisojazz (calypso jazz): Michael Low Chew Tung, élan parlē, himself. From his vantage point, literally in a hotel across the street, he mined the influences gained from seeing, hearing, and being there. The energy of the street, the vista of Table Mountain in the distance, the percussion and sounds of a distant Africa move his compositions towards a new centre for musical innovation. Continuing the exercise of expanding the vocabulary of kaisojazz — begun in his 2013 album, I Am Élan Parlē — the music here occupies a contemporary jazz profile. Tunes like “Load Shedding” and the title track don’t burden the listener with complex solos, but marry the sonic aesthetic of island elegance with a modern African presence for expanded possibilities.

47 On Strand by Elan Parlé

This review appears in the July/August 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival 2023 – a review series²

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Fri, 26 May 2023 20:57:00 +0000

Once again, the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority invited me and facilitated my coverage of its signature festival tourism event, the Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, for the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Old friendships rekindled and new adventures encountered as this mammoth event has grown, and approaches its optimal dimensions. As far as Caribbean music festivals go, Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival is defining what is possible regionally, and settling in among the top global music festivals, jazz and otherwise. Here are the articles:

Dateline: Sat, 13 May 2023
Headline: Kingdom Night begins a renewed St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival

Saint Lucia’s hallmark festival tourism event, the St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival is back with a bang after the three-year stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And with a change of government on the island, the return of the festival to the Pigeon Island National Landmark, its home since inception over 25 years ago, brings it back to the standard and layout that brought visitors in large numbers all these years..

On May 10, the now multi-themed festival kicked off with Kingdom Night, which featured global gospel superstars, Cece Winans and Sinach, along with a host of St. Lucian praise and worship artists, all sharing the stage in front of throngs of committed fans and believers. The demand for this show was evident as people flocked to the venue before the two hour pre-show gate opening time. Pastors, the “marish and the parish,” and the praise worthy all flocked there, “to be sanctified,” as my St. Lucian driver, Willett, noted. His cynicism was acknowledged but the audience was willing and able…

Click here to read more

Dateline: Sun, 14 May 2023
Headline: Pure Jazz defines the Festival as a Caribbean space

On May 11, the St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival continued it themed nights with the aptly titled Pure Jazz featuring Uruguayan pianist Gustavo Casenave and St Lucian saxophonist and Caribbean jazz icon Luther François. Held at the 400-seat Ramp at Rodney Bay, a purpose built fabric building that facilitates jazz in an intimate space by the sea, this show showcased virtuosity and Caribbean excellence.

Pure jazz, as its name suggests, veers towards the layman’s understanding of what is jazz. Not the freedom associated with improvisation, but dissonance and dexterity that suggest risk, skill and practice, and music that can not be danced to. That was clearly identified with Casenave’s performance. Classically trained, as most musicians of worth are, he balanced studied technique with a keen sense of improvisation and abandon…

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Dateline: Tue, 16 May 2023
Headline: St Lucia Jazz gets hard fete from Bunji and Fay Ann

The consensus among the 5,000 plus crowd at Pigeon Island National Landmark for the third night of the St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, May 12, (Caribbean Fusion) was not so much how great Caribbean music was this night, but how great was this traffic to leave this venue that night.

The festival was back to its maximal best as the weekend shows increased in popularity, with reported sold-out VIP experiences. The ripple effect of this grandeur was the logistical nightmare of moving too many people in and out. But this was relieved, temporarily, by the music — reggae, soca, and dancehall — that delivered potential lasting memories…

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Dateline: Wed, 17 May 2023
Headline: Afrobeats chaos adds drama to World Beats marathon at St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival

From early in the day on May 13, (World Beats) the picnic vibe was prominent at the St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, as evidenced by beach chairs, blankets and a general vibe looking for entertainment.

But African excellence was dashed by a report of an “altercation” between event organiser St Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) and one of the Afrobeats stars backstage, cutting their performance short and resulting in the non-performance of both Joeboy and advertised headliner Kizz Daniel.

Reports from an SLTA official said after hearing an Afrobeats artist, the DJ/hype man for the Afrobeats stars, had freely used expletives to exhort the crowd, “Make some f—ing noise,” a high official of SLTA gave a stern warning to stop cursing onstage, since children were present at the family-oriented event…

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Dateline: Fri, 19 May 2023
Headline: Sting and Shaggy rock on stage

The final night of the St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival on Mother’s Day May 14, dubbed The Ultimate Celebration, a celebration of St Lucian and Caribbean music excellence alongside a pop music living legend, was, for all intents and purposes, Sting & Shaggy in Concert and the rest.

The disparity between the headliners and the opening acts in their relative successes and accolades may look like an opportunity for connection and collaboration to get a toe in the door of a global music career, but on a local level, and certainly for this festival in 2023, some opportunities were missed.

There is no doubt that all the opening acts for Sting and Shaggy that night, exclusively St Lucian, are household names here: singers Irvin Ace Loctar and Teddyson John, and musicians Barbara Cadet and Ronald “Boo” Hinkson…

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Playlist (May/June 2023) | Music Buzzª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Tue, 02 May 2023 00:05:00 +0000

Traces Etienne Charles

(Culture Shock Music)

One result of migration, forced and voluntary, is a blossoming of new music cultures. On his new album Traces — a limited edition in both vinyl and CD — Trinidadian jazz musician Etienne Charles continues his exposition of “New World” stories through music genres born where disparate peoples meet. Charles finds catalysts for composition in his colleagues’ origins. Performed here by a stellar quartet — each member with a different birthplace — playing cello, cuatro, double bass and trumpet, this album’s music reflects their individual cultures and traditions. Antillean waltzes and biguine from the Caribbean, festejo, merengue, joropo and choro from South America all provide sonic connections to tales, tributes and the legacies that define an expansive Creole soul. Charles the musician is the fortunate traveller who gloriously and majestically adds to his oeuvre by mining his African sojourns, his Latin American expeditions, and his Caribbean recollections and discoveries.

• Vinyl copies of this album are available exclusively here.
• CD copies of this album are avalable exclusively here.

This review appears in the May/June 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

After COVID, a return to island jazz

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:54:00 +0000

This article appears in the March/April 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine as “A return to Island jazz.”

The COVID-19 pandemic over the last three years wreaked havoc on island tourism and decimated the live music industry worldwide. A nexus for live music and tourism in the islands is the enduring island jazz festival, set for a reintroduction, a rebound and a reset in 2023.

In the Spring 1993 issue of Caribbean Beat, writer BC Pires noted that there are “more than 30 jazz festivalse very year in the Caribbean and most Caribbean people have never been to one … And there is a good reason for this: most people in the Caribbean don’t really need jazz — they’ve got perfectly good music of their own, thank you.”

However, 30 years beyond Pires’ declaration, perpetual in-the-red economics, ageing demographics, and changing tastes have diminished the faddish-ness of the island jazz fest as a dreamed-of getaway — whittling down the “more than 30 jazz festivals” to fewer than a dozen.

While a few island tourist boards and culture ministries still hold fast to the belief that the island jazz festival is an important magnet for tourists in low season, the remaining festivals have evolved to redefine those destinations by looking inwards.

Notably, the jazz festival in the Caribbean has never been the same as the jazz festival in North America or Europe. For the fortunate traveller to and among the islands, the experience is a unique one. And the first step in understanding that experience is the artist and his/her music — those Caribbean artists who are defining the sound of jazz in the Caribbean and from the Caribbean, and positioning themselves and their music to be the new magnets for the masses.

Elan Trotman from Barbados.

Arturo Tappin from Barbados.

Nicholas Brancker from Barbados.

Rodney 'Boo' Hinkson from Saint Lucia.

Teddyson John from Saint Lucia.

Michele Henderson from Dominica.

Chucho Valdés from Cuba.

Boston-based contemporary jazz saxophonist and prolific recording artist Elan Trotman of Barbados has a formula that guarantees an audience; he brings his American audience to the island and assures the “heads in beds” result that island tourist boards enjoy. Having the benefit of a late jazz season date, his Barbados Jazz Excursion (12–15 October) was able to test the waters in 2022, and is expanding its target audience to other islands.

In St Lucia, guitarist Ronald “Boo” Hinkson is a national cultural icon linking one of the pioneering jazz festivals in the Caribbean, St Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival (5–14 May), to audiences regionally and internationally. A festival regular, his presence bridges the festival’s origins in traditional jazz excellence with its evolution towards regional talent as inspiration and influence.

Both Trotman and Hinkson, along with St Lucian Teddyson John and Barbadians Nicholas Brancker and Arturo Tappin, represent one modern identity of Caribbean jazz: a tropical crossover/easy-listening sonic profile on many recordings, which serves as a jumping-off point for visitors to those festivals.

Individually, these artists have positioned their music to be palatable to a wide cross-section of music lovers who are eschewing improvisational excess for reframed island vibes.

Global artists share stages with local talent at the Tobago Jazz Experience (20–23 April), which has a similar profile to St Lucia’s, focusing on the tourist in paradise and the Caribbean luxe resort sojourner, thus signifying an awakening to new music possibilities that align with popular tastes without dilution of a native expression.

“[T]hey’ve got perfectly good music of their own, thank you” is becoming the new way of reframing destination music festivals.

In Dominica, Michele Henderson and guitarist Cameron Pierre figure prominently in how that island’s Jazz ‘n Creole Festival (30 April) is growing to be a heritage festival locating an Antillean pulse — or more specifically, the Kwéyòl vibe — in improvised music and singing.

Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana all offer similar yet unique island jazz experiences from September to November that define Francophone Caribbean native music — zouk, cadance, bélé, gwo ka, biguine — through the lens of jazz improvisation and fusion.

This trend is paralleled in Trinidad with its series of one-day mini-festivals beginning one month after its mammoth Carnival through the final weekend in May — Jazz Artists on the Greens (25 March); I AM Jazz (9 April); North Coast Jazz (27 May), and more — that all benefit from a stable of local musicians continuing their exploration and evolution of kaisojazz (calypso jazz) and steelpan jazz.

The Port-au-Prince International Jazz Festival, popularly known as PAPJAZZ Festival Haïti, helmed by local musician Joël Widmaier, was an outlier in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic, having their annual festival as a hybrid event: in-person live and livestreamed online. It returned in January for its 16th edition at various locations around the northern city, Cap-Haïtien.

Determined resilience is an apt description for the ethos of this festival, while another would be contented nationalism. Haitian musicians and their music, which celebrates konpa and kreyòl and juxtaposes jazz with jubilation, are a main part of the programming of the festival. The Haitian diaspora was showcased to a global streaming audience. Montreal-born woodwind specialist Jowee Omicil, whose music is wildly described as having “a cosmopolitan sense of groove and injected with hints of voodoo blues”, was planned to appear in the 2023 edition.

Like Haiti, the jazz festival season in Cuba also begins in January. The longest-running regional jazz festival, the International Jazz Festival of Havana, celebrated its 38th edition in January. Also called Jazz Plaza Havana, it showcases both élan and patriotism from native musicians — from the legends Chucho Valdés and Bobby Carcassés to a new generation displaying jazz performance excellence. You can always expect a learning experience as the dynamism of Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz is explored here.

Beyond poverty and politics, real and imagined, a sense of dignified originality reigns in these two island jazz festivals.

Of course, the next step to appreciating the recovering island jazz festivals is being there. With the lifting of travel restrictions and opening of island borders, visitors and regional travellers are on the move again. Caribbean Airlines boasts direct connections to any island with a jazz festival from hubs in the Caribbean and North America, and island-hopping flights and ferries serve to fill in the gaps.

Optimum tourism and travel are still hampered by high prices brought on by increasing fuel costs, immovable and significant taxes on travel into and between islands, and by other man-made obstacles. Flying into Cuba from some countries is an expensive political act. Nevertheless, exploring myriad spaces and navigating labyrinthine routes to experience Caribbean jazz is still worth it.

Being there — hearing and experiencing the music and festival vibe — is a spirited complement to the typical sun, sand, and sea island adventure. St Lucian Derek Walcott’s absurdist inference from his Nobel Lecture — “[a] culture based on joy is bound to be shallow” — is upended by the recognition and curation of the new island jazz festival experience in the Caribbean, which takes into consideration the Creole context, the vernacular expression, and the melodies, rhythms and languages of the region.

What these festivals show is that beyond defining the destinations, there has been a growth of nascent music industries and the development of a cohort of native musicians whose careers have taken on a global perspective since the pandemic began.

It’s not a contradiction nor an incongruity to suggest that island jazz festivals are world class. They are reflections of the music and artists that makes island cultures resilient, important and impressive.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 17 - Jacques Schwarz-Bart

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000

Jacques Schwarz-Bart, from Guadeloupe, can be considered a Caribbean jazz explorer who is mining musical histories and creating new experiences based on tradition, heritage, spirituality, and a full understanding of the Caribbean legacy of being at the centre of many cultural moments in the Americas. His dual Afro-Caribbean and Jewish heritage has allowed him to make bold musical statements, both live and on record, that re-chart the ruins, and to place in the wider public consciousness the music of Haitian Vodou, Guadeloupean gwo ka rhythms, Hebrew liturgical chants, and other creole spiritual conversations all resonating with a jazz vocabulary. From neo-soul and jazz to introspective takes on the spectrum of African diasporic music and retentions, Schwarz-Bart continues to expand the Caribbean Jazz footprint globally with tours, recordings and teaching. Tue, 10 Jan 2023

Programme Date: 10 January 2023
Programme Length: 01:31:32

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 16 - Leon 'Foster' Thomas

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 04:42:00 +0000

Leon 'Foster' Thomas, contemporary steelpan jazz musician and composer from Trinidad, and at present, Caribbean Jazz researcher now based in the UK, chats on his career and the continuing journey to move the steelpan to the front of the jazz bandstand with his recordings and performances. His compositions, what he calls his "book of stories", position the instrument as a transcriber of emotions that allows for a dynamic range of sensitive touch and dexterity. His new album, Calasanitus due in March 2023, explores a range of topics that get to the heart of what Thomas sees as lives lived and the fates of people moving among the Americas. Mon, 9 Jan 2023

Programme Date: 09 January 2023
Programme Length: 01:35:39

Playlist (January/February 2023) | Music Buzzª

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 15:36:00 +0000

Calasanitus Leon Foster Thomas

(Krossover Jazz)

The steelpan, as an instrument to translate emotion into sound, does not get the high-profile notice that, say, a violin or piano gets. With a history of not yet 100 years, that may be inevitable — but in the hands of a master, one can hear the expressive potential of the instrument. Thomas’ rapid-fire dexterity takes a back seat to his improvisational elan on this, his fourth album, to let his compositions breathe and his guest soloists fly. The album is a tribute to his late mother and her imparted life lessons, and its songs follow a range of ideas and moods — from heartache to joy, contemplation to memory. Steelpan, piano, saxophone and trumpet dramatically converse with each other to tell stories: a parent’s sacrifice, an immigrant’s dream, the migrant’s challenges, a happy evocation of childhood, a meditation on the end of Caribbean life, and more. This mature reflection — both good and sad, all well played — makes this album a keeper.

Calasanitus by Leon Foster Thomas

This review appears in the January/February 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.

Island Jazz Chat: Episode 15 - Richard Bailey

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 21:08:00 +0000

Richard Bailey, born in Guyana (then British Guiana), raised in Trinidad, and long resident in England, is the go-to drummer for major recording and touring artists in the UK since the 1970s. Jamming and recording with the likes of Jeff Beck and Bob Marley as a teenager, Bailey was a pivotal member of the new generation of musicians who forged a funky and jazzy new direction for British music from the 1970s onwards that reflected the rhythmic influences from the former colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. His bands Batti Mamzelle and The Breakfast Band, as well as his contributions to the groups Gonzalez, Incognito, and Citrus Sun lead to solo recording work that cements the Caribbean contribution to UK acid jazz and evolves kaisojazz and Caribbean jazz towards a universal recognition at the turn of the century. Thu, 1 Dec 2022

Programme Date: 1 December 2022
Programme Length: 01:23:50

A Coda before Christmas – A Celebration of Us

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel A. Campbell) — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 06:37:00 +0000

Someone chook meh for my impressions of Vaughnette Bigford's latest musical project, “RWB: A Celebration Of Us, last night at the Central Bank Auditorium: “Oh God, yuh know you and dem words nah.” I won’t be long.

Last night was necessary. It was a coda alright, but also the re-opening of our live engagement with quality, our communal face-to-face and tangible expressions of joy before the seasons of celebration where brio and bacchanal reign.

Class is class, we know that. When you have the best musicians on the island arranging and playing, and intelligence brimming from the mind of the Creole Chanteuse, you know it’s not just a succession of local songs that sometimes linger in our memories, but an investigation and revelation of the possibilities of that catalogue of Trinidad and Tobago songs that sometimes thrives here and there, or sometimes remains desolate at the bottom of the barrel of commercial appeal in these islands. It’s hard here for a songwriter; a seasonal approval, or a permanent neglect for the next new fad from Trinidad, the new tourist leggo from Tobago. The local ebb and flow of appreciation and demand is constant.

Vaughnette brought back some nuggets from an era when local musicians were battling for appreciation from foreign taste-makers, media programmers and record labels, to make it, and sometimes winning. Some migrated, many stayed and worked a system that either rewards or discards. Vaughnette brought those songs back to life. Ming (Michael Low Chew Tung), Theron Shaw and Rodney Alexander worked their magic to make them brand new for older fans, and intriguing for new acolytes to the majesty of the local songbook.

The production was near flawless. One can niggle over misspellings of artiste credits or perceived emotional disconnect during a song, but as a package, Vaughnette has set the standard for singer showcase concerts. We know that, but there was more. “Born to Shine” met “Born to Shine”: Carol Addison, the original singer, was present for Vaughnette Bigford in her space. That is huge. Roger Bonair-Agard's griot vibrations made New World African citizens, and everybody else who have ears to hear, say yes: Pan is ours, pan is Black. “We declare by the Orishas that the oil drum is Ogun’s…We declare pan, Sacred and Black!” Ray Holman strummed a guitar to recover precious local memories from two generations ago, a living lyrical portrait of us. The bhangra/soca mashup with urban Qawwali song styling of Neval Chatelal is us. The rock and roll, the reggae, the kaisojazz, the calypso, soca and elevated island pop music is us. It’s all of us. "RWB: A Celebration of Us" delivered a reminder, that we are not circumscribed by narrow ideas of who we are or can be.

As we move into 2023, let’s hope that we can continue to commercially validate what she presents, much like we did this year, and in 2021, during those windows of COVID-19 relief for gatherings. This tribe, this fandom looks to brighter things as we reclaim what we own, what we sing and play, what and who we are. The celebration continues.

I’ll leave it there for now. More in my mind, but not in my pen.