Woodshed Entertainment Collective

It was such an awful shame that I had to sit in the wonderful Paraquita Bay Auditorium - again - with its sparse audience.  My disappointment with the producers of the Jazz Showcase, the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, for not being more aggressive in promoting such a great Jazz series is nearing the pain threshold.  And I have a theory about that.

I am of the opinion that maybe because the H.L. Stoutt Community College receives guaranteed and generous financial support from its benefactors that there is really no incentive to draw a broader audience in to fill more of the well-adorned seats.

I take the position that the platinum, gold and silver sponsors do not demand more tangible returns on their sponsorships, which leaves the college with no commitment or obligation to strive harder to maximise attendance.  This is where philanthropic giving to the arts falls down.

I swear that if I did not make it a point of duty to find out when the Jazz Showcase is on and I did not keep office around a couple of places where the Showcase posters are mounted, the likelihood is that I would never even hear about any of the shows.  The advertising is really pathetic, I must say.

I am trying to remember…I have never witnessed a comprehensive media campaign, ever.  But giving credit to the newly appointed Communications Director, Daniel Singh, I am beginning to see a reversal of this negative trend.  He has so far produced one radio special that I am aware of in addition to the press releases that come out a few days before show time.

Now, the producers can retort that the Limin’ Times and the newspapers have always carried news items, advertisements and reviews of the shows.  For all I know, they also put the word out in the secondary schools.  Well, all that is not working because I can always have my pick of scores and scores and rows and rows of empty seats.

There was a time when the foreign artistes would give workshops for the benefit of music students on island.  Some of these artists have been known to go up on stage and even gush about some of them.  On at least one occasion that I can recall, a couple of these budding Jazz musicians wound up on the main stage at the behest of the headliners.  Not only has this not happened lately, there is an obvious absence of any involvement in the Jazz Showcase series by working musicians in the British Virgin Islands.

I wonder whether this is not the reason why one does not see them at the Jazz Showcase?

Finally, I have been going to Jazz shows and festivals for twenty years.  I have seen numerous Jazz musicians at all levels and in all classes - masters, the credible and the worthless too.  The only reason why I have had these experiences is because Jazz producers typically expose their local bands as opening acts.  And if there is no room for opening acts, there is usually a place and time set aside for them.  While that does not always work out, the approach to build a local pool of proficient Jazz Cats ought to be an integral aspect of a BVI Jazz Showcase, but it is not.

I am not intimately familiar with how the H. Lavity Stoutt goes about its business as regards the Jazz Showcase.  The evidence is nonetheless indisputable though that the audience for the quality concerts that have been carried for the last thirteen seasons is just not there.  I mean, they are OUT there alright; they have just not been found, attracted to the Jazz Showcase and lured back again and again.  This is a sorry indictment of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College presents.

In spite of all this, as soon as the Aaron Goldberg Trio hit the stage March 28, 2008, the bile receded from memory.

The trio comprised of Goldberg on piano, Joseph Sanders (bass) and Ali Jackson (drums).

 Jackson

The first set kicked off with a Cuban song closely followed by Charlie Parker’s “Chi Chi,” which was highlighted by some of the most innovative bass and drum solos one will ever hear, what with the drummer’s super fast right hand ride, his off-beat fills that stuck to the rhythm nevertheless and his employment of brief, silent breaks in the middle of some ferocious trading with the piano.

Goldberg then went soft on us - aurally speaking - with a feature of the Baby Loves Jazz project that he has been involved in.  The trio played “Sound  of Snow” from Volume 9, a song that Goldberg and Jackson recorded together.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman’s mother’s name is ‘Shedroff.’  Redman wrote a namesake song called “Shed“ for his mother that was exactly the kind of  inspiration Goldberg needed to stimulate his muse. 

The Brazilian Djavan’s composition, “Lambada de Serpente“ from Goldberg’s latest CD release ”Worlds” , Goldberg’s latest CD release closed an exhilarating though peaceful first set, which I dare say was in character with the leader’s concept of the Auditorium being “his” or as he put it, “Lavity Stoutt’s living room.”

I wonder sometimes whether the casual concert goer ever contemplates how involved it must be for a leader to come up with 90 minutes worth of material that he, referring to Goldberg now, must be confident will go over.  Surely, he does not always know who his audience is likely to be. 

So when Goldberg launched into “Taurus,” right away it occurred to me that here we have a clever thinker.  “Taurus” was not a blatant pander; nor was it a lame attempt at recreating that breezy stream of down-home calypso that, by the by, became apparent only because the rhythm was carried for several choruses. 

Nothing unstable about that!

But then Goldberg saw it fit to present a song with a title such as “Unstable Mates,” Goldberg’s take on Benny Golson’s ode to his wife, ”Stable Mates.”  Judging from the starts and stops here and the several choruses of straight ahead swing there - with the bassist ‘walking’ the time and the drummer constantly animated, methinks “Unstable” aptly intimated the ups and downs of a ‘typical’ crib.

I have to say though that the Aaron Goldberg Trio was in no way typical.  Goldberg’s fleeting fingers scoured delightful fragments on the keys that were simply celestial.  On the one hand, Ali Jackson was subliminal on his kit; he could not be restrained, not on the ballads, not on the rumpus either.  Joseph Sanders?  Well this bassist from Milwaukee is one to watch out for.  At age 24, he has the makings of a Jazz star; I can tell.  I do not own a crystal ball, but I have my hunches.

 Sanders

As intimate as Lavity Stoutt’s living room was on this night, I would have much preferred the company of the local British Virgin Islands musicians as well as the many students and tutors from the music programmes at the schools who did not take up the offer to come to the Jazz Showcase for free (if at or below the secondary level) or for a minimal charge of US$5 (if enrolled at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College or the University of the West Indies). 

Alas, I do not really see those guys at the concerts.  Heck, I do not see the working Jazz musicians either.  Am I missing something here?

__________________________ 

JOSEPH SANDERS: Milwaukee

ALI JACKSON: Detroit

AARON GOLDBERG: Boston