15th Performing Arts Season in the BVI, a different kettle (updated)

Virgin Islands (Br.)

Arturo Tappin (left)

The 2009/2010 season of Jazz in the British Virgin Islands is literally hours away. Tonight at 08:00 o’clock, Barbadian sax lion, Arturo Tappin, sounds the call to Jazz fans in the Territory to join him at the Auditorium of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College at Paraquita Bay, Tortola for the first strike of the 15th Performing Arts Series.

Tappin has been to the Territory once before, but that was at Jazz on the Hill in Virgin Gorda, two years ago.  He left the J-fans who lined St. Mary’s Hill on that tourist rock back then with a one-of-a-kind after-taste that is sure to whet their appetite for another round of Caribbean Jazz from this musically muscular showman.

The WEC has yet to unearth who Tappin’s backing band will be.  However, his track record of surrounding himself with individuals of uncompromising musicality gives comfort that the Auditorium will glow like red hot iron ore this holiday weekend.

We do have a pretty good idea though as to what to expect at the show tonight.  In the words of Arturo Tappin himself, it will be “kaiso, reggae, hip-hop, be-bop, hard bop, cool jazz, smooth jazz, R&B…originals and covers…music from 1930 to 2009.”  We’ll let you know whether he sticks to his word.

This season’s schedule of shows makes a complete left turn from the legacy established by past President of the H. L. Stoutt Community College, Dr. Michael O’Neal.  Sadly, the current producers have shed some Jazz skin from the long-established roster, cutting out the much-anticipated January Jazz Showcase.

This season, only one international Jazz act, Steve Wilson, will step out unto the well adorned Auditorium stage.  I will not be caught napping casting a shadow over the choice of bringing Wilson back to the Virgin Islands.  However, when two dates, (one Caribbean Jazz Showcase and one Jazz Showcase) out of thirteen have been set aside strictly for Jazz this season, one cannot help feeling a deep sense of disappointment that the vast amount of Jazz talent languishing around the Caribbean and worldwide is not being tapped to broaden the aural palette in Chocolate City.

That aside, the HLSCC Jazz Band will bring together some of the very best Jazz artistes the BVI has on offer to contribute sets to the Holiday Concert on December 13 and HLSCC Summer Music Fest on May 29, 2010.  Every year before Christmas and at the end of the Performing Arts Season in May, The Jazz Band joins forces with the HLSCC Chorale, the College’s Chamber Players and their Brass and Woodwind Ensembles for recitals.

All things considered though, it is expected that a much more diverse fan base will be developed over the next seven months as Soca Diva Alison Hinds unplugs on October 18; Jermaine Sellers and Y’Anna Crawley of BET’s Sunday Best and the Soweto Gospel Choir drop by to worship on November 14, March 06 and January 14 respectively; the BVI’s King of Reggae Music, Quito Rymer goes on show, November 14 under the banner, Virgin Islands Showcase; and Nai Ni Chen puts up Modern and Traditional Dance routines on April 24, 2010.

Of course, there will be the usual helpings of Classical, the Colorado Quartet in January, Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves in February and Concert Pianist Leon Bates in May.  No doubt, all of this is a boon for the arts in the British Virgin Islands.

Nevertheless, spare a thought for the Woodshed Jazz Warriors who have one less circle to make on our Jazz Calendar this 15th Performing Arts Season.