Woodshed Entertainment Collective

July 08

The Gospel of Jazz will take front and center at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, British Virgin Islands this Saturday, July 12 as part of a night of worship in song. 

The show, dubbed “Gospel in a Mello Tone,” an obvious take on the Duke Ellington classic “In a Mellow Tone,” is based on the theme “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord” taken from Psalms 150.

The group of musicians and singers who are up to sing the praises on their instruments and with their voices is led by tenor saxophonist Drexel Glasgow.  They will present a repertoire of hymns, sacred and gospel songs in various styles of music, Jazz and Latin included.

The GMT band is Glasgow (tenor saxophone), Darren Vanterpool (electric bass), Randy McDowell (acoustic piano and keyboard), Threcio Phillip (drums), Dylan Penn (percussion) and Warren Olliviere (guitar). 

Also on the bill is soprano saxist Dalan Vanterpool and Katch Dis Vybes Productions from Atlanta, Georgia.

Audio and video recordings of this live event will subsequently be marketed. 

More to come…

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July 03

Cayman Islands’ Jazz-oriented saxophonist Gary Ebanks of such bands as Intransit, The Gary Ebanks Quartet/Trio and his new outfit Triggerfish, landed an award for Artistic Excellence at last Thursday’s (June 26) Cayman National Cultural Foundation (CNCF) annual awards ceremony.  Ebanks’ award was in recognition for his work at developing the Jazz genre and his own personal growth as a musician in the British Dependent Territory.

Ebanks joined a host of awardees in the fields of dance, theatre, Art Education and Visual Arts.  Other awards given were the Heritage Awards for traditional music and writing, the Cultural Heritage Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of Caymanian Cultural Heritage, the Volunteer of the Year Award in part for Language Arts, the Sponsor Award and the Chairman’s Award for support given to the Cultural Foundation.

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June 19

The Bahamas “Jazz Summer” just got hotter this past weekend as the Ivory Global event went into sensory overload at the National Center for the Performing Arts and other venues.  Jazz Summer was staged from Thursday, June 12 to Sunday, June 15.

One of the featured performers was guitarist Ronald “Boo” Hinkson of St. Lucia.  Hinkson has been making music for three decades.  As everything else, being a Caribbean artist, he did not start off being a Jazz musician although he had a penchant for Jazz from little.  Rather, he grew into Jazz after his dance band days with the then popular Tru Tones were over. 

Boo Hinkson has since been making the rounds of Caribbean Jazz festivals, especially St. Lucia Jazz at which he has opened for George Benson and Kenny Burrell.  His music has also taken him outside of the region to Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. 

Local Bahamamian talents including saxophonist Phillip “Doc” Martin and vocalist Naomi Taylor were billed at various venues throughout the weekend.    

Taylor was at first reluctant to become a solo artist.  She preferred the relative safety of the choir format.  However, her desire outshone her shyness and she sought to hone her singing skills with the assistance of private vocal tutoring and a stint with Jazz bassist and bandleader Adrian D’Aguilar of Bahamas’ Jazz Etcetera.

Ronald “Boo” Hinkson performed at a gala event held at the NCPA on Sunday, June 15.  Also on that ticket was the Washington Jazz Orchestra.

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update 2 on June 12

The Annual Jamaica Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival 2008 is on again, believe it or not.  This 18th edition of the festival was started in 1991 by Jazz musician Sonny Bradshaw as a one-day event called the Ocho Rios “Mini” Jazz Festival.  Bradshaw had long been worried that Jazz was being drowned into the background in Jamaica.  So when his wife Myrna Hague suggested a Jazz festival to redress this, Bradshaw jumped to the idea. 

The very first programme was held at the Carib Inn Beach in Ocho Rios as a one-off festival that ran under the byline “Greatest Names in Jamaican Jazz.”  Within just three years, that experiment mushroomed to eight days and expanded out of Ocho Rios to Kingston, Montego Bay and Negril.

The 18th Annual Jamaica Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival 2008 kicked off on June 01 with the “Women in Jazz” series at ‘The Verandah’ in Kingston and then at the Kingston ‘City Hotel’ on Friday, June 06.

The ’Women in Jazz’ are Myrna Hague, Marjorie Whylie, Kathy Brown, Ouida Lewis, Karen Smith and Mary Isaacs. 

Isaacs and Ouida also appeared as two parts of a trio of acts that performed at “Jazz and Coffee in the Mountains” on Friday 06 and Saturday, June 07.  Anyone who knows me well would visualise me at Forrest Park, Mavis Bank.  Why?  Because you can often find me sipping my favourite cup of Blue Mountain Coffee to the strains of Jazz.  Jazz, Coffee and me go hand in hand.

Jazz & Coffee in the Mountains flyer 

Myrna Hague is a vocalist in the Jamaica Big Band directed by her husband Sonny Bradshaw.  She has won Jamaica Music Industry Award for Jazz a number of times in addition to several other accolades.  Hague has appeared with Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin, internationally renowned Jamaica pianist Monty Alexander,  Jamaican trumpet icon Dizzy Reece and saxophonist Branford Marsalis from the Marsalis clan.

A Jamaican Hall of Fame inductee, Marjorie Whylie is a composer who creates a “pastiche of indigenous Jamaican folk, African polyrhythms, European Art Music, and Classic Jazz” to quote her bio on All Music Guide.  Apart from performing solo, Whylie fronts the Whylie Rhythms, a band that I have had the pleasure of seeing live in concert at the Paint It Jazz Festival, the precursor to the Barbados Jazz Festival, some years back. 

Then on Tuesday, June 10, 2008, Seretse Small had his say at Christopher’s Jazz Café in Kingston. 

Small is celebrating 21 years as a professional guitarist.  Being Jamaican, he has split his musical personality between Reggae and the style that he made his name by at festivals in Jamaica, St. Lucia and Grenada, Jazz. 

A well schooled musician, he is a graduate of the Jamaica School of Music on the one hand and Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music in the United States on the other.

He has one recording already in the bag - a solo guitar outing entitled ‘The Silo Sessions’ - and another in the making with his own band, Seretse and the True Democrats.  On drums is Wendell Lawrence, bass, Carl Gibson, and Ozou’ne on keys. 

18th Annual International Ocho Rios Jazz Festival, June 7th-15 2008 

18th Annual International Ocho Rios Jazz Festival 2008 Performers 

18th Annual International Ocho Rios Jazz Festival Performance Schedule   

Jazzpoint Media release 01- 07 May 2008

“Jazzlegends” is the 2008 theme of an event which has evolved out of five successful Jazzpoint experiences.  In the inaugural year (1999) a leading newspaper reporter wrote about Jazzpoint poolside setting and stated “This is no ordinary concert.” The ongoing uniqueness of Jazzpoint is enhanced by continuous improvement in the use of Jazz club formats that encourage active interaction between musicians and their audience.  Previously highlighted Jazz clubs have been The Fox & the Crow - Cuba, Snug Harbor - New Orleans and The Velvet Lounge – Chicago.   

 

Former Jazzpoint themes were Latin Jazz, Caribbean Jazz, Jazz Syncopation and Calypso Jazz.  The current theme Jazzlegends is based on a concept of recognizing linkages between Harlem and Trinidad and Tobago.  (The) Clive Alexander Trio and Jason Baptiste Quartet would be featured from 8.00 PM on Saturday 17 May 2008 - Clifton Hill Club and Raf Robertson and friends plus Errol Ince supported by Leston Paul and friends would be featured from 6.00 PM on 18 May 2008 at Naparima Bowl. 

 

 Jazzpoint

 music to make you think 

 

 

Clive Alexander’s creative improvisations of what he describes as “Calypso Jazz” would be supported by Russell Durity (bass) and Richard Joseph (drums).  

 

Jason Baptiste is a former Steel Pan Soloist Champion of Trinidad and Tobago.  Jason’s initial performance as a band leader/composer/pannist was at the Trinidad and Tobago Pan Jazz Festival VIII in 1996.  During 2003 Jason found a base in France.  He is one of the few pianists who acknowledge that his mastery of playing double tenor pans with four sticks was facilitated by Earl Rodney.  (Jazz Singer Vaughnette Bigford is set to make a guest appearance with Jason and band for this event.)    

 

The ongoing respect for Raf Robertson as a Jazz pianist may have originated from his innovative performance at Trinidad and Tobago Pan Jazz Festival II, in 1989. Expect more innovative surprises from Raf at Jazzlegends 2008.  

 

Errol Ince is acknowledged by many as Trinidad’s most outstanding international arranger and trumpeter.  Leston Paul is equally accepted as an outstanding arranger, producer and keyboardist. This is an opportunity to appreciate Errol, Clive, Leston, Raf and Jason as living legends.  

 

Advance tickets: $100.00 available at Naparima Bowl, Crosby’s (San Fernando), Off the Wall (Gulf City Mall), Clifton Hill Club, and Suddies electronics or telephone 685.5556, 740.5522 and 772.1919.  

 

Bar facilities, gourmet food and performing artist CD sales available at Clifton Hill Club on Saturday 17 May 2008.  

 

Details of our website launch will follow in our next media release.  

Previous Jazzpoint events have featured Arlene Wilkes - vocalist (Trinidad/Norway), Barbara Ann Cadet - vocalist/keyboardist/saxophonist and Ronald “Boo” Hinkson - composer/guitarist (St Lucia), Brian Cesar - bassist (Canada,) Carlton Zanda - arranger/keyboardist, Clifford Charles - guitarist, Darren Sheppard - pannist, Douglas Redon - pannist/bassist, Daniel Bishop - keyboardist, élan parlé with Michael Low Chew Tung - composer/keyboardist, David Bertrand - flautist, Errol Goodridge - keyboardist, Fortunia Ruiz - trumpeter, Francis Prime - saxophonist, Michael Dingwell - saxophonist, Moyenne with Chantal Esdelle - composer/keyboardist, Patti Rogers - vocalist, Sean Friday - bassist, Sean Thomas - drummer, Steve Neaves - guitarist/sound specialist, Tamba Gwindi - percussionist, Theron Shaw - guitarist, Vaughnette Bigford - vocalist and others. 

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May 07, 2008

The initial news break on the Élan Parlé personnel line up, courtesy of Trinidad J-Fan Vaughnette Bigford is…

Michael Low Chew Tung (Ming) - Band Leader
Sean Friday - Bass
Richard Joseph - Drums
David Bertrand - Flute
Mikhail Salcedo - Steelpans

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May 01, 2008

Remember the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in San Francisco, California last year?  Hint: Cuban saxophonist and chekeré player YosvanyTerry?  Well, the 2008 season kicks off May 03 through October 26 withavaried programme that will of course include Jazz, but which will also feature World Music, Classical, Theatre and Dance.

However, the Bay area community audiences will have to wait until June 08 to begin to sample Caribbean Jazz fare.  Cuban pianist Omar Sosa will be first up with his ‘Afreecanos Quintet.’  Sosa’s latest CD entitled ‘Afreecanos‘ is actually a celebration of African music from the standpoint of the linkages of Jazz and Latin music with that source.  Musicians from different parts of Africa, Brazil, Cuba and France make up the personnel on this recording.

The Quintet is Omar Sosa (Cuba), piano, Fender Rhodes, electronics, vocal; Childo Tomas Mozambique), electric bass, m’bira, vocal; Marque Gilmore (U.S.A.), drums, electronics; David Gilmore (U.S.A.), guitar; and Leandro Saint-Hill (Cuba), flute, saxophone.

As a side note, Sosa recently took Afreecanosto Dartmouth College’s Spaulding Auditorium, Hanover, New Hampshire on April 04 for a one-off concert and performance discussions.

Next up will be ‘Yosvany Terry: Ye-dé-gbé –Afro Caribbean Legacy‘ on July 19.  This event culminates the festival’s ‘Music In The Gardens 101 Series’ of narrated programs, which has been designed to give patrons a sense of who the artists are, how they conceptualised their music and the sources of inspiration that they draw upon in the process.  Being Cuban and living in the United States, Terry is given to marrying the musics of the two disparate yet sympathetic cultures with Caribbean Legacy.

The Legacy is being reposed in Osmany Paredes (piano), Yunior Terry (bass), Pedro Martinez (lead vocal & percussion), Roman Diaz (percussion), Justin Brown (drums), Felix “Pupi” Insua (dancer), Yosvany Terry (saxes and Chekeré) plus Sandy Perez (drums).

In August (August 07), Homenagem Brasileira, featuring vocalist Sandy Cressman are geared up to represent for the great Brazilian composers Ivan Lins, Dori Caymmi, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Toninho Horta and many others.

The band is Cressman (vocals); Celso Alberti (drums); David Belove (bass); Marcos Silva (keyboards); and Harvey Wianapel (saxophones).

Then on October 05, the Latin All Stars will pay tributeto the late Puerto Rican-American pianist Hilton Ruiz who while remaining grounded in the Afro-Cuban or Latin Jazz tradition was also well rooted in bebop. 

The All Stars are Ray Vega (horns), Steve Turré (horns), Dave Valentín (flute), Arturo O’Farrill (piano), Yunior Terry (bass, brother to Yosvany), Phoenix Rivera, (drums), Pete Escovedo (timbales), and Chembo Corniel (percussion).

The 2008 Yerba Buena Gardens Festival at the namesake gardens in downtown San Fran. starting May 03.

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April 20, 2008

The word from Pan Trinbago, producers of Pan Jazz in de Yard Reloaded is that Robert Greenidge and Ralph MacDonald have pulled out of the event scheduled for this coming weekend.  Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday also announced that Andy Narell will also miss the two-day festival.  The Coalition was not aware that Narell was even on the bill.

The three pannists were said to have found themselves in contractual binds from which they could not extricate themselves in order to fly to Trinidad and Tobago to headline this wonderful feast of Pan Jazz.

Celebrated pannist Liam Teague, originally carded to perform on the second and final night is set to fill in as headline act for the opening night of Pan Jazz in de Yard on Wednesday, April 23.  

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March 18, 2008

Alexander Plays His Songs of Freedom
Jazz
By WILL FRIEDWALD  

This weekend at the Allen Room, Mr. Alexander played four sets of his ambitious program “Lords of the West Indies,” employing a wide cast of Jamaican, Trinidadian, and NorthAmerican musicians. During a very tight 90-minute set, Mr. Alexander spanned the islands and the different approaches he’s used to experiment withWestIndian jazz fusions throughout his career, from a bop piano trio (with Hassan Shakur on bass and HerlinRiley on drums) withnodsto Caribbean rhythms, to full-scale calypsos mixed with jazz harmony and improvisation.

With a minimum of patter, Mr. Alexander presented a program equally enlightening and entertaining. He showed us, rather than merely told us, how mento (the original Jamaican folk music form), calypso, ska, and reggae are as different from one another as bossa nova, salsa, and tango are in other parts of the Pan-American world. He used different ensembles to illustrate the various forms.

Editor’s Note: Read the full review here

Mento Music: Mento and Jazz

mentomusic.com

In March of 2008, Monty Alexander did it again, staging 4 performances of a show called “Lords of The West Indies” at Jazz At Lincoln Center in NYC.  It had Jazz, Calypso-Jazz, Mento-Jazz, Reggae-Jazz, acoustic rural mento (small combo and big band), and Jazz renditions of Bob Marley music.  It was an ambitious show and its ambitions were fully realized. 

Editor’s Note: Read the full review here

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January 29, 2008 

This past weekend was a sordid one for Caribbean and all Jazz Fans alike from the United States Virgin Islands to Barbados, geographically speaking and far beyond these lands, on the spiritual front. 

The 21st Century Band returned to the Reichhold Center for the Arts in St. Thomas, USVI on Saturday, January 26, 2008 for the first time in seven years to pay tribute to the late British Virgin Islands Jazz singer Jon Lucien and at the same time to raise funds for the United Way of St. Thomas-St. Johns.  Lucien passed away last year.

21st Century, led by Virgin Islands drummer Dion Parson, comprised of strictly V.I. Jazz musicians in saxophonist Ron Blake, bassist Reuben Rogers, trumpeter Rashawn Ross and vocalist Rudy Faulkner.  

Also on the weekend, but over in Barbados, Jazz pianist Adrian Clarke keeled over and died at the upright in the middle of a gig at The Waterfront Café in Bridgetown.  Clarke was struck down just before 11:00p.m. on Friday, January 25, 2008.  He was 70 and just retired from his daytime job as a banker.

I had the pleasure of meeting Clarke and seeing him perform in his lifetime.  And although just an acquaintance, I always thought of him as a gentle soul.  

I never met Lucien, but judging from the outpouring of tributes that were heaped on him by his adoring fans, I am sure he was just as gracious. 

The Collective remembers the lives and works of these legends of Caribbean Jazz, the BVI’s Jon Lucien and Barbados’ Adrian Clarke.

More to come…