TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
Pan in a kinda rage
A review of the 2010 Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan and Jazz Festival, Saturday, October 30 2010
Photos and text by Mark Lyndersay
The Steelpan and Jazz Festival began at an even, mellow pace with Chantal Esdelle’s “Final Farewell,” establishing her band Moyenne as a balanced, capable quartet before expanding to a quintet with the addition of a percussionist.
Their work was delicate and smooth, with Esdelle’s mellow scat on “Changes,” the band’s third number, adding a pleasant edge that drew an appreciative “Yeah!” from the audience.
- Chantal Esdelle leads Moyenne
Their short set was tight and clean, and it might be said, a bit restrained, the standout performance for the evening coming from bassist Douglas Redon, who spanked, throttled and boomed his way through lively outings that were less solos than exhilarating expansions on the melody.
I listened keenly to hear if Esdelle would take advantage of the throaty timbre of the Queen’s Hall grand piano, a subtly richer instrument than her usual electric keyboard, but she remained very much the bandleader, keeping her band mates on point for an exemplary and well-appreciated performance of original works.
César Lopez and the Habana Ensemble were on next and set a stunning standard for the rest of the evening’s proceedings. None of the numbers were announced, but the pattern of their playing quickly became clear. Lopezestablishes the line and melody of the song before handing it off to his guitarist, Emilio Martini, a refreshingly original player who eschews the kind of lead playing in which he favours discordant runs – expected of jazz guitarists – that often head off in wildly divergent directions from the melody.
- César Lopez and guitarist Emilio Martini trade licks
The electric guitar as an instrument rarely plays this kind of central role in regional Jazz and when it does, it tends to follow fairly well-established patterns.
Martini offered no pretence with his instrument, stepping quickly on his effects pedals during his extended runs, shaping his dissonant sound in ways that often called the direction of the song into question. He played like a man rethinking Ornette Coleman for the fret board. The results were often as infuriating as they were exciting.
Martini’s playing would give much inspiration for the band’s drummer, an enthusiastic player who would, on several occasions, engage in sharp interludes of call and response with Martini’s curious chords.
In one generous moment during the band’s performance, Lopez invited pannist Keisha Codrington to play on “Sunny.” But while her playing was quick and precise, it was clear that she was really just a guest on the stage with a band this tightly integrated. It was hard to resist leaning forward and urging her to play more into the melody instead of waiting for the band to leave her an opening for a break.
And so we come to the pan, half the point of the show…
There have been several editions of this celebration of the steelpan as an instrument in Jazz, so it’s likely that my concerns about the way the instrument was used in Saturday’s event are likely to have either been voiced before or will stir reflexive disagreement.
Following César Lopez, Exodus, had its work cut out for it and the challenge would be amplified by the band’s decision to field a large orchestra.
Here’s the thing, the challenge of even a craftily skilful band like Exodus playing Jazz is that it butts up against the same issues that a choir would have trying to do the same thing. There’s a good reason, I think, why so many songs written for the pan sound so thin when played on traditional instruments. The group harmonics that drive the best examples of this, as found in both groupings, run counter to the kind of nimble experimentation that is at the heart of the best of Jazz.
Adding brass to Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Reasons” was pleasant enough, but didn’t move things any closer to something that could be described as Jazz either.
- Cuban saxophonist César Lopez with Exodus Steel Orchestra
Indeed, for most of the evening, Exodus was a backing band and while it was once supplemented by arranger Pelham Goddard on keyboards and pannist Earl Brooks, their contributions were, by and large, buried in the mix.
Vocalist Natalie Yorke performs with Exodus
The band was more capable in support of vocalists KV Charles, Natalie Yorke and a return performance by César Lopez who led them through a surprisingly turgid reading of “Just the way you are.”
Things would drift even further downhill with an unfortunate attempt to replicate the clean electronic wobble of Herbie Hancock’s Odyssey synthesiser on the seminal Jazz-funk piece “Chameleon” using around 40 pannists. It was an experiment itching to go awry with too many instruments pursuing a fusion number originally played by five musicians.
Exodus would bookend their performances with two numbers that played to their strengths though, “Steelband Times” and “Bazodee,” a composition by the evening’s honoree, Ray Holman.
- Pan arranger and composer Ray Holman greets Exodus pannists
Except for those songs, composed and arranged for the large steelband, Exodus might have brought more to its performance with fewer instruments and more musicianship.
Mark Lyndersay is a professional photographer and journalist who has worked in Trinidad and Tobago over the last thirty years. He has worked in corporate communications, editorial management and been widely published as a writer and photographer. His column, BitDepth, is the longest running column reporting on technology in the country.
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Jazz for yo Momma
Review and photography by Mark Lyndersay, May ’10
A Jazz concert for Mother’s Day? How is this not going to be the kind of Smooth Jazz that slip slides into a turgid oblivion?
Mama dis is Jazz, a jazz concert on Mother’s Day, turned out to be a well-executed idea and this year’s edition was a lively show with a real commitment to some elemental principles of the music.
Mungal Patasar and Pantar surged into Dreadlocks with admirable enthusiasm. The song has morphed from the lilting ‘lavway‘ recorded on the band’s debut album, Nirvana, into a reggae churn reminiscent of some of the earlier dub work of Sly and Robbie. Dawud Orr’s synthesised wind instrument playing added to the spacey feel along with some new computer driven sound effects.
- Mungal Patasar and Dawud Orr perform with Pantar at Mama dis is Jazz at the UWI Senior Common Grounds on May 2010. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay
During their second number, a lively call and response interlude between Prashant Patasar on tabla, Wayne Tobitton drums and Mungal illustrated the real pleasure that father and son take in playing together.
Pantar closed their short set with a new number, Tendonitis that found the band in exploratory territory, laying spacey sound effects over a spanky disco beat. The Patasars, Mungal and Prashant, seemed to be skipping through the song like polished stones, present, but never quite making full contact with the music. It wasn’t to my taste, frankly, but experimentation raises the game all around.
Vaugnette Bigford was the most mom-friendly act of the night, an engaging chanteuse who’s capable of putting an intriguing spin on even quite ordinary material.
- Vaugnette Bigford performs at Mama dis is Jazz, UWI Senior Common Grounds, May 2010. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay
Backed by Theron Shaw on guitar, Anthony Woodroofe on saxophone,Douglas Redon on bass and Richie Joseph on drums, Bigford stalked the stage in a dazzling tie-dyed number, her steps assured by a tight, precise and tasteful band.
They worked through the set crisply, no song running longer than five minutes, and it was hard not to feel cheated by the brief appearance of an ensemble that worked so well together.
A standout performance was Bigford’s respectful reclamation of Carol Addison’s Born to Shine, on which Woodroofe duetted with throaty, growling sax lines.
The lone misstep was her reading of Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata, a pleasant enough opportunity for a band jam, but a number on which even the most accomplished singer could add little.
Bigford’s best moments in the show were her defining vocals on original numbers and intelligent new readings of less well-known works, territory where her blooming talent can really take root.
Dave Marcellin managed the rest of the show, opening with extended electric piano flourishes, enhanced by some detailed tweaking of the jacks and wires leading into the three keyboards that constituted his rig.
- Dave Marcellin performs at Mama dis is Jazz, UWI Senior Common, May 2010. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay
Marcellin then settled into a capable rendition of the Chick Corea standard, Armando’s Rhumba, embellished with some synthesiser solos seemingly based on fuzz guitar samples.
The re-invention of the vintage calypso, Melda, which followed, was a pleasant surprise, sounding more like mid-70’s Herbie Hancock than the considerable body of work that Clive Zanda has done in the same vein.
Particularly intriguing was the bold, operatic tone of Marcellin’s interpretaion of the music, lending a sharp, almost comically ironic contrast to the content of the largely scurrilous lyrics he was interpreting.
It was at this point in the concert that the crowd seemed to lose interest in the proceedings, and a steady trickle of departures began. That came as a surprise, because the show had been ruthlessly kept on track: Pantar limited to three songs and Vaughnette Bigford visibly wrestling with a set she was pruning as she worked on stage.
It was the only concert I’ve attended in years which seemed mindful of an implicit promise to its audience to end at a reasonable hour on a Sunday night.
In a puzzling turn, Marcellin cut short his set and left the stage, which encouraged more folks to pack up, thinking the concert was over.
Then Marcellin and his band returned to back Michael Boothman, who might have been pointedly directing his opening number, What’s going on, to the growing numbers of empty white seats.
- Michael Boothman at Mama dis is Jazz, UWI Senior Common, May 2010. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay
Boothman played professionally through Dimples, an agreeable easy listening instrumental he performs on the local circuit; and he closed the show with Rosetta, a swing classic.
Mama dis is Jazz offered exactly what it advertised, genuine Jazz performances from a cross-section of local performers in a palatable, briskly organised programme that suffered only from awful lighting, audio that was way too bright and crackly in the midrange and too-long, unfunny MC chatter to kill time between set changes. Lose the MCs, do better sound checks, hire a good DJ and lighting designer and this is a concert series that might approach perfection.
Mark Lyndersay is a professional photographer and journalist who has worked in Trinidad and Tobago over the last thirty years. He has worked in corporate communications, editorial management and been widely published as a writer and photographer. His column, BitDepth, is the longest running column reporting on technology in the country.
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