Jazzz Buzzz*

…a sampling of Jazz news deserving of a post rather than a roll, a blogroll that is

Scroll down for Buzzz archives

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Fresh from an appearance at London Jazz Festival in November, Cuban violinist Omar Puente was found still in the cold ringing out the old year at The Bernie Grant Arts Centre (BGAC) in the company of Courtney Pine and saxophonists, Soweto Kinch and YolanDa Brown, December 29-31. (Source: catchavibe.co.uk)

The RUDY SMITH QUARTET played PARADISE JAZZ in Denmark on Thursday, December 03, 2009.  Smith, a Trinidad born steel pannist who has been living in Denmark for quite some time now, was accompanied by Ole Matthiessen (p), Henrik Dyhrbye (b) and Ole Streenberg (dm).
Paradise Jazz is an ongoing programme housed at Magstæde 14, Copenhagen that features top Danish and international Contemporary Jazz artists doing acoustic sets.  This makes the Rudy Smith Kvartet one in an extended line up of bands to play Paradise Jazz all the way down to December 21.

PARADISE JAZZ • 1 SAL • HOUSE • MAGSTÆDE 14 • TEL. 6168 5299 • PARADISEJAZZ.DK

Not to be outdone, Trinidad resident Ruth Osman (flute and voice) played The Fiesta Plaza, Movie Towne at Invaders Bay, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, December 05, 2009.  This was the first of two dates that Osman is booked for this December.  The other is at Euphoria Lounge and Night Club on Dundonald Street, Port of Spain, December 27.

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November 2009 Buzzz: November 2009 Buzzz: USVI panman, Victor Provost @ Jo Jo in Washington, Tues. 24|live THURSDAYS @ TnT’s drink Wine Bar with Patti Rogers, Nov. 19|Kendall Campus Fall Fest ‘09|5th Mayagüez Jazz Fest 2009, Puerto Rico|PanJAZZUK, November 08

Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto wielded those sticks again at Walker Art Center, McQuire Theater, Minneapolis on November 21  2009.  The Dafnis Prieto Sextet of Peter Apfelbaum and Felipe Lamoglia (sax), Ralph Alessi (tp), Manuel Valera (p), Charles Flores (b) and Prieto (d), was brought to the McQuire Theater by Northrop Jazz and Walker Art Center.

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October 2009 Buzzz: October 2009 Buzzz: SONGBIRDS…live with Candice Alcantara|JATT/S.T. Jazz present…|live THURSDAYS @ drink! with Dean Williams, Ruth Osman & Mikhail Salcedo

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September 2009 Buzzz: A Bientôt Bri & Kellie Cadogan at Caribbean Wellness Day, 12th|Ebe Gilkes birthday party, 16th|5th Paris Gwoka/Jazz Festival, 25-27

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Within the last week of August, there were a couple of fringe Jazz events that slid under the radar. Secondly, newly formed Neo-Jazz and Rapso band, MALIK, from Trinidad and Tobago was the special guest of multi-genre group GYAZETTE on August 29.

A week earlier, the poetry of Trinidad’s Roger Bonair-Agard and Willie Perdomo, a Harlem resident of Puerto Rican descent was celebrated at a spoken word poetry extravaganza at the Cipriani Labour College’s CLR James Auditorium in Trinidad, August 22 and 23, 2009.  But where there is poetry, there has to Jazz music.  So for GULLY LOVELY – the name of the show was derived from Bonair-Agard’s Cypher Books publication “GULLY” and Perdomo’s “Smoking Lovely” -Trinidadian pianist, Michael Low Chew Tung’s band Élan Parlé did the honours with 3Canal.

GULLY LOVELY explored varied subject areas ranging from what it is to be people of colour, post-colonial struggles, love and sports.

August 2009 Buzzz: Jazz @ Aura, Wednesday, August 26|Kingsley Ettienne in Toronto, August 23

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July 2009 Buzzz: Ray Vega in Vermont, July 17|Chucho Valdéz makes a rare stop in Canada

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June 2009 Buzzz: The 21st Century Band of Dion Parson and Ron Blake|Ocho Rios Jazz Festival|Sean Thomas Trio featuring Dave Marcellin|Fifth Annual Bonaire Heineken Jazz Festival

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May 2009 Buzzz: Who is R’Kardo St’Von? Part Deux | MAMA DIS IS JAZZ 1 | 2nd Annual L.A. Latin Jazz Festival 2009

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April 2009 Buzzz: Luther Franςois supports new Lucian band at Kalalu World Music Festival|The Greening of Jazz on Cayman Islands

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February 2009 Buzzz: Courtney Pine pays homage to Sidney Bechet with Cameron Pierre in tow|Aruban Jazzman Making Waves|Let it Ring for Londoner Denys Baptiste, born of the West Indies |Courtney Pine pays homage to Sidney Bechet with Cameron Pierre in tow

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January 2009 Buzzz: Barbados (JAZZ) Music Awards ‘09|Kellie Cadogan releases CD

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December 2008 Buzzz: Cuba’s Paquito D’Rivera|Cayman’s Gary Ebanks and Intransit|Guadeloupe’s Jacques Schwartz-Bart

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November 2008 Buzzz: Cameron Pierre adds the spice of Jazz to DA’s World Creole Music Festival

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October 2008 Buzzz: Trinidadian guitarist Theron Shaw releases CD

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September 2008 Buzzz: Miguel Zenón and Rosemary Phillips

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August 2008 Buzzz: The Skatalites’ Johnny Moore dead at 70 (with Herbie Miller article)

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July 2008 Buzzz: St. Vincent’s Frankie McIntosh performed in Tn’T July 20

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June 2008 Buzzz: Puerto Rico’s Miguel Zenón for Rochester International Jazz Festival on Monday, June 16

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May 2008 Buzzz: Jamaicans Dizzy Reece, Desi Jones et al entertain during an ‘Evening of Jazz’

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March 2008 Buzzz: The VI’s Reuben Rogers backs Charles Lloyd

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March 2008 Buzzz: Trinidad’s “Jazz Singer” Vaughnette Bigford
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Step aside Rihanna, Barbados has a new rising star on the horizon, Marisa Lindsay. Her stylings are well grounded in Jazz though she demonstrates a conspicuous relish for rhythm and blues that when brought together point her in the direction of Erykah Badu. Having sampled some of the tracks on Lindsay’s debut recording, Submit2Love, I have to agree that Lindsay does share a soundwith Badu. But as to whether this is intentional or coincidental is not for me to say.

Lindsay’s recording career did not come about by accident. Grenadian-born keyboardist, performer, songwriter, arranger and producer, Eddie Bullen, who has been living in Markham, Ontario, Canada since 1980 did not happen to be in Barbados for the 2006 edition of the Barbados Jazz Festivalyou see. (You think? Fate?) Anyway, after Bullen heard Lindsay sing The Girl From Ipanema during the festival’s local night he was sold!

A piece on Marisa Lindsay in Toronto Star(August 03, 2007) has Bullen’s take on Lindsay’s rendition of The Girl From Ipanema from a year and a half earlier: “She lit up the stage. It’s a song I’ve heard so many times and so many ways, but what she did was very interactive and spontaneous. She made it her own.”

Convinced of her unrealised potential, Bullen approached Lindsay after her festival set offering to work with her. Their chance would come four months later in Toronto, Canada. Lindsay was in Canada to perform at a charity ball on behalf of the Barbados Tourism Authority. Bullen invited her to his Thunder Dome Sounds home studio to discuss the prospect of recording a CD. I guess it was an ambush because Bullen had her cut the record then and there.

Lindsay told Ashante Infantry, Pop and Jazz Critic of The Star, that she was totally unprepared for that. But she was, I think. Back in 2004, she was doing standards with an acoustic trio at a Bridgetown, Barbados club when “a guy” approached her and with a music scholarship in hand. Within six weeks, her Barbadian benefactor had arranged a month-long piano and vocal training course for her at a Cuban music school. Lindsay returned to Cuba the following year for a follow-up programme of study.

Consequently, when Bullen approached Lindsay at Toronto, she had by then transcended from the level of singing only as a “physical aspect” to an “emotional and spiritual” plane where she was more aware of her voice on the one hand and the increased power that her training had facilitated on the other.

Now, Submit2Love is out on the market and ready for the listening room. The album has 11 tracks, 6 of which are Jazz Classics. There is also 1 Blues classic and a remake of Bob Marley’s “Waiting In Vain” in the repertoire .

Lindsay has since performed her music at the annual Barbados on the Water Festival at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Canada in June of this year. Also on the bill for that festival was Lindsay’s producer, pianist Eddie Bullen as well as Barbadian saxophonist Arturo Tappin. wemagonline.blogspot.com

The CD is available for purchase and track sampling at cdbaby.com. Come on. Buzzz offf there now.

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Come Sunday, August 12, Trinidadian trumpeter, Etienne Charles will take to the MoMa Garden stage as the featured artist for a free summergarden Jazz concert at sunset. According to freenyc.net, Charles will explore the idiom to the backdrop of African rhythms and the folk traditions of the Caribbean.

The Museum of Modern Art will, therefore, witness Charles’ Culture Shock Project, the highlight of which will be his interpretation of stories of West Indian folklore characters. Included in this repertoire will be the world premiere of a suite entitled “Encounter with La Diablesse.”

Etienne Charles recently performed with Barbados’ Arturo Tappin at Jazz on The Hill in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands on May 23 and later on at Steelpan Jazz at the House of Jazz at Lincoln Center on June 16.

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After four years of hard work in an 8×10 home office, using a PC, sound card, software, speakers and microphones, Caribbean jazz saxophonist Andre Woodvine presents nine unique, original compositions in a package entitled “Some Assembly Required.” Released on April 29 at a special live performance in Barbados’ Plantation Garden Theatre as part of the Notes to Notes concert series, this CD reflects the many diverse influences on Woodvine’s music, from jazz to Caribbean rhythms, science fiction to family. Woodvine is a Berklee College of Music graduate who plays alto, tenor and soprano saxophones as well as the flute.

Apart from “Some Assembly Required,” Woodvine has two CDs under his own name, Citronella (1997) and Voyager (1995). He also appears on a 1992 recording, New World Music by the West Indies Jazz Band, which featured another well-known Caribbean saxophonist, St. Lucian Luther Francois whom I had the pleasure of promoting to a Dominica Jazz Festival with Positive Jazz Inc. back in the 1980s.

Buzz off to CDBaby.com for A few notes on Some Assembly Required including 2-minute song samples of all 9 tracks (and Other CDs you will love) as well as something about Andre Woodvine himself. Or you can go straight to Planet Woodvine, the artist’s home
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EARTHtimes.org reports that Barbadian saxophonist Arturo Tappin’s latest CD “Inside Out” is being officially released on Tuesday, July 24 2007.

The CD has been out on the market for several weeks now. Tappin premiered a number of tracks from it at Jazz on The Hill in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands on May 23 of this year.

The event, organised by Antilia, Inc., an upscale Caribbean special event company based in NYC, is being held at the Chelsea lounge Room Service in Manhatten, New York.

Tappin is scheduled to interpret the hit songs of Barbadian pop diva Rihanna and Rupee among others. Buzz off to the EARTHtimes.org for the press release

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reported in its Friday, July 06 edition that Dominica’s singing star, Michele Henderson, was due to give a benefit concert Saturday 07 in St. Kitts to assist the country’s Special Olympics organisation in its bid to send a team to the World Games in October 2007. Henderson fronted the cruise ship Freewinds Band with whom she regularly performs on the water. Buzz off to the for a short review of the St. Kitts concert, published July 09, 2007 and the Retro Caribbean Jazz page for partial playlist of Michele and the Freewinds’ 2005 Tortola concert.

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SignOnSanDiego.com: “Jamaican-born pianist (Monty Alexander) has long been jazz’s most visible star from the British West Indies, but he’s quick to point out that there’s been a strong current flowing back and forth between the islands and the United States since jazz first coalesced in the early 20th century.” (Alexander explains that) “A lot of guys in the early (Duke) Ellington band were from the islands. Later on, there was Wynton Kelly, who was born in Jamaica, and Sonny Rollins, whose parents were from the Virgin Islands. Oscar Peterson’s parents were from St. Kitts. Carmen McRae was a stone cold Jamaican. Roy Haynes’ people were from Barbados.” Buzz off to SignOnSanDiego.com

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New York – In a little more than a week and a day New York residents were treated to a second healthy helping of top notch steelpan jazz. June 16 had marked the third such show at Lincoln Center in New York. This time it was at Afrika House located in Brooklyn, New York as headliners Garvin Blake and his ensemble, Jambalasi, the Andrea Rose Trio featuring Jason “Peanut” Isaacs and of course Utopia Pan Soul: the Next Generation, and more all treated the packed house to a very special show appropriately called “Carnival of Instruments III.” It was truly Steelpan Jazz, at times with a Caribbean flavor, with no additives, no faking the move, no artificial anything. Buzz off to When Steel Talks

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5 Responses

  1. Guys

    If you never met nor heard Kellie, you are missing out. She is a beauiftul person with a great personality and a gorgeous voice. I look forward to hearing that CD.

  2. I second that V.

    Had a great opportunity to meet the delightful Ms Cadogan, and mentioned your name as well!

    Also caught up with Dwayne Husbands and a slew of uber-talented Bajans last week at the Barbados Jazz Festival. Indeed, my previous misgivings about the non-jazz aspects of that festival – at least in this year’s incarnation of it – have evaporated completely. The world needs to see the level and diversity of talent available among young Bajans – and I say this without the slightest hint of bias (smile). If the jazz festival does it, I say go for it. When Carlos Santana and Chaka Khan appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, no one complained, so we need to use every vehicle possible to push our own. In this respect, the Barbados Jazz Festival 2009 was a roaring success! Take a bow Gilbert Rowe!

    Also met the redoubtable guitarist Terry Shaw who was most impressive in the company of (leader) trumpeter Errol Ince, jazz pianist Leston Paul (!) and drummer Sean Thomas at the Crane Beach Resort.

    Talk about making a Caribbean man proud! And yes, Terry, I shall duly review your CD at the Woodshed.

    Raf Robertson and the Birdsong Academy stole the show last Friday night on the magnificently manicured grounds of Ilaro Court, the Bajan Prime Minister’s official residence.

    Great jazz treatment of material from Bob Marley, Ras Shorty I, the Mighty Gabby, and Clive Zanda in particular. The young unsighted singer Niyol Maswell was most moving in his renditions, demonstrating 20/20 musical vision and insight in a way that floored everyone. Definitely a talent to watch. They were the opening act for the sensual vocal charms of one of my favourite singers, Dee Dee Bridgewater. As if taking up the baton from Raf, Dee Dee proceeded to sing Afro-Latin standards such as “Besame Mucho”, “Obsession” (popularised by Celia Cruz), Milton Nascimento’s “Vera Cruz”, and “Afro Blue”, among others, her crack grouping including Puerto Ricans Edsel Gomez (piano), and Vince Cherico (drums).

    Iz, hope that the Barbados festival will break new ground in the direction of a new Caribbean musical consciousness as we’ve been discussing.

    More later,

    John

  3. First of all, the chastise! You hop on a plane, banana boat, glider or whatever, navigate your way to Barbados, and not a word to me maaan. (breathing deeply; counting to 10)

    But I am elated you went to the festival because I do not know whether we would ever get such detail of the Jazz aspect of the festival. I do not know whether any reviews were published; could not find any. Did you?

    We are placing the world on your shoulders, John. Without you, there is no review. Thus, we look forward to the “more” that you speak of. Holding you to that.

    Surely, you do not expect your writings to remain ‘buried’ in Comments, do you? For that matter, this is not a Comment; it is a Post. And Posted it shall be on the Frontpage. Hope you don’t mind.

    By the way, did you take any pics John?

    All this aside, it would be so much more helpful, if the festival had devoted more bytes to the local and Caribbean artists on the official website. Talk about no bios, no reviews, nothing. Instead, G.M.R pulled down the Barbados Jazz Festival site within hours of the end of the festival.

  4. Iz, thanks for the friendly fire. By now you should have gotten my emailed review and pixes re the jazz festival. Please get back to me asap if you don’t have same.

    rgds

    JPS

  5. A warm message of congratulations to Ebe Gilkes, Trinidadian expatriot and Barbadian jazz pianist extraordinaire on his 79th birthday. Ebe is a very serious pianist who has seen it all go down on Bim, even a visiting young American trombonist with the Tropical Islanders whom he took under his wing during the 70s. Congratulations Ebe and many very happy returns.

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