Woodshed Entertainment Collective

St. Kitts and Nevis

Two months ago on February 04, 2008, a number of St. Kitts and Nevis artistes and a Canadian visitor assembled at the Methodist Church in Charlestown, Nevis to raise funds for the Nevis Dyslexia Association.  Among them were Enoete Larry Inanga, Santoy Barrett and musician extraordinaire Jazzique. 

Inanga, born into a musical family that includes a mother with a first degree in music, is given to combining soul with Traditional and Smooth Jazz.  But on this night, he thrilled the audience with songs like Matt Dennis’ ”Angel Eyes,” a well-known staple on many a Jazz playlist.

Barrett, a world class musician and music educator with 32 years behind him as musical ambassador to the federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, dropped “Night in Tunisia,” a song that for me is synonymous with Berks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie.    

Jazzique has for years been working himself into the consciousness of Caribbean Jazz fans.  Born on St. Kitts, he moved to the sister island of Nevis with his family when just two years old. 

Soon, Jazzique was toying with his uncle’s guitar behind his back.  

Realising that the boy had a craving for music, his father bought him his very own guitar in his early teens then paid for him to take formal music lessons with a piano teacher who set him on the road to becoming the musician that he is today.

And what of the name?  He tells the story thus: “I got the name Jazzique from friends who thought I was listening to too much weird music by the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ramsey Lewis and Chick Corea.”

During the fundraiser Jazzique (seen below) played some of that Jazz as well as Chopin’s “Nocturne in E Flat Major.”
 

Jazzique at Charlestown Methodist Church