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Review of Alison Hinds’ Soca Unplugged, October 18, BVI by Derry Etkins
Retro Caribbean Jazz CD Review of University of Calypso – Andy Narell and Relator by Mark Lyndersay
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ALISON HINDS, SOCA UNPLUGGED, H.L.S.C.C., BVI
by Derry Etkins
October 18, 2009
Compared to that of the Arturo Tappin concert, the audience for the Alison Hinds “Soca Unplugged” concert arrived earlier. Was it that the advertising had finally kicked in, or was it that Alison’s fans are more punctual? Nevertheless, show got under way at 2025hrs on October 18, 2009.
Let me be the first to say that I am square and old-fashioned, but I have a question…Soca UNPLUGGED?!
Language usage has changed; that will continue until the end of time. I humbly submit, however, that it has been allowed to change. But that is a “soap box” issue of mine which we will leave for another time and forum.
When I saw the poster advertising this concert, I had one of those, “Hmmm! Interesting!”, moments. My thought was, finally, we’re seeing Caribbean music as more than “Party Music”, but also as music to which one can sit and listen, while still tapping one’s foot and enjoying not only the music, but one’s self.
Thus, I anticipated walking into the HLSCC Auditorium to see an acoustic bass or “Mudda fiddle” as it is known in some circles, a “box guitar” or two and maybe (and I repeat) a drum set; definitely bongos, congas and other assorted percussion instruments. WRONG!!
The backing band included Derwyn Bally (Musical Director) on electric piano, Rodney Alexander on six string bass, Brian “Ragga” Williams on drums, Sam Jack on acoustic piano, with guest Terry Arthur on tenor pan and percussion.
Ms. Hinds opened her evening with one of her several hits “Ai, Ai, Ai”. This slowed down version (and I use this next word advisedly) degenerated into an R&B type feel provided by the bass and keys, over Reggae-sque drumming by Brian Williams. These gentlemen reharmonised the piece, a basic I-IIm progression, with some “nice chords”.
The second item was a song called “Carnival Baby”. This tune was given the traditional Calypso feel – no snare, “dotted” kik drum. It was spiced up with some non-traditional chord progressions. This bore testimony to the fact that the musicians were very knowledgeable in the area of harmony. We were treated to several such re-harmonisations throughout the evening.
Next up was “De Iron Bazodee”, another of Alison’s hits. Once more, a slowed down version that veered dangerously close to the cliff of R&B with guest artiste Terry “Mexican” Arthur treating us to a steel pan solo.
Item number four was the result of a “brain wave” Ms. Hinds had. She got the audience involved in an a capella rendition of the 1970s hit “Simple Calypso”. Unplanned and unrehearsed…spontaneous.
During her career, Alison has done a number of collaborations. We were treated to one such, “Kings and Queens”, which she had done with Reggae artiste, Ritchie Spice. It seemed out-of-place though, not merely because it was reggae, but because it seemed a weak song in this context.
The piece which took us to intermission was “Soca in Me Vein”. This one featured “Mexican” with a “Pan ‘round De Neck” solo. He literally had the pan on a strap, hanging from his neck, as per early days. Alison was a sound engineer for a minute as she followed Terry around the stage, “micing” the pan on the move. They were later joined by Sam Jack with a piano solo that took us to the end of the song. This also had an R&B flavour to it.
After a twenty-minute intermission, the second half got under way.
The Michael Jackson tribute “Gone Too Soon”, brought a palpable silence into the auditorium. It was a truly “un-plugged” performance having featured pan and voice.
“Lady Rule” was next on the programme. The proverbial R&B feel crept in here again.
Another hit, “Roll!” was greeted with great enthusiasm by the audience. After a tastefully done, chordal intro by Rodney Alexander on bass, the ensemble took the song through its paces. R&B again! An exciting pan solo by “Mexican”, brought the song to a close. And just when you thought the song had ended, Sam on piano added a coda with a slight classical touch, and for about three bars, took the song into an interestingly different harmonic realm.
“Falluma” featured a bass solo by Rodney.
Alison then brought the evening to a climax with “Togetherness”. The audience was standing in their rows, swaying to the music by then.
Unlike other Soca artistes, there is absolutely no doubt that Alison Hinds can sing!
I take this opportunity to throw this challenge out to our songwriters. Alison Hinds is on the cusp of artistic maturity. Write Ms. Hinds songs, Caribbean/Soca songs with melodies which will give her musicians the scope to flex their harmonic and improvisational muscles; songs whose melodies will give her the opportunity to showcase her singing skills. The musicians accompanying her last night are definitely capable of handling the harmonic duties. They only need to beware of falling into the R&B trap, and to remember that Kaiso and Soca can be played slowly while still maintaining their rhythmic integrity.
I firmly believe that Caribbean music can lend itself to the “sit and sip” atmosphere. Alison’s current repertoire does not. It just does not translate to the concert stage. Merely slowing a party song down does not make it fit into the concert category. On the contrary, it exposes its shallowness.
Kudos must go to the staff engineers Sheldon Harris and Abreu Penn and to their visiting colleagues for a very well controlled and moderated sound experience.
Derry Etkins is a Musician/Educator and Woodshed Scribe whose career spans three decades. He has been a Radio Presenter and Music Commentator in Guyana and Barbados. Currently, he teaches music at at the St. George’s High School in the British Virgin Islands.
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University of Calypso – Andy Narell and Relator
Review by Mark Lyndersay
June 30, 2009.
University of Calypso, a new album by pannist Andy Narell and Lord Relator (Willard Harris) gets off to a rollicking start with Harris’ ‘Gavaskar’, a witty anecdote about West Indian cricket that the singer clearly enjoys, adding an extra ‘rrrr’ as he rolls the Indian cricketers’ names off.
It’s a song that illustrates everything that’s great about this new album. Harris and Narell are committed to delivering an authentic kaiso experience, replicating with a band of top tier musicians, a sound that essentially died in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1980’s.
In his Relator persona, Harris is better known now as a living archive of not just vintage calypso, but also a skilled mimic of the vocal styles of the calypsonians who performed them.
None of that is on this album, and that’s just as well, since seeing Relator doing it is as much fun as hearing it. The selections that Harris has chosen to work with here reflect his preference for funny calypsos, both his own and overwhelmingly, the work of Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), represented by six numbers out of the fifteen on the album.
More here…
Dial up andynarell.net for complete lyrics of all songs, plus photos from the rehearsals and recording sessions
And review now posted on my website here, with appropriate shout outs…and on Trinidad Guardian here…
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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University of Calypso
Review by Israel
Andy Narell and Lord Relator’s new Cd release, ‘University of Calypso‘ hit the music aisles, June 23 2009. The anticipation at the Woodshed has been palpable ever since the three little birds whispered the news that the recording was in the can.
The Scribe, John Stevenson, is one of the first to unwrap one of the newly minted platters. And as expected, he has something to say about the phenomenal project that is University, one respectfully undertaken by Narell and Relator to recapture and re-interpret some Classic Calypsos.
Stevenson: Andy Narell and Relator: University of Calypso (Heads Up)
New Yorker Narell has had a life-long romance with the Trinidadian steel pan and, naturally, with calypso music. This CD best combines the two loves. It also deservedly introduces elder calypso statesman Lord Relator (Willard Harris), and his sweet lyricism, to a wider audience. Gently infused with jazz improvisation, Relator meanders down nostalgic pathways to remind us of calypso’s golden age on hits such as “Gavaskar” (and “Take Yuh Meat Out Meh Rice” and) Lord Kitchener’s “Pan in Harmony”. Paquito D’Rivera’s classy clarinet and alto sax solos are a nice bonus too.
More here…
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The groups for the FIJPH 2009
submitted by Jean Petit-Bois
Tira Poeira (Brésil)
Brandi Disterheft Trio (Canada)
Como asesinar a Felipes (Chili)
Nono Garcia Jazz y Flamenco Quintet (Espagne)
Alvin Atkinson (USA)
Meddy Gerville (France)
Tino Contreras (Mexique)
Tre (Suisse)
Buyu Ambroise and the Blues in Red Band (Haïti)
Beethova Obas (Haïti)
Réginald Policard (Haïti)
Event Calendar:
January 24, 2009 07:00 PM
Parc historique de la Canne-à-Sucre , Port-au-Prince, 00000 – 500 gourdes
Buyu Ambroise and the Blues in Red Band (Haïti)
Nono Garcia Jazz y Flamenco Quintet (Espagne)
Brandi Disterheft Trio (Canada)
January 24, 2009 09:00 PM
Quartier Latin – concert after hour (1ere partie), Port-au-Prince, 00000
Pierre Rigaud-Chéry
January 24, 2009 10:00 PM
Quartier Latin – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince, 00000 -
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January 25, 2009 07:00 PM
Parc historique de la Canne-à-Sucre, Port-au-Prince – 500 gourdes
Réginald Policard (Haïti)
and Tre (Suisse)
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January 26, 2009 06:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince,
Nono Garcia Jazz y Flamenco Quintet (Espagne)
Buyu Ambroise and the Blues in Red Band (Haïti)
January 26, 2009 10:00 PM
Quartier Latin – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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January 27, 2009 06:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince,
Alvin Atkinson (USA)
January 27, 2009 07:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince
Réginald Policard (Haïti)
January 27, 2009 09:00 PM
Hôtel Olofson – Concert after hour (1ere partie), Port-au-Prince
Philippe Augustin
January 27, 2009 10:00 PM
Hôtel Olofson – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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January 28, 2009 06:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince
Como asesinar a Felipes (Chili)
January 28, 2009 07:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince
Tira Poeira (Brésil)
January 28, 2009 10:00 PM
Hôtel Olofson – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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January 29, 2009 06:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince
Meddy Gerville (France)
January 29, 2009 07:00 PM
Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince
Como asesinar a Felipes (Chili)
Brandi Disterheft Trio (Canada)
January 29, 2009 10:00 PM
Quartier Latin – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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January 30, 2009 06:00 PM
Institut Français d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince
Tino Contreras (Mexique)
January 30, 2009 07:00 PM
Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince
Tira Poeira (Brésil)
Meddy Gerville (France)
Beethova Obas (Haïti)
January 30, 2009 09:00 PM
Quartier Latin – concert after hour (1ere partie), Port-au-Prince
Tre (Suisse)
January 30, 2009 10:00 PM
Quartier Latin – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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January 31, 2009 04:00 PM
FOKAL, Port-au-Prince
Tre (Suisse)
January 31, 2009 07:00 PM
Parc historique de la Canne-à-Sucre, Port-au-Prince, – 500 gourdes
Alvin Atkinson (USA)
Tino Contreras (Mexique)
Beethova Obas (Haïti)
January 31, 2009 09:00 PM
Quartier Latin – concert after hour (1ere partie), Port-au-Prince
Groupe haïtien
January 31, 2009 10:00 PM
Quartier Latin – Jam Session, Port-au-Prince
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For more information, please visit the official MySpace webpage.
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Yosvany Terry, Cuban composer, educator, musician continues to sing the praises of his heritage through the rhythms of his homeland as they were derived from the immigrant ‘labourers’ who sailed the foreboding seas from the African continent to the Caribbean.
The theme of this journey back in time centers around the Arará culture – the music, dance and religion of the Cuban provinces of La Habana, Matanzas and elsewhere in the Caribbean whose descendants hail from Fon, Ewe, Popo, Mahi and other ethnic groups from Dahomey (now Benin).
You can listen to Terry speak to his unique mission as a cultural ambassador of sorts in a one-hour interview with Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash of Building Bridges Radio, broadcast over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the metropolitan area of New York City.
Rosenberg and Nash:
“The music of acclaimed Cuban composer and saxophonist Yosvany Terry provides an unmistakable milestone in the often illusive unfolding of modern Jazz – Black classical music. He creates a synthesis that links past and present influences of Afro-Cuban and Caribbean Jazz with Cuban popular music. Terry brings the Arará culture of West African and Cuba to life, incorporating American Jazz traditions with his own Afro-Cuban roots to produce compositions and solo work that flow from the rhythmic and hard driving avant-garde to sweet sounding lyricism.”
Let us now tune in to ”A Building Bridges Special, The Afro-Caribbean Roots of Jazz with Yosvany Terry, Composer, Educator, Musician.”
Also, choose to visit yosvanyterry.com and stanfordjazz.org/yedegbe for more on the subject.
And read more about Terry at his MySpace page while sampling his music on his MySpace Music page.
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updated on December 29, 2008
It is never a surprise when a Caribbean musician takes an interest in improvisation and seeks to fuse his native rhythms with the fundamentals of Classic Jazz. However, the Jazz and Plena aficionados who filled up the Jazz Gallery in TriBeCa to witness Miguel Zenón’s Plena-Jazz fusion in development must have been pleasantly surprised.
Miguel Zenón had previously delved headlong into the study of Puerto Rico’s traditional music with the help of PR’s Plena masters, some of whom accompanied him at the Gallery on this December date.
Zenón led a band of three Plena percussionists-vocalists and four Jazz instrumentalists…
More here…
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Not one to be pigeon-holed, Steve Turre (trombone, conch shells) has at long last crossed over into the Latin light. Of course, he had always seen the light, having worked with Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaría, well before forming his own Latin Jazz All Stars.
On Thursday, December 18 and again on Saturday 20, Turre had coming out parties with the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of the LJ All Stars at Smoke Jazz and Supper Club Lounge at Broadway and 106th Street in New York.
More here…
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update 2 on December 03, 2008
The new 800-seat Miramar Cultural Center at 2400 Civic Center Place, Florida opened on Saturday, November 15 with a Caribefest Community Showcase. This is a free multi-cultural festival staged annually by Caribefest Inc. and the City of Miramar.
On Sunday, November 16, the focus turned to the Caribbean Jazz of veteran Jamaican musician and founder of the OchoRios Jazz Festival Sonny Bradshaw (trumpet) and his wife Myrna Hague (vocals). They graced the stage of the new US$20 million Arts Center with Jamaican saxophonist Dean Fraser, fresh from a stint at Anguilla’s Tranquility Jazz Festival on November 08 & 09, Grammy nominated Haitian-born Reginald Policard on keyboards as well as trumpeter Jean Caze.
More here…
Barbados
The Berklee College of Music is once again poised to audition eligible Barbadian and Caribbean artists for a full scholarship to attend next year’s five-week long summer programme at the college. This programme caters to individuals who intend to make music a lifelong career.
Puerto Rico
updated on October 21, 2008
Latin Jazz was front and center at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. Bronx, New York on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Under the spotlight was Puerto Rico American pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri. The occasion was a grand reunion of Palmieriand orchestra with compatriot conguero Giovanni Hidalgo.
Giovanni Hidalgo, considered to be one of the greatest ever Puerto Ricanpercussionists, played with Palmieri for years.
More…
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Trinidad
Rellon Brown (trumpet), leader of Dominant Seventh Calypso Jazz Band had this to say of his band’s performance at Panyard Sensations on September 28, 2008…
More…
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Aruba
updated on June 17, 2008
Alliance Française of St. Kitts/Nevis, in observance of Francophone Week, pleasured the federation with a concert by the Martiniquan Jazz duo of percussionist Paco Charlery and pianist/keyboardist Eric Ildefonse at Frigate Bay resort on March 15, 2008.
Actually Charlery and Ildefonse were on a tour of OECS (Organisation of East Caribbean States) countries under the auspices of Alliance Française when they stopped off in SKB to be part of the activities there.
The day before the concert, the musicians conducted a clinic for 150 students at the Basseterre High School in the country’s capital.
Sixty year old Charlery, on his first visit to St. Kitts, teaches percussion for Jazz to a class of 130 students in the French Department.
Ildefonse for his part has made a vocation of fusing Afro Caribbean rhythms with Jazz using his group the ‘Trio Quintet’ as his proverbial mouth piece. He is set to make an appearance at St. Lucia Jazz in May.
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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.
performed on November 03 2006, British Virgin Islands
I have never known a Jazz Showcase concert at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College to begin any later than 08:05 p.m., maybe 08:10 p.m. – and I have not missed more than one or two shows over the past seven seasons. Well, the H. L. Stoutt Community College broke their excellent record on November 03; Yosvany Terry (soprano and alto saxes) did not hit the stage until 08:27p.m.
The first thing that struck me about the Yosvany Terry Quintet was its relative youthfulness. This was not the first time that the Jazz Showcase has featured young leaders; however, this was an altogether youthful cohort of inspired musicians.
updated on July 22 with file photos
The concert hall on the Freewinds is adorned, all in black, from floor to ceiling. The ceiling twinkled with stars to give the hall an airy, outdoors feel. No surprise there. This is the “Starlight Cabaret.”
I make my entry into the performance space…
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Luther François is back
To aficionados of the genre, the name “LRF Soundworks Jazz Project” will ignite a measure of excitement among the jazz faithful, reminiscent as it is, of the short-lived but glorious days of the West Indies Jazz Band, the Caribbean Jazz Project and their predecessor, the Luther François Music Lab project.
On April 24 2007, LRF Soundworks Jazz Project, launched its maiden voyage…
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hello,
great site. i met a great guitar player several years ago in st. lucia playing at one of the hotels. he was a local guy, great jazz and r and b player with a great band. do you know who i could be talking about ?
thanks,
leo
If you are referring to a Jazz guitarist, this has to be Ronald ‘Boo’ Hinkson. Other than that, I would think that you are speaking of Carl Gustave.
Follow the links below Leo and refresh your memory with bios and track sampling. Be sure to let us know who it is, Boo or Carl.
For Boo
For Carl
My highest purpose?
I am interested in participating and playing with the Freewinds band.
Audition requirements?
I have been collaborating and “playing” with G. Clinton and Gene Anderson of the PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC. My life style and purpose are changing rapidly… as I have discovered LRH.
I would love to pursue this comm line.
Sincerely,
Jayma Superlove
We are a bit lost Jayma. Are you asking something of us? Or is this a pitch of some kind?
Anyway, we do not know what you mean by “playing” with Parliament Funkadelic. It is either that you jammed with the PF or you did not.
And “LRH”? “Comm line”? If this is some kind of ‘text-speak,’ we are not good at this. Sorry.
Please come back and clear this up.
I would like to get in touch, wishing to exchange information on Afro and Caribbean jazz. Would like to send you sample of my work.
Thanks.
Regards,
Vincent
We are very happy to hear from you Vincent. Apart from sending us a sample of your work, I get a feeling you have something more to share with us. You are welcome to enter into the discussion on Afro-Caribbean Jazz and related genres by submitting written articles, audio (in mp3 format) and video – anything on the subject you wish to share.
We especially need regular contributors to broaden the perspective on the music and to more aggressively build the interest of our people in the history and validity of Jazz.
‘Talk to Me‘
Bass player Vincent Henar is the leader of the brilliant Amsterdam-based jazz-influenced group, Fra Fra sound.
Tracing his roots to Suriname in South America, he and his group have spent the better part of the last two decades researching and presenting and indeed carefully refining a sound that sparkles with the distinctive winti, and kaseko sounds or Suriname.
Kaseko, which I am sure Vince will enlighten us on further, has some interesting connections to French creole music.
I was first hipped to Fra Fra Sound – Fra Fra is the name of a tribe in Ghana – back in 2003 when a friend sent me their elegant CD Kultiplex (that) coincided with Fra Fra Sound’s 23rd anniversary as a group. I should have known better as I reviewed it that year for ejazznews.com
Of course Vincent/Fra Fra Sound is not alone in this endeavour.
Mention must be made of the award-winning and astute musicianship of another Afro-Surinamer flying the flag high for his country’s music, flautist Ronald Snijders.
I know of Fra Fra but the Henar connection was lost on me. I appreciate the education on this. Let me now go off to do my homework.
Thanks John.
While we are this subject, are you familiar with Reggae and World Music percussionist Larry McDonald from Jamaica?
Whether you do, or whether you don’t, tune in to McDonald’s MySpace page and let me know what you think.
No Iz, the name Larry MacDonald does not immediately set a bell ringing, but I’m sure if you’ve recommended that I check him out it will be well worth it. Will so. Best, and thanks,
The Scribe
(From the liner notes to Trinidadian jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles’ new CD Folklore, set for release in June 2009)
By John Stevenson
Gifted with a trumpet technique that draws on the melodic and technical resources of that instrument’s most renowned exponents, but yet retaining his own individualistic aesthetic, Etienne Charles also proves himself to be a peerless jazz raconteur.
With Folklore, he presents a suite of jazz-oriented compositions that address the sometimes neglected mythical heritage of the Caribbean region. Originating from tales handed down over the past four centuries from slaves who came from West Africa, the fascinating lore surrounding Douens, La Diablesse, Papa Bois, Mama D’lo, Mama Malade, and Soucouyant deals with a unique spirit-space that yields rich philosophical and cosmological insights into Afro-Caribbean heritage, and by extension, the human condition.
In parlaying the stories of these mythical characters into a meticulously crafted selection of rhythmic gems, nobody comes better prepared than Etienne Charles. Etienne cut his musical teeth in Trinidad, the cradle of calypso culture. The southernmost island in the Caribbean archipelago is also one of the region’s most astonishingly multicultural nations, boasting a rainbow-like array of peoples whose forbears derive from native Carib and Arawak stock, as well as Middle-Eastern, African, European, Indian, and Chinese heritage. Etienne’s mixed African, Spanish and French lineage mightily informs his oeuvre.
Folklore is a delightful introduction, featuring a Yoruba chant and an infectiously throbbing kalenda (stick fight) pulse. Etienne’s trumpet floats in airily alongside Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s guttural tenor saxophone obbligato. It sets the scene for Douens, with its vintage calypso feel. The tune refers to the faceless, genderless, child demons who roam the earth with their feet turned backwards. The Douens, analogous to Irish leprechauns and the Afro-Hispanic Douende creatures – have a predilection for sleight-of-hand trickery and prankishness.
Etienne’s bouncy trumpet refrain bears a close resemblance to the darting, sprightly nature of the Douens. It is an engaging tune enhanced by Schwarz-Bart’s incisive soprano saxophone solo, Milan Milanovic’s sparkling comping and Ralph MacDonald’s percussive colours. The theme for Dance With La Diablesse, Luques Curtis’ arco bass and Obed Calvaire’s roiling drums, suggests an air of menace that continues throughout the composition.
The modal treatment lends a distinctive dramatic tension to one of the most fearsome characters in Caribbean folklore – a diabolical female possessed with a human leg and a cow’s hoof, immaculately concealed under a snow-white dress. The manipulation of the traditional lavway motif offers more in the way of intrigue and drama in Laja Who?, an extended composition continuing the story of La Diablesse, but from a more percussive and improvisatory standpoint, throwing Etienne’s expressive and articulate trumpet solo into the spotlight.
The folk character of Mama Malade is the ghost of a woman who has died in childbirth. She is also reputed to utter the sound of a crying child. The composition’s subdued tone, together with Etienne’s plaintive flugelhorn notes, lend to the tune a markedly evocative quality. Also analagous to the Soukougnan in Guadeloupean folk culture, and the succubus in European mythology, the Soucouyant is an older woman who flies through the night as a ball of fire entering homes through crevices to suck the blood of men, shedding her skin in the process. In their interpretation, Charles and company similarly conjure up images of yet another of the most malevolent characters in Caribbean folk history. The double-time, percussion-heavy treatment in both jazz and calypso styles, adverts directly to the physical speed with which this being traverses the earth in search of her hapless victims.
Mysterieuse, features the pleasingly balladic soprano saxophone and trumpet work of Schwarz-Bart and Charles. It is a ‘chilled-out’ musical reverie, suffused with a balmy sense of introspection. This laid-back groove also flows into Mama D’lo, the quintessential Caribbean jazz portrayal of the “Mother of the water”, a figure represented in European mythology as a mermaid, and which survives in West African riverine and coastal cultures as Mami Wata. Mama D’lo, with her serpent-like body, is generally viewed in complimentary terms as a protector figure whose wrath should not be incurred. Etienne’s sotto voce steel pan gives it a fittingly haunting invocation.
Santamanite, a corruption of the phrase sans humanite, is an infectious piece moulded along the lines of the classic Trinidadian motif. The term is used as a clincher in an extemporised kaiso verse. The track features Etienne doubling on trumpet and on the cuatro, a traditional four-stringed lute popular in Trinidad and Venezuela. The cuatro, bass fiddle and horns evoke a sense of nostalgia. MacDonald’s distinct conga style and Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe’s outstanding tenor steelpan cameo are definite highlights.
Papa Bois is viewed as the most benevolent figure in Caribbean folklore. As guardian of the forests, he roves across vast tracts of sacred land, sometimes in the form of a deer, at others, in dishevelled clothing. When he appears in human form he is an old man with leaves growing out of his beard. Known for freeing animals from traps and for driving hunters away from the forest, you could say he is an environmental patron saint of sorts. The hypnotic and polyphonic interaction of acoustic bass, percussion, drumset and piano on this track is suggestive of a land thickly forested with bonhomie and hopes for a brighter future.
Folklore is in many respects a landmark effort. Importantly, it gives a poignant sense of validation to the folk aspect of Caribbean society – an aspect through which our collective African identity is renewed and celebrated. It also underscores our need to enthusiastically embrace prodigious talents such as Etienne Charles, who lead the way in musically curating vital works in our socio-cultural and spiritual heritage.
What am I going to do with this piece. Obviously, it cannot remain in Comments. Let me see. Oh, I am about to write a Post on The week of Jazz in Trinidad. It will fit in there because both Etienne Charles, Jacques Swartz-Bart and others (Arturo Tappin included) were strutting their stuff here and there between the oil fields.
As for Larry McDonald, I received an offer of a pre-release copy of the upcoming CD. Immediately, I thought about you and wondered whether you would be interested in giving it a listen, in which case I could have a copy routed to you. This is why I suggested listening to some of his work on MySpace.
No probs Iz, send the LM platter along to me and will review.
Best, John