Music
Jonestown reviewed
03/12/12 22:40 Filed in: Website Updates
Malo Jones' The Last Days of Jonestown is the is the Trini crafted soundtrack to a brutal aural Western. The Sunday Guardian review is here...
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Great Fete Notes - Day two
30/07/11 02:07 Filed in: Reporting
Retro Thursday
July 28, 2011
AllRounder engages a member of the audience at Retro Thursday. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay.
More Great Fete photos here.
The promoter has been down this road before, but the first time I’d ever seen it first hand was at last year’s Great Fete, when issues with finance, flights and finally hot tears marked the end of Beenie Man’s much touted appearance at that year’s grand finale night.
Kevan Gibbs has just received a phone call from Vybz Kartel’s manager that the performer, the headline act at this year’s show, has missed his flight out of Jamaica.
“There aren’t any first-class seats!” He yells into the phone. “I’ve been trying to book them for weeks now! I don’t care who else doesn’t get on, just get Vybz here!”
He draws out a long, frustrated steups after hanging up the phone and glares at the road. Great Fete can’t take another hit like last year’s absentee Jamaican headliner, and he knows it.
It isn’t the only problem facing the show’s organisers. Last night’s Welcome Wednesday party, a raucous, loud event, has drawn the ire of the neighbours around Rollocks, a car agency who allowed the space around their business near the airport to be used for the party.
Welcome Wednesday had to be relocated twice in a matter of days after a booking mix-up with Golden Star led to the loss of their slot and the replacement site, a piece of land that demanded extensive rework with backhoes and dump trucks didn’t stand up to sustained rainfall.
The second night’s show will have to be relocated as well, heightening the normal confusion that surrounds the event to a dizzying pitch.
Retro Thursday ends up housed at The G Spot, which in one of those curious turns, is a place that nobody can seem to find. There’s little useful parking and patrons end up walking some distance on the narrow road to get to the spot when they do turn up.
Once they get there, they find a building that probably makes perfect sense for the business it normally does, a small open area downstairs with a little nook of a bar that probably serves patrons at tables, another little space upstairs that’s probably a restaurant and an open area around the pool that’s been restricted to keep the crowd from ending up in the porches of guests staying at the hotel half of the business.
This doesn’t work out well for the crowd who end up trisected into a hot space downstairs that wasn’t built for that many sweating bodies packed into it, an odd trapezoid upstairs that resists easy engagement and the outdoor area, which is mercifully cool but also relatively quiet because the speakers are all indoors.
The crowd gamely wrestles with the space, trying to squeeze a vibe from it while the DJs try to find some era and style of music that will spark a response strong enough to lift their audience out of their curious circumstances.
That catalyst, and the night's salvation. eventually comes from an unusual source, the Hendrickson family, AllRounder and his kaiso daughters, who initially aren’t particularly welcomed by a crowd that’s been rocked by vintage dancehall and funk all night.
The Hendricksons have real sand though, and aren’t about to let a crowd of young punks, all young enough to be the children of any of the family members present, dictate their pace.
The DJ gets their first track up and they sing vigorously, but then there are problems with the backing music.
Sensing their narrow window, the three veterans launch into two songs acapella, one right after the other and win the crowd’s attention and enthusiasm with their bravado and spirit.
By the time the DJ’s sorted out the music for AllRounder’s 2011 hit, Bodywine, he’s already won them over completely and he milks the song and its now quite intricate physical routines, during a long, spirited performance.
It’s a retro moment for sure, eschewing technology and artifice for old school principles like talent, craftsmanship and brazen showmanship and the crowd let the Hendricksons know that they’d scored.
July 28, 2011
AllRounder engages a member of the audience at Retro Thursday. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay.
More Great Fete photos here.
The promoter has been down this road before, but the first time I’d ever seen it first hand was at last year’s Great Fete, when issues with finance, flights and finally hot tears marked the end of Beenie Man’s much touted appearance at that year’s grand finale night.
Kevan Gibbs has just received a phone call from Vybz Kartel’s manager that the performer, the headline act at this year’s show, has missed his flight out of Jamaica.
“There aren’t any first-class seats!” He yells into the phone. “I’ve been trying to book them for weeks now! I don’t care who else doesn’t get on, just get Vybz here!”
He draws out a long, frustrated steups after hanging up the phone and glares at the road. Great Fete can’t take another hit like last year’s absentee Jamaican headliner, and he knows it.
It isn’t the only problem facing the show’s organisers. Last night’s Welcome Wednesday party, a raucous, loud event, has drawn the ire of the neighbours around Rollocks, a car agency who allowed the space around their business near the airport to be used for the party.
Welcome Wednesday had to be relocated twice in a matter of days after a booking mix-up with Golden Star led to the loss of their slot and the replacement site, a piece of land that demanded extensive rework with backhoes and dump trucks didn’t stand up to sustained rainfall.
The second night’s show will have to be relocated as well, heightening the normal confusion that surrounds the event to a dizzying pitch.
Retro Thursday ends up housed at The G Spot, which in one of those curious turns, is a place that nobody can seem to find. There’s little useful parking and patrons end up walking some distance on the narrow road to get to the spot when they do turn up.
Once they get there, they find a building that probably makes perfect sense for the business it normally does, a small open area downstairs with a little nook of a bar that probably serves patrons at tables, another little space upstairs that’s probably a restaurant and an open area around the pool that’s been restricted to keep the crowd from ending up in the porches of guests staying at the hotel half of the business.
This doesn’t work out well for the crowd who end up trisected into a hot space downstairs that wasn’t built for that many sweating bodies packed into it, an odd trapezoid upstairs that resists easy engagement and the outdoor area, which is mercifully cool but also relatively quiet because the speakers are all indoors.
The crowd gamely wrestles with the space, trying to squeeze a vibe from it while the DJs try to find some era and style of music that will spark a response strong enough to lift their audience out of their curious circumstances.
That catalyst, and the night's salvation. eventually comes from an unusual source, the Hendrickson family, AllRounder and his kaiso daughters, who initially aren’t particularly welcomed by a crowd that’s been rocked by vintage dancehall and funk all night.
The Hendricksons have real sand though, and aren’t about to let a crowd of young punks, all young enough to be the children of any of the family members present, dictate their pace.
The DJ gets their first track up and they sing vigorously, but then there are problems with the backing music.
Sensing their narrow window, the three veterans launch into two songs acapella, one right after the other and win the crowd’s attention and enthusiasm with their bravado and spirit.
By the time the DJ’s sorted out the music for AllRounder’s 2011 hit, Bodywine, he’s already won them over completely and he milks the song and its now quite intricate physical routines, during a long, spirited performance.
It’s a retro moment for sure, eschewing technology and artifice for old school principles like talent, craftsmanship and brazen showmanship and the crowd let the Hendricksons know that they’d scored.
Great Fete Notes - Day one
30/07/11 01:57 Filed in: Reporting
Welcome Wednesday
July 27, 2011
Partygoers at the free drinks event. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay.
More Great Fete photos here.
Vybz Kartel is crooning into the camera. His eyes are covered with wrap around shades and as the shot pulls back, he is under an umbrella held by a nubile young thing.
My jaw is slack. There may even be a little spittle escaping the side of my mouth.
The singer isn’t even in the country yet. I’m looking at YouTube videos of the artiste in the Carnbee apartment of Great Fete promoter Kevan Gibbs, who is keen to give me a briefing on his star attraction for the 2011 edition of the event.
He’s just shown me the video of “Clarks,” a duet with Kartel protégé Popcaan (thanks Mitzi), in which the two charming young black men trade jocular and admiring lyrics about the British line of shoes which are, apparently, quite popular with dancehall dudes. The song apparently registered a significant spike in sales for the normally staid and peripherally fashionable shoemaker and has inspired Kartel to consider his own line of footwear.
I am rambling here, though. Probably because I’m still reliving the astonishment I felt when I saw Kartel in the video for “Summertime,” in which his dusky skin has faded, no, bleached, by his own admission, to that chalky yellowish tone typical of forced melanin reduction.
It’s after 11pm while my Kartel schooling is going on, and the gates to the wildly popular first party in the Great Fete series of events have already opened.
That’s always a curious little party. Usually held in a smaller venue far from the beach, it’s a free drinks party, a kind of gift to early arrivals to the party series, now in its 12th year.
Three years ago I got my Great Fete initiation at Wednesday night beset with sheets of rain, not a great idea for an open-air event. The crowds backed into the covered area at the Golden Star and then came back out when the weather cleared, veterans of a party series that first came to prominence with water spraying from a firehose.
But it’s also a key event for young people on the island and the occasional befuddled tourist who blunders into the densely packed crowd, ending up being vigorously wined on. The crowd is engaged for five hours or so by a rapid succession of both practiced and up-and-coming DJs who wheel and toast their way through snippets of selections, usually dancehall with trimmings of soca and techno in a machine-gun brisk, radio-savvy blizzard of song excerpts.
This is hardcore partying with drinks flowing and it’s probably the purest incarnation of the original concept of Great Fete, which began as a mad prance fuelled by DJs and wild spraying of water from a hose at Pigeon Point.
Over the next few days, the event will wend its way through the concept nights its evolved during its existence, Retro Thursday, which celebrates music that really isn’t that old given the children gathered for the dance, Fantastic Friday, dedicated to hot local acts and the Wet Fete, Saturday’s key event, to be headlines by Vybz Kartel and his “empire,” the young artistes he nurtures and produces.
July 27, 2011
Partygoers at the free drinks event. Photograph by Mark Lyndersay.
More Great Fete photos here.
Vybz Kartel is crooning into the camera. His eyes are covered with wrap around shades and as the shot pulls back, he is under an umbrella held by a nubile young thing.
My jaw is slack. There may even be a little spittle escaping the side of my mouth.
The singer isn’t even in the country yet. I’m looking at YouTube videos of the artiste in the Carnbee apartment of Great Fete promoter Kevan Gibbs, who is keen to give me a briefing on his star attraction for the 2011 edition of the event.
He’s just shown me the video of “Clarks,” a duet with Kartel protégé Popcaan (thanks Mitzi), in which the two charming young black men trade jocular and admiring lyrics about the British line of shoes which are, apparently, quite popular with dancehall dudes. The song apparently registered a significant spike in sales for the normally staid and peripherally fashionable shoemaker and has inspired Kartel to consider his own line of footwear.
I am rambling here, though. Probably because I’m still reliving the astonishment I felt when I saw Kartel in the video for “Summertime,” in which his dusky skin has faded, no, bleached, by his own admission, to that chalky yellowish tone typical of forced melanin reduction.
It’s after 11pm while my Kartel schooling is going on, and the gates to the wildly popular first party in the Great Fete series of events have already opened.
That’s always a curious little party. Usually held in a smaller venue far from the beach, it’s a free drinks party, a kind of gift to early arrivals to the party series, now in its 12th year.
Three years ago I got my Great Fete initiation at Wednesday night beset with sheets of rain, not a great idea for an open-air event. The crowds backed into the covered area at the Golden Star and then came back out when the weather cleared, veterans of a party series that first came to prominence with water spraying from a firehose.
But it’s also a key event for young people on the island and the occasional befuddled tourist who blunders into the densely packed crowd, ending up being vigorously wined on. The crowd is engaged for five hours or so by a rapid succession of both practiced and up-and-coming DJs who wheel and toast their way through snippets of selections, usually dancehall with trimmings of soca and techno in a machine-gun brisk, radio-savvy blizzard of song excerpts.
This is hardcore partying with drinks flowing and it’s probably the purest incarnation of the original concept of Great Fete, which began as a mad prance fuelled by DJs and wild spraying of water from a hose at Pigeon Point.
Over the next few days, the event will wend its way through the concept nights its evolved during its existence, Retro Thursday, which celebrates music that really isn’t that old given the children gathered for the dance, Fantastic Friday, dedicated to hot local acts and the Wet Fete, Saturday’s key event, to be headlines by Vybz Kartel and his “empire,” the young artistes he nurtures and produces.
JAOTG 2010 review posted
28/03/10 22:23 Filed in: Website Updates
Drumquestra review posted
08/02/10 23:07 Filed in: Website Updates
A review of Larry McDonald's Drumquestra is posted here. Written for the excellent Caribbean Jazz site The Woodshed.
Under your skin review posted
19/10/09 21:52 Filed in: Website Updates
University of Calypso review posted
13/07/09 22:31 Filed in: Website Updates
My review of Andy Narell and Relator's University of Calypso is posted here...
Interested in Caribbean Jazz? Visit The Woodshed for serious instruction.
Interested in Caribbean Jazz? Visit The Woodshed for serious instruction.
BitDepth 687 posted
06/07/09 19:18 Filed in: Website Updates
BitDepth 687, a look at the confluence of media and magic that made Michael Jackson a worldwide sensation is posted here...
On MJ and his brothers
27/06/09 20:48 Filed in: Website Updates
In just over a year, little brother Michael would begin a trajectory of fame and stardom that would eclipse his most remarkable moments under Berry Gordy. In short order, he would emerge as the saving grace of the film version of The Wiz and record the first solo album on which he would exercise his growing production and songwriting skills.
The Jacksons in 1978 seemed very much in flux, caught between the glories of their past and an uncertain future, the band was confident in performance and capable in public presence.
My brief encounter with them during the few days that they spent in Trinidad and Tobago would forever change the arc of my own career, the photo that I stumbled into of Michael and Penny Commissiong forever lifted my profile from writer with a camera to photographer and changed my own perception of my capabilities and potential.
The Jacksons tour of 1978 didn't change my life, but it accelerated my travels along an inevitable path and gave me both the confidence to pursue a shaky professional venture and the will to stick with it when things didn't work out.
I have no doubt that Michael and his brothers forgot all about me before they even set foot on their flight back home and I will confess to have thought little about the encounter over the past three decades, but in reposting the story I sold to Owen Baptiste's People Magazine (my first major story in a magazine and pictures on a glossy cover) I hope to share something of what happened during those few days and to pay homage to the young star who passed away on June 25.
Related...
Fifteen minutes of fame
Michael Jackson in Trinidad, a remembrance
Jacksons Mania, 1978
Playing pan with powder posted
07/04/09 10:11 Filed in: Website Updates
The story Playing pan with powder about an entrepreneur's plan to bring durable colour to the national instrument is posted here...
Jazz on the Greens review posted
02/04/09 22:42 Filed in: Website Updates
The full review of Jazz on the Greens 2009 (the review is abruptly truncated in the paper and on its website) at the UWI Centre for the Creative Arts is posted here, along with the full selection of photographs offered to the paper for publication.
BitDepth 663 posted
26/01/09 20:58 Filed in: Website Updates
More on Free + Legal
19/01/09 21:25 Filed in: BitDepth+
The Free + Legal campaign jointly announced by Columbus Communication's Flow and TrinidadTunes.com marked a coming of age for the music download service.
As the team behind Riddums Music and Trinidad Music Store closed in on their first anniversary, Flow approached the music distributors looking for ideas on a meaningful collaboration.
Flow had first approached 3 Canal about doing a jingle, but the group doesn't do that kind of work, so the idea of Free + Legal was born, offering music for a limited time with a sponsor footing the cost.
As noted here in BitDepth, 3 Canal will be offering their new album Joy + Fire exclusively on TrinidadTunes.com until they release the CD later in the Carnival season.
The idea was stimulated by the October 2008 visit of Gerd Leonhard, a futurist thinker with a special interest in music and its distribution in the digital age.
"Flow has been amazing," said Lorraine O'Connor. "We thought that the phone companies would have jumped on this idea, but Flow didn't even want to limit it to their customers on their network."
3 Canal apparently left their meeting with Flow astonished at how open minded the company proved to be in their discussions.
TrinidadTunes hopes to start hosting music videos on the website before the end of the Carnival season.
"We're not philanthropists," said O'Connor.
"But we see that it's to the long term benefit of both our businesses to build interest in legal downloads," her business partner Roses Hezekiah continued.
"The most astonishing thing is that Flow's team is just bright, bright women and the meetings just blaze on," said O'Connor, "Rhea (Yawching, Flow's Communications chief) will just hold up her hands and bawl, 'no more ideas, no more, I have no budget left'."
As the team behind Riddums Music and Trinidad Music Store closed in on their first anniversary, Flow approached the music distributors looking for ideas on a meaningful collaboration.
Flow had first approached 3 Canal about doing a jingle, but the group doesn't do that kind of work, so the idea of Free + Legal was born, offering music for a limited time with a sponsor footing the cost.
As noted here in BitDepth, 3 Canal will be offering their new album Joy + Fire exclusively on TrinidadTunes.com until they release the CD later in the Carnival season.
The idea was stimulated by the October 2008 visit of Gerd Leonhard, a futurist thinker with a special interest in music and its distribution in the digital age.
"Flow has been amazing," said Lorraine O'Connor. "We thought that the phone companies would have jumped on this idea, but Flow didn't even want to limit it to their customers on their network."
3 Canal apparently left their meeting with Flow astonished at how open minded the company proved to be in their discussions.
TrinidadTunes hopes to start hosting music videos on the website before the end of the Carnival season.
"We're not philanthropists," said O'Connor.
"But we see that it's to the long term benefit of both our businesses to build interest in legal downloads," her business partner Roses Hezekiah continued.
"The most astonishing thing is that Flow's team is just bright, bright women and the meetings just blaze on," said O'Connor, "Rhea (Yawching, Flow's Communications chief) will just hold up her hands and bawl, 'no more ideas, no more, I have no budget left'."
Jazz, not soul or R&B, on the greens
17/03/08 19:49 Filed in: Music
The Road March Curse
07/02/08 06:35 Filed in: Carnival
A bend in the Amazon
14/10/07 23:03 Filed in: BitDepth+
