By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff ReporterTAKE SOME jazz (live and/or recorded, according to taste), add heaping spoons of poetry and stir with some good vibes. This is a very reliable recipe for a good evening's entertainment. On Tuesday, the weekly poetry session at the Weekendz Bar and Bistro on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, followed the recipe quite closely.
Mutaburuka, who was in his usual position at the wheels of steel, set the mood by spinning a combination of jazz and blues selections, including Born Under a Bad Sign and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. The dub poet/selector would continue to provide recorded music throughout the night during the breaks.
Music was also provided by an ensemble put together for the occasion. Marrying younger musicians with older, more established ones, the ensemble featured M'Bala and Calvin Mitchell on drums and percussions, Ian Hyrd on flute and saxophone, Jeremy Brown on saxophone and Vernon DaCosta and Okeepo DaSilva on guitar. After an initial performance which failed to warm the audience, despite the skills of the musicians, the group of musicians went on to provide backing for the poets featured.
WILSON'S DILEMMA
Jean Wilson was the first poet to take the stage, reading from her recently published collection, No More Smalling Up of Me. Unfortunately, her reading belied the power and beauty of the poems in the collection. Wilson's dilemma may have resulted from a combination of nervousness and microphone trouble.
Wilson first read Hit Me With Music, a poem which celebrates the power of reggae music and its power to chase away the blues. Unfortunately, being off the beat, she robbed the poem of some of its power. This also happened with a trio of short pieces. During the first of these, Icy Blues II, she suddenly adopted a light-pseudo North American accent, which must have been related to the poem having been conceived in 'New York Ciddy'.
The backing rhythm seemed to divert Wilson from the poem's natural rhythm. The first lesson for every deejay is that if you cannot ride the rhythm, then it does not really matter what you have to say. In much the same way, Wilson's poems suffered because she forced an alien rhythm on to them, rather than 'riding' their natural meter. Mable in Di Riddim and No More Smalling Up of Me, both read without the band, came across much better.
Seniority then gave way to youth as 18-year-old Kirk Brown took the stage. Brown delivered three powerful pieces, which earned him an encore. His three poems, The Living, Phoney and Last Dance, suggested that he was much older than his 18 years.
His performance was the first to make the audience come alive, as it enthusiastically expressed their appreciation of his words. One audience member even believed that Brown brought with him hope for the nation's future. "All is not lost," he said as he applauded.
Sabriya's fiery words also generated cheers and shouts of appreciation when she hit the stage. Her repertoire included the popular piece Mr. Religion and Dead Man Walking, a piece promoting safe sex.
POETRY HAT
The evening's host and organiser, Connie Bell, also donned her poetry hat for the occasion, bringing her blend of jazz and blues and poetry to the evening. Her performance went over very well with the audience.
Raymond Mair also treated the audience to some of his works. Without any attempt at dramatic flair, Mair allowed his words to speak for themselves - and they were powerful enough to do so. His readings included Wail, Mystic Revelation of Rastafari and A Tribute to Don Drummond.
Dingo continued to drum up a storm following by mixing some of his older loved works with newer pieces. He left the audience wanting much more than his short delivery. Dingo began with the poignant socio-political piece which speaks to the travesty of war, Oh No, Not Another Anti-American Poem. He also performed old favourites Too Strong and She Had a Blouse and Skirt Vibe.
Earlier, Cezar had moved the audience with three of his songs. Backed by Geoffrey Mossolmon on guitar, Cezar quickly made fans with the reggae songs What Goes Up Must Come Down, Want You and Hopelessly Infatuated.
The music portion of the evening was also enhanced by a short, wonderful performance by Suzanne Couch. Couch was the penultimate performer and many took the end of her performance as a signal to depart, leaving the final poet, Calvin Thomas, with only a small fraction of the audience to perform to.
By then, Tuesday night had become Wednesday morning and the night of jazz and poetry came to an end. It had been a night of good music, good poetry and good vibrations.
