Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Left: The Montego Bay based outfit, Jumanji band, performs at the Wisynco Trading Company/ Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival Bands Competition, held at The Deck, Trafalgar Road on Wednesday.
Right: Cleveland Cathnot belts out a song at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival Bands Competition, held at The Deck, Trafalgar Road. - PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN THE Jumanji band took the stand at The Deck, Trafalgar Road, New Kingston, on Wednesday night, the uniformly dressed outfit which supported Brian Brown was a link between Jamaica's two cities.
The first leg of the competition to win a chance to perform at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival 2006 was held at the group's home performance base, the Coral Cliff Lounge in the tourism capital. As such they entered the Kingston leg of the competition, renamed as 'B' for the night.
Three to four bands from the competition will perform at the 2006 edition of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, slated for January 26 to 28 at the Cinnamon Hill golf course in Montego Bay. However, the bands selected from the competition will not hit the main stage, where Shaggy, Air Supply, James Ingram and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires will be among the performers. They will be on the Ocean Spray stage, in a setting that has seen bands including Tantric, pulling in substantial audiences during breaks from the large stage action.
The judges at The Deck were Ernie Smith, Stephen 'Cat' Coore, Del Crooks and Maurice Gordon, the last being chief judge.
Of the 14 bands slated for Wednesday night's second leg, two were no-shows, Anchoring Generation starting off the evening. Each band was given 10 minutes playing time, with five minutes allocated for set-up.
Diamara Neil, 5:15 Marcus I, From The Deep, Tamone & The No Credit Band, Evolucian, and Nicole Miller followed Anchoring Generation, while Stephanie Hazle ended her performance with Dawn Penn's No No No.
Cover versions dominated for the rest of the night, a break from the stage being taken as the substantial audience buzzed with conversation.
Cleveland Cathnot, along with three back-up singers, started with Everything I Own. "All the people who know Jamaica is a beautiful place," he said, to precede Brian and Tony Gold's Can You. The 'ahaahaahaaha' refrain got some dancehall style interpretations. "This one is original," was the announcement before he sang "we need love to change/this world of ours into a better place." He ended with John Legend's Ordinary People.
Rocky V started on a soulful note, the lead male and female singers holding hands as the female sang "just hold me through the night." After Marley's Turn Your Lights Down Low, remix style, the male lead made it a backing trio, stepping back as there was a female lead on the pledge "till the end of time, I will be yours/Till the sun no longer shines."
Brian Brown dedicated his first song to the ladies in the house, "especially my angel," going slow and putting actions into the words as he sang "you got me up so high." And Brown got high on his second song as he laid the slow vocals of Ordinary People over a fast paced beat from the band, stepping up on a ledge before the stage to inject a deejay style. He leaped back onto the stage as he returned to the original lyrics with "maybe we'll crash and burn", ending with a falsetto.
The results of the competition will be announced this week.
