Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer
Saxophonist Yolanda Brown performs at the Women In Jazz concert, which kicks off the 18th Annual Jamaica Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival 2008, held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, on Sunday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Like a fountain of fine wine, jazz of great quality poured from numerous instruments and voices into the ears of dozens of appreciative patrons at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Sunday evening.
The event was a concert, Women in Jazz, a part of the 18th International Jamaica Ocho Rios Jazz Festival 2008, which runs until June 15.
It comprises events, musical and otherwise, in Kingston, Ocho Rios, Runaway Bay, Negril and Port Antonio. Organised by the Friends of Jazz committee, the annual festival is produced and directed by veteran musician Sonny Bradshaw.
Top jamaican musicians
Sunday's concert featured several top Jamaican musicians, as well as a couple of acts from abroad. Local artistes included Marjorie Whylie and her ensemble, Whylie Rhythms, the Bradshaw's Jamaica Big Band, and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. From abroad came The Four Tenors Jazz Sextet of Switzerland and saxophonist Yolanda Brown of England.
A number of other acts brought additional flavour to the wine. Jamaica's first lady of jazz, Myrna Hague, sang. So did cabaret performer Mary Isaacs. Young Nadje Leslie, who in 2006 won the title 'Junior Grand Champion Instrumentalist of the World' in the Hollywood World Performing Arts competition, played her violin. Introducing the several performers and generally tying all the parts of the evening together with his usual charm and flair, was the emcee, Michael Anthony Cuffe.
Corporate sponsorship
Before the main performances began, Sandra Shirley, president of First Global Financial Services, the major sponsor of the event and of the music programme at Alpha Boys' home, announced the company's sponsorship of the Sonny Bradshaw Community and School Band competition. This competition was getting its first corporate sponsorship in 10 years.
Some past winners have been from Alpha Boys Home, Herbert Morrison School in Montego Bay, Brown's Town High School and Dinthill High School. Even school bands from the United States have participated, as both competitors and guests.
After Whylie Rhythms, featuring Whylie on keyboards, Rupert Bent on guitar, Dale Haslam on bass and Desi Jones on drums, showed off their totally professional playing with Breezy, a lively, upbeat number, Isaacs began her three-song set.
She delivered the songs,
Summer Time,
My Baby Just Cares For Me and
Misty with feeling and in a well-controlled, throaty voice and earned well-deserved applause. But her selection turned out to be an indication that well-worn standards were to form the 'entrée' of the evening.
Myrna Hague - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Old hits
Many of the songs and tunes that were to follow were older than the majority of the performers. You can understand the Bradshaws - Sonny, who has been 50 years in the music business, and wife, Myrna - between them offering the audience chestnuts like Take the A Train, Satin Doll, Days of Wine and Roses, Fly Me to the Moon, and That's Life. (They were excellently performed, though ancient).
But when teenager Leslie chose to play (and she, too, played well) Fly Me to the Moon, Strolling Along Minding My Business and even the Jamaican Pantomime classic, Evening Time, one started wondering whether any good jazz had been written in the last 40 years.
Happily, saxophonist Brown, who is in her early 20s, gave us some fresh items. Her fine playing was not, however, the only delightful things about her set. Her friendly patter ("I was born and raised in London," she said, "but reggae is inside me, and I can't get it out.") and her perfect calm, and even joviality, in the face of a non-functioning microphone also helped her to win the hearts of the audience.
For those wondering, fellow saxophonist Dean Fraser came to Brown's aid with a standing mike, and later, he played a duet with her. Brown's pieces included the self-penned Story, written about a year ago, she said, for her first big concert, and Lady. She also dropped in an old standard, My Funny Valentine.
Her act ushered in the intermission at about 9 p.m., the time when the hotel's regular jazz concerts are usually winding down. When it ended about 20 minutes later, the Four Tenors Jazz Sextet took the stage in the garden's gazebo. (The name might puzzle some people. The 'four tenors' refers to the four tenor saxophonists, and the 'sextet' embraces the two other musicians in the group, a drummer and a bass player.)
Their first few numbers were uninspired (they seemed glued to their scores), but three of the last four numbers were excellent. One was Tenor Conclave, which saw one going fiery red in the face as he blew some fast, powerful notes on his instrument; another was Under the Sea, a lively calypso-flavoured tune from the movie Finding Nemo; and the third saw Brown adding her sax's voice to theirs, and conga player Ouida Lewis drumming up a storm.
The final act was Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires, and while the ska numbers they played did not exactly provide, as Cuffe promised, "a finale you'd never forget", they were well-received. A number of patrons were singing along with Keith Lyn as he performed Jamaica Ska and Empty Chairs, among other songs. We also heard the Sammy Dead ska, Carry Go Bring Come and, near the end, the old hit, O Carolina.
Overall, the show was an entertaining blend of the old and the fresh.
