Left: Della Manley performs at Redbones Blues Cafe, Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, last Friday night. Right: Nigel 'E Poet' Wilmot performs with Dubtonic Kru. - photos by Mel Cooke

Della Manley, with her spare acoustic sound, gentle voice and songs which allow listening space for reflection (self and otherwise), and Dubtonic Kru, as heavy and insistent on drum and bass as their name suggests, are not an obvious pairing.

Last Friday night, however, they proved excellent together at Redbones Blues Café, Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, performing as the Kingston On the Edge (KOTE) Urban Arts Festival 2009 headed to a close. And they not only shared the bill; they also shared stage time, Dubtonic starting out with 'World Crisis' and dropping a set of music that included the dub of 'Shine Eye Gal' before Della's first stint with them that included the upbeat 'Sometimes You Win'.

There was an unexpected guest as well, Nigel 'E Poet' Wilmot (who gets his name from writing on his BlackBerry) putting in a couple appearances and expressing his appreciation of Dubtonic in the process.

The show started late, which gave time for more persons than the mere handful on hand in the earlier going to turn out. It was never a large audience, but there were sufficient enthusiastic persons to make a good evening of it.

Sound system shortfall

One shortfall was the low end of the sound system utilised that night, as it was deficient on the real depth that is required to carry dub across as it should. That may have been in consideration of the neighbours.

All the Dubtonic members, except for the bass player, contribute to harmonies, with lead vocalist Kamau also playing percussions. The other lead voice, Jallanzo, plays guitar and he stooped a couple times on Friday night to wring effects out of his instrument's amplifier.

In Dubtonic's first set, Kamau put down the drum to sing Hold On Still and put in a line as drummer Jubba took his sole turn at lead vocals, that song closed with a clip of Martin Luther King Jr's 'I Have a Dream' speech, a natural bridge to E Poet's spoken word.

E Poet focused mainly on getting the message across, often sticking to one rhyming pattern for an extended period and his first piece last Friday night related his love of music ("my relationship to music is highly sentimental") and inability to do without it ("me cyaa sleep inna me bed/widdout a beat inna me head"). There were cheers in his second poem, which declared the tonic of dub "as good as sex in any position".

There was an obvious structure to the concert, as Jallanzo's 'Free' was heavier on guitar than drum and bass, making for another transition to Della, obviously a crowd favourite. Dubtonic adjusted its sound easily as Della played her guitar and sang of people and matters "passing by", before going into Sometimes You Win. Fragment (which grew out of a poem) and Yes I Know (a slower crowd-pleaser) ended Della's first stint and E Poet returned.

He had another poem specific to the occasion, rhyming about and playing on the 'edge' in honour of 'Kingston On The Edge'.

The dub stepped up a notch with the band honouring Bob Marley as Kamau requested "play I some music" to a dancing audience. Jallanzo took over lead vocals for their own Reggae Rock I Tonight, then Kamua's originals Living In Exile and Revolution hit home very well.

Della's second set also raised the bar. She opened with Barbican Square, ripped the house with her versions of Junior Byles' Fade Away and Dennis Brown's If I Follow My Heart and closed on a poignant note with her Bittersweet.

E Poet was in a militant mood in his last showing, observing "too much following of straight noses/too much tight trousers".

When Dubtonic ended the concert with Born Jamaican just past midnight, the crowd hollered for more and they got it, Jallanzo and Kamau sharing verses of Redemption Song, which they dedicated to Michael Jackson.