Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
WHEN SIMONE Fletcher finished playing her arrangement of Invention #13 in A Minor, the last piece in her final year show at the School of Music auditorium, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, St. Andrew, on Tuesday night, there was a standing ovation.
The cheers continued even after she left the stage and the curtains closed on the third of four presentations on the second day of short concerts (25 to 30 minutes) by 'certificate in popular music studies' students.
The only male who was being assessed by the judges that night, Nichalos Allen, was the first of three keyboard/piano players to present, the other two being Coleen Duncan and Fletcher, in that order. Vocalist Phebe Henry closed the night's series, which allowed the students to "demonstrate their skill and versatility through the ability to be a solo instrumentalist, to improvise, to be an accompanist and to participate in ensembles."
Nichalos Allen chose Satin Doll for his solo piece,Satisfied, Thank You and Feel Like Making Love (without vocals) preceding a pair of reggae rockers to end. There was a stir in the audience when the 'Drop Leaf' rhythm started, Mark Bradford singing lead on Maxi Priest's Believe in Love.
The concert ended on a high with Marley's Exodus, the first of many songs by 'The Gong' for the night.
GOSPEL BEGINNING
Coleen Duncan, with a full band and the additional support of a St. Thomas contingent in an audience that was supportive of all the night's presenters, started off on a gospel jam note from behind closed curtains, musicians and singers turning the auditorium into a 'hip' church with Our God Is An Awesome God, On That Day and the reggae rocking of Katalys Krew's Open Up Your Eyes.
"It is my time to be alone now," Duncan said, moving from keyboard to piano for Summertime. Stevie Wonder's Marley tribute, Jammin, saw her doing the strong keyboard phrases, and she ended her show, which utilised dancers, with a medley of Third World's Reggae Ambassador, Gregory Isaacs' Meet Me At The Corner and the Marley pair of Kinky Reggae and Heathen, the last especially being an overwhelming favourite.
Simone Fletcher's show was the smallest numerically, with three harmony vocalists and the band, a lead singer coming on only for Marley's Who The Cap Fits. And there were no dancers. She was her own hostess, sitting at the keyboard and facing the audience. Her programme was, numerically, the shortest, with five individual items.
The gospel rocker I Just Want To Thank You/Holy Holy Holy was the opener, Fletcher's lips moving as she looked down at the keyboard, totally involved in the music. She then announced not only her solo, Evening Time, done to her arrangement, but the following piece, Sixty-Eight, the 'one short' name causing the expected stir. She moved to the piano, there was calm and she started a delightful trip into a familiar favourite, into which she infused fresh life with finely balanced pauses and innovative phrasing.
STANDING OVATION
1The reggae of Who The Cap Fits was joyously received and she ended on a classy rearranged classical note of Invention #13 in A Minor, leaving her audience standing and cheering.
The night's final performer, Phebe Henry, sang Innuendo and Cry Me A River in a mostly intimate, sometimes brash voice, engaging her audience with eye contact. For Seduces Me, she utilised a dancer whose lithe moves were shown in silhouette against a screen on stage. The Marley pair of Satisfy My Soul and Rat Race preceded a rocking closing medley in which Car Wash, Not Coming Home and Only Hope preceded What's Up, in which her voice was allowed to soar to very good effect.
