Kay Alleyne steals the show

WITH a calm sea in the background and the wonderful smell distributed by the lovely, reinvigorating sea breeze, Tobago songstress Kay Alleyne stole the show with her electrifying performance at the North Coast Jazz (NCJ) festival at the Solomon Hochoy Recreation Ground in Blanchisseuse on Saturday.

She began with a Sam Cooke original, A Change Is Gonna Come, and immediately changed the controlled enjoyment to an electrifying performance, given the power of her voice as she sang, “I was born by river...” The crowd cheered loudly.

Alleyne continued with R&B numbers, rocked with fantastic renditions of Bob Marley’s No woman no Cry and Al Green’s Let’s stay Together, before closing with a medley of pop songs Never Too Much, Don’t Leave Me this Way and Ain’t Nobody.

The audience was on its feet for the most part of her performance and gave her the evening’s biggest ovation.

Also getting the crowd dancing were Xavier Strings and Olatunji Yearwood. Xavier Strings featuring Janine and Janelle Xavier on violin thrilled with Uptown Funk (Bruno Mars), then went local with J’Ouvert’s Slave (John “Buddy” Williams/Slinger Francisco) and Full of Vibes (Voice/Marge Blackman), did Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life, then followed with a reggae session.

They continued their highly-entertaining performance with popular calypsoes including Cheers to Life and then got into the dancing crowd to deliver Full Extreme (Ultimate Rejects), leaving Ola to send home the crowd in a frenzy. He opened with 12 Bar Joan (Kitchener), Maria (Sparrow), his own Bodyline and Ola, and the Jackson 5’s Love You Save. However, the crowd wouldn’t let him go. He came back on stage and enquired what the audience wanted and indulged them in more Ola and Bodyline. Shouts of “We want more” could not be entertained though as it was the end of the show.

Earlier, gospel jazz act Michael Dingwell opened the show and warmed the crowd with popular gospel numbers Go Magnify the Lord, In the Garden, Blessed Assurance, O Come Emmanuel, What a Friend we have in Jesus and Doxology.

Guitarist Dean Williams and his band that comprised the Showtime Brass smartly dressed in blue shirts and white trousers, followed with a Wes Montgomery version of Caravan, his own A Woman’s Sweetness and Li Jwe Gita, and Mr Toad’s Wild Ride (Greg Adams/Nick Milo).

The band then accompanied the Treble Trio, featuring pannists Ayana “YaNz” Garcia, her brother Saieed Garcia and Triston “Shortz” Marcano.

Smartly outfitted by Florence Watson’s Bisu Couture outfits, Treble Trio delighted with Mango Island (Ralph MacDonald), Paradise Gardens (Robbie Greenidge), Let It Be (Beatles), Africa (Toto) and Feel It Coming (The Weekend).

Williams also remained on stage to accompany Niiyda Andrews, who was one of the 2017 Discover Me artistes.

She made a spectacular entrance with her ivory flowing gown from Shurnel Designs, however, her performance was unfortunately, not as spectacular.

She did no justice to Billboard hit songs Body and Soul and Rapture (Anita Baker), He Loves Me (Jill Scott) and No Ordinary Love (Sade), nor Calypso Rising (GB). She closed with her own composition Phenomenal Woman and I Choose You.

While Arthur Marcial was setting up his band a presentation of a portrait of her performance last year at the NCJ was made to Mavis John by Professor Selwyn Cudjoe. It was also revealed that courtesy NCJ, John will be singing at next year’s St Lucia Jazz Festival.

Marcial, playing both his harmonica and guitar, that at times he made to sound like other musical instruments, began with Trini to De Bone (David Rudder), then continued with Bluset (Triulet), his own MangoTree, The World’s Greatest (R. Kelly), Is This Love, Bob Marley and Coconut Woman (Harry Belafonte), before giving the crowd another original made popular by the now defunct Kalyan, Can you love me.

Marcial closed with We Kinda Music (Andy Narell) and The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Kudos must go to the organisers Louis Lee Sing, John Gill and Margaret Gittens for producing another enjoyable event in a most terrific atmosphere.