Vaughnette Bigford steams up jazz concert with some Lady Lava zess

THE normally conservative jazz singer Vaughnette Bigford stunned her audience even as the patrons got to their feet and danced as she let loose with Lady Lava’s steamy Ring Finger at her Soiree After D Mas at Naparima Bowl Amphitheatre, San Fernando.

Not much of a dancer, VB toned down a version, jazz style, of Lava’s lyrics, “if you don’t have a ring, you don’t have a mister, hands up, leh me see yuh finger” still doing an appropriate simulated “bend over for the camera” dance.

Laughing at the response from the mainly female audience, who dressed in their finery to celebrate both Bigford’s 51st birthday on March 12, and International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, the same night of the concert, she confirmed her out-of-the-box vibration with this selection when she declared, “If my grandfather did not dead already, this would have killed him.”

Two members of her band also had birthdays and were celebrated, on that night.

In a show designed to empower women, after performing Ring Finger, which has become a ladies anthem, (a spin-off from Beyonce’s Single Ladies), she acknowledged, “Lava you are a boss,” following her presentation of Billie Holiday – My Man.

My Man speaks to unconditional love “for a man who is not true and beats her too, but she loves him,” is the total opposite of Lava’s energised zess hit which advises women to stop believing that spit.

A man, mimics VB, “who is not much on looks, no hero out of books, but I love him. Two or three girls has he, that he likes as well as me, but I love him.”

Defying a cold, which she tackled with rest, ginger and local herb zebapique, she opened the final segment, which was preceded by San City Steel Orchestra and 3canal, with a tribute to one of her favourite singers, the late Roberta Flack.

Her choice from the American songstress was I’m the One.

From ballads to zess, Bigford entertained with a genre blend of blues, folk, pop, reggae, calypso and soca.

Kool and the Gang's Let’s Go Dancing, Never too Much from the love man Luther Vandross, George Benson – Give me the Night, Stevie Wonder – Do I Do, Dawn Penn –No, No, No, all attuned to her vocal range, worked her magic on the audience, ending the nigh on a romantic note after the fire brought by 3canal.

Using the power of the word and the rhythm of the word to make social and political statements, Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts and Stanton Kewley mesmerised with their lyrical styling.

They also paid tribute to the giants on whose shoulders they stand, including Karega Mandela, who was in the audience, and the late Brother Resistance.

For every note they sang from their extensive catalogue, dating back to their debut in 1994 when they used J’Ouvert as a platform for their expression, to this year’s kaiso crossover of Where We Going? Answer The Call, Fightin’ and Sedition, the audience acted as the back-up chorus.

With its satirical take on political and social issues, 3canal reminded the audience its election time with its offering of Salt.

The very heady musical performance came with a warning, to "gird your loins" and get ready for the battle, for the rum and roti "politricks," as the political vampires were sucking the blood of the land. It also came with the admonition, to put some salt on your skin to ward off this evil.

“Is nothing for you and you like it so,” the singers chanted, receiving the same resounding applause when they sang about Sedition being a “fonny (funny) law, where "they" want to licence your mouth, don’t want yuh talk.

“Where taxes high and murders on the rise, but we eh riot yet – but you can’t say that.”

Showing off the index finger, which is stained with election ink as proof of having voted, 3canal warned, “Be careful where you put this finger,” before painting the amphitheatre “Blue” to end its routine.

Although it did not make it past the preliminary stage of the Panorama competition, the opening act, San City Steel Symphony, which was founded by the San Fernando City Corporation back in 1990, showed its versatility.

Led by Aquil Arrindel, the inspiring and youthful band, including pan prodigy AJ, in keeping with the jazz theme, had members of the audience clapping and dancing to sounds on steel of She’s Still Loving Me, Maria by Blakie, the memorable Bound to Dance and Pan to Wine from Joey Lewis, as well as some offering from the Barry White catalogue.

The band also paid tribute to the late Roberta Flack, who died on February 24 and R&B singer Angie Stone who died in a car accident in Alabama on March 1.