Music
St Lucia Jazz Festival
By
Jun 22, 2002, 12:30

A Musical Diary of The St Lucia Jazz Festival

Friday Night – En Vogue:

With the departure of Dawn Robinson a few years ago to pursue a personal career with Lucy Pearl four tremendous talents had become three. Yet after their St Lucia Jazz festival performance it is clear to see this has not held En Vogue back. If anything it has helped them mature, bringing an even more confident and sassy style to their performances. Their vocal range oozed class. Ballads sounded like they were Gilbert and Sullivan renditions while the paceier, sexy numbers radiated a funky wisdom. They are fantastic dancers too. These are women with style and grace, not to mention stunning looks. They wore great outfits that the audience all appreciated for different reasons. Flowing chiffon with flower patterns and sexy slits down the legs meant the women in the audience could admire confident, stylish looking women who know how to look good, while their husbands could just gaze, mouth ajar.

The audience, just like the singers had matured too, and with the choruses coming from the audience themselves it was clear most had been listening to En Vogue since their first album ‘Born To Sing’in 1990. When the ladies asked for a volunteer to come on stage it was almost comical to see the amount of men that appeared. At first there was one then two, then more, then a heard. Thirty-something year old men becoming groupies illustrates the appeal these women still generate.

An impressive band with 9 members accompanied the divas. Keyboards, drums, bass, more bass, more keyboards, xylophones, percussion and synthesisers created a fabulous live sound. The evenings playlist was a sing along of great numbers; ‘My Lovin’ (Never gonna Get It), ‘Whatta Man’, ‘I Heard it All Before’ (Sunshine Anderson cover), ‘You Got the Best of My Love’, ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T’, ‘Lady Marmalade’, ‘Givin Him Something He Can Feel’, ‘Don’t Let Go’ and ‘Hold On’ all epitomised the talents of these women. By the end of the show the audience were on their feet dancing and clapping. As the divas left the stage to a standing ovation it was easy to see these ladies have definitely got what it takes. They rocked, creating a mellow vibe and a good time, taking the audience on a funk filled, souled out vocal tour.

Saturday Afternoon – Angelíque Kídjo

Now this lady can sing. Originally from Benin in West Africa her style would technically be classed as ‘World Music’, except anyone who has had the pleasure to hear her knows that is too simple an explanation. This is a lady who takes music further and understands it really is a universal language. She once said, “I believe music is the only way to heal pain and bring people together. It's a language beyond color of skin, country or culture. I want to inspire people to think about poverty, freedom and family on a deeper level.” And she does.

With lyrics like 'You don't have to be old to be wise/A bird doesn't wait till he dies to fly’ this lady can make the sun shine, bring any person to their feet and leave your soul days later vibrating to her upbeat catchy style. You can’t but help humming along, tapping along and trying to replicate the original cosmopolitan beats she puts out. Kídjo’s on-stage performance was full of energy she danced a storm, leaping and singing. At one point she pulled off a move more reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s airwalk than a top vocalist in full cry.

Her musical style is inventive and can best be described as a mixture of salsa, funk, jazz, rumba, souk, makossa, African beats, American soul and French lyrics. It is a revolutionary sound different to the mainstream because it explores the relationships of diverse musical cultures and invites you to enjoy this exploration. This is music you actually feel, your legs bounce to it, your fingers tap to it, you smile, you get up and you can’t help but enjoy her sound. Yet at the same time you pause mentally on the meanings of her words which are infused with African traditions and folklore – Yoruba sayings are commonplace in her lyrics. If you haven’t checked her out before or even heard of her, and I hadn’t, I would recommend getting her latest album ‘Black Ivory Soul’. You can’t go wrong.

Saturday Afternoon/Evening – Buddy Guy

The ‘Blues defined’. Buddy Guy is an expert, a blues expert. In his own land he is referred to as the King of Chicago Blues and here he didn’t disappoint those at the St Lucia Jazz Festival who know him as such. In another field with another sound and another sex he would be called a diva. He’s a great performer who oozes charisma and his musical skills showcase how universal the blues sound is. This man is a legend in blues circles. He has been and still is idolised by famous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck.

Buddy Guy is so talented he can sing about rain and the heavens open up. It didn’t seem to matter, the crowd stood, swinging and dancing watching this guitar ‘playa’ strum strings with a dexterity and rhythm few are born with. At one point he left the stage and wandered through the crowd guitar strap and all. With the mic in one hand he sang his heart out. To the frenzied audience he was the greatest – and he was just in front of them!

The blues is a great form of music. There isn’t one person who couldn’t sing the blues at some point in their life. I think this was what made the crowd so enthralled by Buddy. He was the first artist of the Festival to have everyone standing from start to finish. He had people singing who ten minutes earlier did not know any of his words. He brought the rain down, but that’s what great blues artists do. They make their music the air you breathe and if its raining in his song your damn sure if it’s Buddy Guy he’ll make it rain for real too. Top performance.

Saturday Evening – Lauren Hill (Acoustic Solo)

Lauren Hill is one of the most soulful and talented black artists of the last ten years. Her debut with the Fugees was tremendous and then she blew up big time with the fantastic ‘Miseducation of Lauren Hill’, an eclectic album with that rare quality that you want to leave it on from start to finish without fast forwarding any tracks. As with many great albums this one has had a slight case of the ‘over play syndrome’. With this in the back of my head I was looking forward to hearing her new album.

Sat on stage with a guitar on her knee Lauren dutifully performed her latest album ‘MTV:Unplugged’. She was disappointing, wallowing in a state of melancholic sadness. She said her departure from what most love her for was because the music industry is hypocritical, selling what sells and not what is true. She let us now if we didn’t like it that was fine because she was searching for her ‘real’ audience. Don’t get me wrong I don’t have any problems with that and her lyrics were mostly intelligent and succinct, the stuff many young educated people can agree with. They were anti-corporate America, anti-capitalist and insightful. But in reality she wasn’t saying anything many fine authors haven’t written before her, nor anything new from what greats like Bob Marley and John Lennon preached decades ago, which one feels she was trying to do. Perhaps she needs to start leaving behind the Marley legacy thing.

What hurt her the most was her delivery, she did it in a way that alienated her from her audience and made her seem better than them, in more pain than them. We all have problems, there’s a wall we all slam into some time. Why should Lauren’s tribulation be deeper and more important than ours? Does a great singer not speak truths, universals and empathise with the commonality of pain? She didn’t, her disclosures revealed little about the world, it was empty sorrow and an idea that she feels more pain than we do. That is never going to go down well, no matter her reasoning. What’s more is the good stuff she sang got drowned out by the waves of her feeling crappy.

It was comical at times, one member of the audience near me was wandering around asking anyone for a plaster so he could cover her mouth. At times some voices could be heard saying ‘just sing’ ‘we didn’t pay to hear a sermon’. Lauren had lost the crowd and you could feel for her. She is obviously at a different stage from her first solo album. She is learning about herself, exposing herself, finding herself as those who still love her proclaimed. But as reviews go she wasn’t very good, her music wasn’t memorable and the crowd left disappointed. To cap everything off, as the crowd was getting more agitated with her, the heavens unleashed the biggest downpour of the weekend. Everyone ran for cover, and poor old Lauren left the stage to no applause, no final words and soaked both physically and emotionally.

Sunday Afternoon – Courtney Pine

With the sun out the London massive was represented both on stage and in the crowd. For it was the turn of Courtney Pine, one of Britain’s top saxophonists. This man is not like his contemporaries, he infuses dance styles, the Drum and Bass scene in particular, with the sweet sexy harmonies of the sax. Some of the crowd did not feel for this more youthful merging of sounds, a little too loud, fast paced and dancy perhaps. Those that did feel it though were bouncing and getting involved like they were in London itself, dancing to beats in the clubs of Hoxton Square.

Courtney is great on stage, he gets the audience involved. He plays his instruments beyond and above the call of duty, holding notes longer than you can imagine is humanly possible and changing his wind instruments with impressive frequency. Many of the numbers he ran through were great dance tracks but did little for the people who were unfamiliar with his sound. Yet he had thought his set through, and what better piece to reach the people across all spectrums than a jazz version of Marley’s timeless hymn ‘Redemption Song’. With that he brought the non-believers back. They began to realise Pine’s music was more dynamic than they had first thought. He ended up his set leaving all in no doubt of his musical origins and talent. His jazz is fused with calypso, ska and reggae rhythms. In many ways his type of jazz represents the mood of the times, because its what younger Jazz musicians listen to and as such it will become the foundation of a whole generation of top jazz careers. The future is a melange, a Jazz melange!

Sunday Afternoon/Evening – India Arie

As India took to the stage the sun was dropping below the horizon. The crowd was excited and was full to capacity. So much so that people were standing in the aisles and creating a scene by blocking others behind them. India at first oblivious to the crowds’ problem began her set, unfortunately after a while you could see she wasn’t totally comfortable. There was a loud murmur coming from the crowd, people shouting at each other to sit down and arguments ensuing. India eventually realised there was some kinda of issue. ‘What’s wrong’ she said in a motherly tone. ‘I just know if you listen you’ll love the show’. But the murmur continued, until India herself got up and took charge of the situation, getting all those in the aisle to sit down. Just as she started her set once more the rain started, yet knowing she had just got the crowd back and not wanting to lose them again she persevered in the face of potential electrocution. Her efforts were greatly appreciated for she put in one of the most memorable performances of the festival. What a lady!

She was fantastic, from her medley, which included tracks like ‘Just the Two of Us’, Omar’s classic ‘There’s Nothing Like This’ and Terence Trent D’Arby’s ‘Sign Your Name’ to her own hits like ‘Video’, ‘Beautiful Surprise’ and the optimistic ‘Strength, Courage, and Wisdom’. But it was ‘Brown Skin’ that received the most noise. Her beautiful soul voice is the sweetest thing since Roberta Flack and her audiences just know it. They melt under her sugary tones and sensitive harmonies. They swing from side to side, humming along if they don’t know the words, belting lyrics out if they do.

While everyone was seated for the first half of her set by the end there was not a single bum parked on the turf. ‘Video’ had everyone singing along and ‘Brown Skin’ just took everybody that little bit further. She received a huge round of applause, and a thousand calls for an encore. Unfortunately the Festival is anti-encores. Nonetheless she had won over the crowd something her sistrin, Lauren Hill, the previous night had failed to do. As India put it, ‘I’ve never been here before, so I don’t know what to expect.’ But this was something she used to her advantage her soft personality coming through and endearing her to all those looking on. We would love to see her again next year, same time, same place. She is the Queen of the sunset session.

Sunday Evening – Smokey Robinson

Well what can you say? This performance had it all. Every single person in the audience sang and not a single person dared to leave. This was Motown, The Temptations, The Miracles and Marvin Gaye all rolled into one. This was crowd participation taken to new levels. Smokey and his band only had to start a song for the audience to take over and finish it. ‘Cruisin’ turned into a 30-minute acapella between Smokey, the right side of the audience, the left side of the audience and the backing singers.

There were classics galore, ‘My Girl’, ‘Second That Emotion’, ‘Being With You’, ‘Tears of A Clown’, ‘Tracks of My Tears’ and ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’ to name a few. Each one was greeted with whoops of applause and sounds of joy. The whole show was a fabulous production with lights, effects, scripts and music played by a big band (string orchestra included). Smokey arrived on stage by far the best dressed man in the Caribbean. A blinding white two piece suit and jacket with white coattails was a fitting choice – he looked like an angel, and had the voice to back up the look.

His rapport with the audience was heartening to see. He joked and they laughed, he sang and they cried for more, he danced and they screamed, he gave his all and they were totally grateful. By the end of the set he was dripping with sweat and had stopped singing. He just listened with a proud glow as the audience sang to him. He joked that he hadn’t realised he was playing for the St Lucia Choir tonight.

After many decades as a successful recording artist and performer Smokey is revered globally as a soul legend. There is no-one, whether you realise it or not, who hasn’t heard at least one of his tracks. His music is synonymous with the 20th Century and what’s even more beautiful is it’s just as at home in the 21st Century. Whether he plays to a crowd in the States or he makes it to a small island like St Lucia the man is a bonafide don of music. You can’t help but recognise this in his company. The effect the man has on a crowd is an effect few performers ever have. The people he plays for adore his music, it is what many of their own memories are wrapped in and this means they adore him. How many performers can sing a few words and then be carried away by the musical waves of the audience? Not many, not how he did it. The most memorable performance of the festival, one which all who were there will never forget. What a dude! What a finale!

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