Blue Note gets "Fest-ive"

In honor of its 30^th anniversary, the institution will host the first inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival during the month of June, the club announced this past week. Throughout the month, more than 80 shows featuring established jazz legends and rookie experimentalists will take place across the city.

The club is hosting the Festival to fill the void left by promoter and producer George Wein’s New York Jazz Festival, which usually occurs in June but which is on hiatus this year. Wein himself will perform at the Blue Note’s Festival in mid-June.

Programming runs the gamut from more traditional legends like Dave Brubeck and Chaka Khan to edgier picks like Duncan Sheik, The Roots, Igmar Thomas & the Cypher. The Harlem Gospel Choir will also perform. Blue Note hopes to promote cross-pollination of music by mixing different acts in hopes of appealing to varied demographics. Both Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco have hosted shows at the club, a testament to the gradual fusion of jazz with other genres and subsequent interest of younger audiences.

“Over the past five years, we’ve adapted to changes in music,” said Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note.  “We’ve paired hip hop and jazz, for example. We want to mix up the elements.”

The Festival events will take place all over the city, including Highline Ballroom, B.B King’s, Terminal 5 and Mercury Lounge. There will also be an act at Central Park’s Summerstage, which has yet to be announced.

While Bensusan hopes to attract diverse audiences, he doesn’t believe jazz has been relegated solely to the milieu of the 50-plus set.

“This isn’t a dead industry,” he said. “Our audience is a mix of college students, people in their 30s, tourists and the 50-plus.”

If the Festival is successful this year, the Blue Note hopes to roll it out on an annual basis. You can see the show schedule here.

Jus a Quick peek @TEDx Irie

Reedman Damon Riley blew in for a quick but scintillating spell at the TEDx Irie event at the Courtleigh Auditorium on Saturday last. Check back on Jazz Bus and also on http://bizfinty.blogspot. com for more on the great TEDx Irie event.

Channeling 'Bra' : Remebering Wilton 'Bra' Gaynair @ the IOJ

We braved the rain, and power cuts to head down to the  Institute of Jamaica at the corner of East and Tower Streets, in the heart of Kingston South. We were richly rewarded, bit th by the band, comprising Tony Greene on tenor sax; Ozou'ne on piano; Shurwayne Thompson on bass guitar and Obed Davis on drums, as you will see in the pics, but also by Herbie Miller's multi-media discourse on the great saxophonist's life, work and outlook.

Simply.....the Best

It was billed as "simply Myrna" and save for the presence of a few dancers and the more welcome intervention of the Cari-Folk Singers, that's exactly what audiences got at the Courtleigh Auditorium Saturday night. And take it from me, Myrna Hague was more than enough.

Ably supported by a rotating musical cast (anchored by Desi Jones on drums), was in superb vocal form in front of a full, and very appreciative house. But that was far from the whole story. Displaying all the verve, sensitivity and instant rapport that has seen her shine on stages in Italy, the UK, Malaysia and myriad other destinations, she cooed, growled, trilled and shimmied her way into the hearts of the crowd, including a few younger ones who might not have been aware of her song and stage prowess. Her act covered show tunes, jazz standards, and reggae, and included a new single, a cover of "Broken-hearted Melody" By the time the band, including soloists Dean Fraser and Rupert Bent rejoined for a rousing finale of Paul Simon's "Diamonds In The Soles Of  Her Shoes" all appetites were virtually sated.

Blues on the Green in pics

Review to follow soon - great performances all round

US sax man blows up hope in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica

For American saxophonist Brent Birckhead (left), a visit to Jamaica, under the auspices of the United States Embassy was a coveted gig, and not just for a tropical break in the middle of winter. Through a workshop hosted by the Embassy on the campus of the capital city's Edna Manley College for the performing arts(EMC), it offered the 2010 Downbeat Poll winner a chance to connect with the renowned Jamaican musical spirit


For youngsters like  trumpet player Sheldon Griffiths(below left) from Kingston's troubled and depressed inner cities, it meant even more. The lanky Griffiths, who is part of a charity programme called St Patrick's Foundation played Bob Marley's No Woman Nuh Cry, in the process inspiring the clinician who after a minute or two of .  listening to Griffiths, eased into the tune with dexterity and tenderness

In addition to St Patrick's The workshop participants were drawn from members of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force Band, the Sam Sharpe Community Band from the western capital of Montego Bay, students at the EMC, and high schools from the southern parishes of Clarendon, St Catherine and the capital, Kingston.


After bringing all the participants on the auditorium stage for an impromptu "group improv" Birckhead challenged the gathering to nourish a vision of themselves as great and to practice so that they could one day eclipse him and other leading players.

The programme, which also included a live performance the following evening inside Kingston's Emancipation Park, came at a time when Kingston's music scene, in deep depression after a vibrant heyday (up to the mid 1980s) is once again showing signs of life. Venues new and old are offering live programmes with instrumental as well as vocal performers. 

A Sample

turanator1

The following is a sample minicast of recent CDs and other items from the site (from podomatic.com) set to the tune of Dr Lonnie "The Turbanator" Smith