Trinidad steel pan player Othello Molineaux showed his mastery in a jazz performance at Devon House, St. Andrew, last Wednes-day night. -Winston Sill photoTanya Batson, Staff Reporter
YOU PROBABLY will not understand the real beauty and versatility of the steel pan, until you have heard it playing jazz. Hopefully, when you do, you will hear it being played by Othello Molineaux.
Jazz lovers got a great earful last Wednesday night at the monthly jazz event at the Grog Shoppe, Devon House, St. Andrew. Re-gulars and occasional visitors had packed in to get a wonderful dose of music to wash away the work week blues and they were aptly rewarded for their efforts.
The Trinidadian, Molineaux, was accompanied by Jamaican musicians, Desi Jones (drums) and Maurice Gordon (lead guitar), who have more than earned their own stripes. The two were a part of the Maurice Gordon Quartet. The quartet was completed by Dale Haslam on bass and Courtney Sinclair on keyboards.
It was an evening of calypso, jazz and reggae. By the end, the musicians had earned themselves a standing ovation, and the request for an encore. When The Gleaner entered the premises, the sounds of Falling In Love With Love were being carried across the courtyard by the evening breeze. The jazz tune was followed by the first exploration into calypso for the evening. This came with John Buddy Gooding's Happy Story.
Before delving into this piece, Molineaux pointed out that he was feeling some trepidation because singing was not his thing. However, he had decided to take Desi Jones' advice that it is not the singer who matters but the song. Jones, at least in the audience's view, was proven right. The applause which greeted the song suggested that they were clearly more interested in the song's melody and music than that Molineaux's singing is leagues below his playing ability.
They then moved into Duke Ellington's In A Sentimental Mood, re-interpreted to include reggae rhythms. The classic jazz notes being produced by the steel pan were smoothly spread over a dubbing beat being carried by the other instruments. The song became more than a conversation among instruments, instead it was a beautiful one being held across genres. In a Sentimental Mood thus began to represent a conversation between the classical and the popular; the old but ageless, and the new but timeless.
ECLECTIC AT ITS BEST
The beautiful blending of genres was again picked up with a song that, at least in a Jamaican crowd, needs no introduction. Cheers went through the crowd from the introductory run of I Shot The Sheriff. This time, it was reggae being interpreted through jazz, but it was no less beautiful and spoke of a combination of skill, talent and showmanship. This piece included an intricate, high-speed run on the pans that had to be heard, and preferably seen, to be believed.
It was then time for calypso and jazz in the guise of The Girl Is Mine. This tune featured Molineaux once again venturing into the realm of singing. Unlike in his performance of Happy's Song, this time around he sang and played the pans. At the beginning, he played with one hand as the mike was grasped in the other. Fortunately, the time for singing soon ended and the mike was put back on its stand and Molineaux once again concentrated on playing pan.
Molineaux's set also included Scrapple, Hannibal's Return, Body and Soul and Oleo. Earlier the quartet had warmed up the crowd with songs such as Back To the Wood Shed, Irie Mood, and Think With Your Heart.
As all things, good and bad, must end, so too did the night. For the requested encore, Molineaux selected to end with Bluesette, though with the great music that was just played, no one left with the blues.
