By Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Top left: Queen Ifrica puts voice and body into song on-stage at Rebel Salute at the Port Kaiser Sports Club in St. Elizabeth last Saturday. Above: songbird Nadine Sutherland becomes an angel during her performance at the same event. - Wayne Mcinnis / Freelance Photographer
WESTERN BUREAU:
ON A LINE-UP dominated by men, Queen Ifrica and Nadine Sutherland gave the women a voice from the stage at 'Rebel Salute 2003'.
Performing back to back, Queen Ifrica and Nadine Sutherland showed contrasting sides of the female face and form, with the latter appearing much more refined.
However, they both delivered their material effectively, with passion and were enthusiastically received by the huge audience at the Port Kaiser Sports Club in St. Elizabeth as they sang and deejayed.
First up was Queen Ifrica, who opened from off-stage with Peter Tosh's Creation, her deep voice intoning the words perfectly. With Tony Rebel's son Patony waving a Rasta banner behind her, Ifrica came front and centre to deliver Seven Spanish Angels Garnett Silk-style and Port Kaiser responded well. She put voice and body into the song and had to 'pull up' when the banners went up.
"A we Jamaican haffi go tek back Jamaica from dem fool deh whe a kill nine-month ole," Ifrica said, before opening up her next song with what are we fighting for/Jamaica cease the war.
As good as the response was to that song, the conflagration was yet to come. "When Rebel Salute say no drugs we naa talk ganja. Me see suppen pon TV whe day whe hurt me. Me see dem a cut dung one ganja fiel'. It pretty! Dem sey dem have one machine fi cut dung ganja, it betta dan machete," she said angrily, before launching into a ganja-supporting song.
The crowd started jumping when the bass line of the Love P.....y Bad rhythm hit them and, as her growling vocals lifted up the virtues of marijuana in perfect timing (herb inna chalice/herb inna rizzla), they exploded into a frenzy of screams, banner waving and rockets.
The 'pull up' was inevitable and the song was just as effective the second time around, the appearance of Skanking Dread doing nifty moves adding to the excitement. Skanking Dread froze into position when she finished, only to join the rest of the crowd, including an exuberant Christine Hewitt right in front of the stage, in 'dropping legs' as Queen Ifrica did her father Derrick Morgan's Blazing Fire.
Ifrica ended her performance with a snippet of Life and the lyrics the streets are bloody/they just killed somebody struck a chord with the audience immediately.
MC Jenny Jenny informed the audience that Ifrica had just signed a deal with Next Music from France.
Where Ifrica was a 'rude girl' from black boots to black skirt, black top and black headwrap, Nadine Sutherland was an elegant young woman Striding to the microphone in darkness, she simply said, "I want to start my show by singing a song for Garnet Silk."
That she did, a single golden spotlight picking up the glitter of her brown top as she closed her eyes, hit and held her notes superbly. As she hit the line tell God I said/you deserve a pair of wings she spread her arms and, for a brief moment became an angel herself.
Moving the microphone stand away, Nadine Sutherland performed Babyface, her expression indicating delight in her music. She skanked as she sang, then said "I want to do some of my favourite songs." These turned out to be Judgement Day and Reasons on a reggae beat a la Johnny Osbourne, her voice soaring into the falsetto section.
"I want to do my new song. I wrote this song because I felt I had overcome. I had allowed other people's opinion to get the better of me,"she said, moving into Without You, which she had to 'pull up' as the crowd responded. "I have found that the greatest love is inside myself," Nadine Sutherland informed Rebel Salute 2003, breaking into dance sporadically and spontaneously as she sang.
"I can go into some dancehall?" she asked and, having got the go-ahead, enjoyed herself tremendously with Anything For You and Action, laughing as she took a slash at Terror Fabulous' lines. "Go inna it Christine," she said, as Ms. Hewitt 'dropped legs' in front of the stage.
Nadine Sutherland returned for her encore with a smile, saying that she was thinking of switching careers and becoming a deejay. "How Admiral Nadine soun'?" she asked, laughing. However, she soon turned serious, as she performed Redemption Song, originally done by Bob Marley, the man who had brought her into 'the business'.
As the familiar guitar intro took hold of Port Kaiser, Nadine Sutherland extended her left hand and took a long look at it, then moved into the song. Throughout the entire first verse, steady rockets whizzed skywards to explode against the stars over the venue, as she not only performed the classic, she became a freedom song herself.
