By Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter
AS THE sun set and the evening darkened, the magic of good jazz took over the gardens of the Jamaica Pegasus in New Kingston on Sunday.
While hundreds of Jamaican's chose to hit the streets for the road march and after party, a few chose instead to attend another in the 'Jazz in the Gardens' series. Were it not for the occasional snippets of soca making their way from Mas Camp into the seclusion of the garden, it would have been hard to believe that the mayhem of carnival was a few feet away.
In the true tradition of jazz, it was an impromptu performance which won the hearts of the audience, and took a good evening of performances to an even higher level. The performance came towards the final stages of the show, during the performance by the Jamaica Big Band.
UNREHEARSED DUET
The band's conductor, Sonny Bradshaw, called Mryna Hague and Karen Smith to the stage. It was not the first time he had called Smith, who had also performed her own set earlier.
This time, however, he was asking both singers to perform a unrehearsed duet of Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me. The performance was a tribute to the late great jazz singer, and it was certainly a celebration of what is great about jazz.
Watching the singers pick up on their cues and carry the notes flawlessly, each adding her own personality to the mix, was made even more enjoyable because it was so evidently unrehearsed. The audience loved it and demanded an encore.
GREAT JAZZ
They were denied the encore, but there was more great jazz in store. So enjoyable was the performance that the Big Band overshot their performance time by close to an hour without anyone commenting on it, and hardly anyone making their way home. Sonny Bradshaw actually saw fit to comment on this.
At ten minutes past 9:00 p.m. he noted that they had already long overstayed their time.
Myrna Hague (top) and Karen Smith performed a tribute to the late jazz singer Nina Simone.
The Jamaica Big Band went on to thrill the audience with performances of My Little Red Top and Days of Wine and Roses. Despite Bradshaw's reminder that the time to end was at hand, the audience insisted that he give them the proffered ska tune. The result was a grooving rendition of the classic Confucious. This piece was followed by a trip into soul music with James Brown's, I Feel Good. Finally, as with all good things, the show was brought to an end with the band's theme song, Take The A-Train
Despite persistent trouble with the audio equipment, the show was a rather enjoyable one. It had begun on a rather quiet note with a solo performance by Harold Butler on piano. Butler graciously indulged in entertaining the audience with special requests. His beautiful manoevres on the piano seemed to be heralding night.
QUIET PERFORMANCE
Butler's quiet performance was soon complemented by the presence of Karen Smith. Butler remained in charge of the piano during Smith's performance along with Maurice Gordon on guitar, Leon Duncan on bass, and Dezi Jones on drums. Smith, who came to the microphone with her trademark effervescent energy, gave a performance which alternated dance tunes with ballads.
One of the most moving pieces of her set was a slow rendition of Nat King Cole's Nature Boy for which she was accompanied by only Butler. Smith also performed pieces such as On A Clear Day and I Don't Get Around Much Anymore. During her performance of My Foolish Heart one man, clearly moved to the height of his enjoyment, noted "Yuh nuh want nothing better than that bwoi!" He was right.
