By Tanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
Karen Smith was amusing and engaging at the event last Sunday.
POETRY AND jazz make very comfortable bedfellows. The two artforms blended very well at 'Jazz and Poetry for Sickle Cell' at the Weekenz Bar and Bistro on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew last Sunday, which was put on by the Sickle Cell Support Club of Jamaica (SCSCJ).
The SCSCJ is attempting to raise funds for a grant for sickle cell patients who want to pursue businesses or further their education. According to Camille Daley, in an earlier interview with The Gleaner, sickle cell patients often are unable to complete their education because of the disease, and thus often end up poor. The cause may have been tragic, but the event certainly had the audience in high spirits. Thrilling performances from both genres saw the audience enjoying itself until almost midnight.
JAZZ SEGMENT
The Maurice Gordon Quartet heralded the jazz segment of the evening with a rousing rendition of Charlie Parker's Billy's Bounce before moving into some of Gordon's own creations. From there, the quartet, featuring Dwayne Livingston on bass, Jerome Tulloch on keyboards and Rondevon Patrick on drums, moved into Gordon's slightly-mellowed recreation of Bam Bam.
The festival song hit comes from Gordon's latest album, Celebrating Festival. During the quartet's second set, they would play Baba Boom Boom, Unity is Love and tracks from Celebra-ting Festival.
The jazz train was then continued with the evening's first vocalist, Christine Fisher. In easy camaraderie with the audience and her husband, Alex Marten-Blanken, who had taken over keyboard duties for her set, Fisher entertained the audience with contemporary and classic jazz pieces as well as a bit of gospel and the blues.
SULTRY VOCALS
She first wrapped her sultry vocals around Norah Jones' Don't Know Why, which was a great beginning to a very good set. When the end of the popular song was met with appreciative applause, she thanked the audience by saying she was glad to be giving her 'two cents' to the cause.
She then gladly boasted that she had given birth to a 12-pound, two-ounce son in February. Glowing with maternal pride, she dedicated a blues-laden version of Yes Jesus Loves Me, which then segued into a series of gospel choruses.
From there, it was a hop, skip and a bop into a smooth rendition of the late Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me, before diving head first into the blues with Willow Weep For Me. Fisher ended her set with a fast-paced version of Sade's easy-grooving classic The Sweetest Taboo.
JAZZ AND SKA
Karen Smith was the second vocalist to take command of the microphone. She hit the stage with the lively piece On A Clear Day. Her performance was laden with an engaging personality, which is as essential to her performance as is her voice. Smith does more than sing to her audience, since she easily charms them with her comments between songs.
In keeping with this was her expression of surprise upon realising that the area before the stage was actually not carpet grass. "I am so amazed it's grass," she said to the amused audience.
Smith also delivered a bit of jazz's semi-distant cousin, ska, with Love and Devotion changing the pace slightly. "I'd just like to take five minutes to tell you that old Mack is back in town," she said by way of introducing her final piece, Mack The Knife, and bringing a fun-laden set to a close.
POETRY AND MUSIC
Dingo was the first poet to take the microphone stand and blended his poetry with music, with backing from a five-piece band. Even so, his first piece, Song For Courie, a stark look at life in the ghetto, was done without music. At the end of the piece, the audience's uncertainty as to whether it was actually done could be felt, since the piece had ended so suddenly.
Despite the initially hesitant applause, however, the audience soon warmed up to his works and often yelled or applauded their approval in the middle of a piece. Although one of his pieces would later declare "I am not a poet, I've just been cursed to work this assembly line", there was nothing generic about his performance, which blended very well with the musical backing.
His later self-description of being a shotgun-armed fly on the wall was more than adequate at describing the nature of his socio-political pieces. These poems slammed into their topics, whether they discussed the situation in Jamaica, where, "unrequested mercy killings" are a matter of course, or the futility of war.
However, Dingo is also known for his ability to lay down some very sultry lyrics, and he slew the audience with the very sexy She Did Have A Blouse And Skirt Vibe. The piece was particularly enhanced by some impressive work on the saxophone by Tafane.
INSIGHTFUL DUB POETRY
Mutaburuka would later bring the poetry segment to a close, equally entertaining the audience with his insightful dub poetry, as well as the lengthy anecdotes and commentaries that preceded them. He began with a piece which used popular nursery rhymes to make a commentary on today's society, essentially making sense of what is often deemed senseless doggerel. He also performed Junk Food in memory of the glass case-laden shops which provided late night (or early morning) suppers and have been replaced by the franchised purveyors of saturated fat.
The lauded dub poet also performed Dave Bartholomew's The Monkey Speaks His Mind, before going on to talk about Rastafari and interrogating history and the role of Christopher Columbus.
'Jazz and Poetry for Sickle Cell' also featured performances by Connie Bell, Pam Hall and Tony Greene.
