By Winston Sill, Freelance WriterTHE RECENTLY concluded Barbados Jazz Festival was a huge success by all accounts. The shows had good crowds, the performances for the most part were great and tourist arrivals continued to increase.
When the Barbados Jazz Festival started 11 years ago the attendance ratio was 80 per cent locals and persons from the Caribbean, while others accounted for the other 20 per cent. The festival has grown to an estimated 60/40 ratio, with about some 35,000 to 40,000 patrons attending over the seven days. This good position is due to the smart and aggressive marketing and promoting of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and GMR Tours International, producers of the festival.
Even the press corps covering the festival has increased, as some 65 journalists from the region, North America and South America were in attendance. At a press conference hosted by the BTA at the Sherbourne Centre, producer
of the jazz festival Gilbert Rowe declared that it is a tourism product, but it is for the
'Bajan' people.
"The people of the country must never feel that we have created a product that would alienate them. The 60/40 attendance ratio seems a good balance, but I would never love for it to go beyond 50/50," he said.
Rowe believes in regional integration, as he feels that the Caribbean festival planners could work together to make it a festival destination. "I believe strongly that we will stand together as a region or we die apart and that applies to everything. There is no reason why we as a region cannot have closer relations with regards to our jazz festivals," Rowe said. Continuing, he said, "there is no competition. The venue for a festival is the destination and
the destination of Barbados is
different from the destination of Jamaica and St. Lucia. Because we roll out first every year,
in January, we took the first
step and invited Jamaica and St. Lucia to have booths at the premier venue of Farley Hill to promote their festivals".
Speaking at the same press conference, BTA president Oliver Jordon said the large crowds stem from increased local interest in the festival, as well as the BTA promotional efforts in the US market. He noted also that the BTA and GMR International Tours had entered into a promotional arrangement with Black Entertainment Television (BET) Jazz Channel, on which the event was heavily promoted. There was an increase in bookings, primarily from the African-American market, for the jazz festival as a result.
The performances during the week leading up to the weekend were good. Based on reports, however, it was Friday night's and Saturday afternoon's performances that were the highlight of the week. Friday night's show at the Sir Garfield Sobers Auditorium opened with saxophonist Kirk Whalum, a born-again Christian, who blew up a storm and took the opportunity to minister. Whalum, a former member of Whitney Houston's touring band, did a number of songs in his nearly one hour performance, doing songs like Maxwell, Did You Ever Wonder, Thank you Jesus and Falling in Love with Jesus.
He also did songs too from his latest CD, entitled The Gospel According to Jazz, Part 2. He was supported on vocals by his brother Kevin and former Atlantic Starr singer Barbara Weathers.
Then came the 'star' or the 'queen' if you like, India Arie. And what a performance! For well over an hour India belted out a wide range of songs which took the very large crowd by storm. She blew them away with her skill, calmness and ease on stage.
She started slowly, because of a little technical problem, but recovered quickly and from then on never looked back as she sang A Change is Gonna Come, Enjoy The Show, Summer Time, God Is Real, Close Your Eyes, Get it Together (in tribute to the people of Barbados) and her mega hits Brown Skin, and Video. At the end she had the full house on its feet in awe and begging for more.
GREAT PERFORMANCE!
The first day of the two-day show was the better and left the final day as an anti-climax. It was a cultural feast at its best with performers from Africa, Tokyo and Latin America. Kem and his group kicked off the show and did themselves proud as they set the mood for the large crowd in attendance. The tempo stepped up when Cameroon bassist Richard Bona took the bandstand and the crowd went wild at his guitar artistry and vocals as his rendition of Eyando went over well. He was backed up by equally impressive Aaron Heick. Then it was the turn of the group Hiroshima and they kept the momentum going as they took it to another level with the lone female June Kuramoto on the koto winning the audience's support with her skill. They did songs like Time on the Nile, Eternal Phoenix, Turning Point and Believe, among others.
What can be said about Pancho Sanchez? The Grammy Award-winning big group really kicked up a storm and had the now jam-packed park on their feet and dancing as they closed a wonderful day of jazz. Sanchez, on the conga drums, was in fine form, as he and the group reeled off a string of hit songs. Conmigo, Not Necessary, El Shingalive, Conga Blue, Watermelon Man and Out of My Sight were among the hits.
Sunday's show was highlighted by the four-man group FourPlay, who did a lively set to close the jazz festival. Others who performed on the last day were Kal David, Steve Oliver and Dana.
All things considered, it was a great week of jazz, blues and gospel well done.
