By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE 'BEST of the West in Jazz' came to the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Sunday night and the performers made the near 250-mile round trip well worth the mileage.
With its strong cabaret circuit, centered around Negril and Montego Bay, the west would be expected to provide good performers - and that it did, in Malyka, Connie Edwards, and AJ Brown. The west also provided an excellent band in Time, with Sylvan Solomon on keyboards, David Clarke on guitar, Tony Moss on bass and Byron White on drums, their lead singer Alicia Fleming putting in a good stint at the microphone.
Malyka's rendition of Love Is Where You Find It helped set the evening off on a wonderful note, a large audience gathered before the gazebo overlooking the poolside signifying Kingstonians' support of their western visitors. "She is deserving of wider recognition," the urbane MC Michael Anthony Cuffe said, in tipping his hat to Malyka.
THE PERFORMERS
The strength of the performers that night was underscored by AJ Brown following Malyka, Time getting into the swinging rhythm of Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al as he was announced. "I am here. Hello!" AJ Brown said, smiling, drawing a chorus of 'hellos' and chuckles from the seated, swaying audience.
With band balancing volume with intensity, Brown was off into the swinging number, scatting, smiling and skanking away.
"Who says jazz is not exciting? Cause we are here to have fun," Brown said, after he had ended on a high note to the delight of the audience.
George Benson's Masquerade was just as exciting, but in a slower, more subtle way, Brown standing beside the guitarist and watching his fingers dance on the strings as they combined musician's solo with singers scatting.
Ray Charles' Georgia reached from the cottonfields of the deep south to claim the patch of green overlooking the Pegasus' poolside, AJ Brown singing with his eyes closed and the microphone on the stand, his right hand moving between pocket, heart and air. An outstanding piano solo was well appreciated by the seated, swaying audience.
STANDING OVATION
Brown used tracks on Time To Say Goodbye, spontaneous applause meeting his nimble taking of notes, intonation and deftness with the foreign language. There was a standing ovation by one-third of the audience when he finished high, long and strong. "And you notice I am doing it in the early part of the show - You need proper posture for that song, OK?" Brown said.
He rocked it reggae style with his own My Father, My Friend, before closing with Louis Arnstrong's Wonderful World, doing the Satchmo smile and mopping of face, to the delight of those present.
He dared to leave, but was recalled and delivered You Captured Me for the encore, having captured and captivated the audience at 'Jazz In The Gardens'.
Alicia Fleming spelt out 'love', beaming. "It is so good to be here tonight," she said, dipping into the Bette Midler catalogue for Wind Beneath My Wings. Fleming sent her voice to probably the 13th of the Jamaica Pegasus' 17 floors to end, the applause following suit.
Fleming kept in the skyward mode with Nat King Cole's Straighten Up and Fly Right, with which she ended her set. "Sounds like something my wife says to me all the time," Cuffe commented, to chuckles.
YOUNG LOOKING WOMAN
Connie Edwards, who had been with the trio Ebony for 19 years, must have started with the group when she was well under 10. It was a very young looking woman who strolled up the aisle singing, to face the audience and accept the applause as she went low to end on 'you make me do for love/what I would not do'.
Cuffe had listed Nina Simone among her influences and Edwards tipped her tresses to the icon with My Baby Just Cares For Me, which she dedicated to Marie and Prince.
The sophistication of the audience was such that when Edwards sang 'You can reach me by railway' there were no murmurs of 'goody goody', as deejay Galaxy P followed up on Colin Roach's vocals in the dancehall remake of Vanessa Amorosi's Get There. What A Difference A Day Makes was redone in reggae fashion, complete with guitar solo.
There was a surprise on Ti Amor as a different voice came in on 'I can't believe' and a woman rose from the darkness of the front row, stage left, the audience applauding as she made her way up to stand and sing with Edwards. 'Don't we go on and on', they sang, standing together and looking into each other's eyes, their voices fusing. "This is my best friend," Connie Edwards said, introducing Claudette to the audience as her schoolmate from infant through primary and secondary school.
Claudette reclaimed her seat and Connie said a somewhat abrupt goodbye - but was asked for one more song. Wine glass in hand, she sang Al Jarreau's We're In This Love Together, Cuffe putting a full stop on the song and the show with a deep, satisfied 'oh yeah', bringing the best of the west's offering at 'Jazz in The Gardens' to an end.
