Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Jimmy Sommers interacts with a member of the audience at Appleton V/X Evening Escape, held at the Fault Line, Jacks Hill St Andrew on Sunday. - CARLINGTON WILMOT/PHOTOGRAPHER
WESTERN BUREAU:
SUNDAY NIGHT'S Appleton Estate V/X Evening Escape had the feel of a backyard party that grew into a professional concert without losing its get together, fire up the grill, knock back a few and catch up on old - or new - times warmth.
With the lights of the capital city below, a lone fluorescent shining steadily from a house on the hill and the stars twinkling in multiples in the sky above, the Fault Line, Jacks Hill Road, St. Andrew event, showed a rare crack in multiple band changes. However, the night's host, Francois St. Juste, amicably soothed the wounds of waiting, which were plastered with good reggae, rocksteady and soca music.
The 50/50 Band delivered Dawn Penn's No No No and Carlos Santana's Maria Maria before turning over to Fab Five for Gem Myers. She started on a jam, bringing happiness and handclaps "whether times are good or bad/happy or sad". Mr. Big Stuff and Shame On You went down well; Myers briefly and delightfully going back to the good old rub a dub dancing on the latter. At Last was for the wedding month. The Best of My Love got the party going again and she revisited the musical Dreamgirls to end.
The 50/50 Band returned for guitarist Dwight Pinkney who, after opening with How Could I Live, informed all that "that was a little song I wrote. Dennis Brown made a big hit out of it". The next song was also a big hit, Pinkney getting into the Louise Bennett-Coverly penned Evening Time, complete with dub section. The immortal Satta Massagana hit the spot and Pinkney went ska to end with Tear Up.
Suzanne Couch sat front and centre at her keyboard, the Gumption Band in sync for Put Me Together Again. ?My record came out in Japan last week,? Couch said, to applause, before dropping What Tomorrow Brings, which started as a ballad before morphing into a reggae rocker. Nothing To Talk About was a call for resurrection and Couch got up to dance on very high heels for Smile, ending with her left hand thrown skywards.
Jimmy Sommers fooled all by starting his set in the audience, playing to a lady near the front. It was the beginning of an active set, in which Sommers bounded on and off stage with ease and, at times, without pause in his playing. He went funky, he went soft, he briefly went reggae, but at all times was in lockstep with his band.
?It is a big night for me. I have been promoting Appleton Estate rum for two years, so to actually come to the island and meet the people, it is good,? Sommers said. Then he really got close to the audience, blowing a swathe across the front and penetrating close to the back, playing all the while, before the band ended with a jam to the refrain ?if you want it/you can have it?.
The 50/50 Band came back for Chakademus and Pliers and the duo?s encouragement to ?wine, wine, wine? was accepted by those who came before the stage to dance, as well as those who simply stood in place. Pliers sang Knocking on Heaven?s Door, putting reggae into the second go-round and Chakademus sang One Scotch. But apart from those solo stints, it was two the very hard way with She Don?t Love Nobody, Tease Me and Bam Bam, for which Sommers returned to do an extended solo. They ended with Murder She Wrote, the shouts for more being answered with an a capella contest to see if the man or the woman is smarter, Pliers ending with a last ?that?s right!?
