Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Myrna Hague in performs at Jazz In The Gardens held at Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston recently. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN SOMETHING went thump and the microphone went dead as Karen Smith was singing of wonderful days and nights at the Morgan's Harbour Hotel, Port Royal, on Sunday night, she did not pause.
Arms spread wide and eyes merry, Smith kept singing unamplified, snatches of her voice carrying to the audience which filled the courtyard of the hotel, applause greeting the end.
As she was handed a microphone and put it on a stand, the band with Ernie Ranglin on guitar, Desi Jones on drums, Marjorie Whylie on keyboards and Jackie Jackson on bass, started playing. And there were whoops of delight as she sang Fever.
Sunday's 'Evening of Jazz' went from the warmth of the Ernie Ranglin trio to Smith's merry crackle, settled into the fireplace glow of Myrna Hague and ended with the fever of the Sonny Bradshaw-led Jamaica Big Band, complete with the glow of burnished horns.
Bob Clarke did the night's hosting duties.
APPLAUSE
Ernie Ranglin sat front and centre on stage and his fingers did the talking on his acoustic guitar, at points alternating solos with Desi Jones on drums. And there was applause when Clarke said Ranglin arranged the first million selling record out of Jamaica, My Boy Lollipop.
Just before the horn-dominated Jamaica Big Band started playing, Sonny Bradshaw used a white rag to wipe the lower part of his face, then placed it on a microphone stand. Facing the band members Bradshaw brought in the saxophones first, then the trombones, the trumpets coming in later, with guitar, drums, bass and keyboards making all present. "Duke Ellington composition," Bradshaw said over the applause at the end of the song.
"We have made an adjustment to our programme tonight. It is going to be a sort of nostalgia section. We are going to play music by Glen Miller, who was very popular in Jamaica," Bradshaw said.
The band began with In The Mood, used as the foundation of the 1989 Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers Swing the Mood. "For the first time we are going to feature an instrument that you have not seen in a long time," Bradshaw said. That instrument turned out to be the clarinet, once commonly called 'blackstick', with which one of the saxophonist's played lead on Moonlight Serenade.
Dean Frazer took his seat on the bandstand after the song and there was applause.
The clarinet was again featured on Danny Boy, the melody very familiar with "amazing grace will always be my song of praise". Myrna Hague's relatively deep vocals took centrestage for Fly Me To The Moon and an interpretation of Dance With My Father,
her white hair nodding above a silver sleeveless, strapless top and grey, full length skirt.
SOLOS
More was requested and Hague delivered Unforgettable.
Frazer and drummer Desi Jones exchanged solos on the next song, to applause. "I think it is time for us all to go home now. 2005, 2005," Bradshaw said to introduce the penultimate song.
And the uniformly clad hornsmen stood for the evening's final song, as Bradshaw said "let's take the A Train" and a few members of the audience stood too, to head towards the exit, most remaining to sway and applaud to the very end.
