Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
At Left: Stephanie Hazle (centre) and her band perform at the competition. At Right: Tamone (centre) and the No Credit Band perform their opening piece at the Jazz and Blues Festival Bands Competition.
WHO SAYS 'live music' in Jamaica is on the decline?
Certainly not anyone who turned up at The Deck on Trafalgar Road to hear 12 local bands do their thing on Thursday December 21. The bands were auditioning for a chance to perform at the Ocean Spray stage of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival to be held early next year.
So it was like Rising Stars for the bands and some bands even seemed to travel with their own supporters (there was no stampede for this show though). The opportunity to perform in Montego Bay with musical greats like Air Supply and James Ingram and, by extension, to launch their careers on an international stage brought out the best in all the participants.
Apart from a few glitches with the sound system, the show ran very smoothly. Each band had 10 minutes to perform (which they stuck to) and the band changes were (thankfully) very quick. The audience was treated to a variety of styles; from jazz and blues (appropriate eh?), to reggae and lover's rock. The regulars to The Deck didn't mind the 'invasion' of the curious music lovers, and the tinker of glasses filled with scotch, and the smell of cigarettes only added to the 'jook joint' ambience.
The judges were musicians Stephen 'Cat' Coore, Ernie Smith, Maurice Gordon and Jampro's Dell Crooks. This was the second audition as bands performed at Coral Cliff Hotel in MoBay last Sunday. From the combined auditions, between eight and 12 bands will be chosen to play for an international audience.
