Michael Reckord, Contributor

Easton Lee and Carole Reid. - File Photos

An appreciative audience heard many voices of love at the Alhambra Inn on Sunday afternoon. The audience applauded enthusiastically and often, occasionally joined in the song (sometimes without being asked), and otherwise indicated their delight at the concert presented by the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company (JMTC) in association with the hotel.

Entitled 'It's All About Love', the concert featured Carole and Friends and comprised words - spoken and sung - as well as instrumental music. The coordinator was Carole Reid, one of the singers.

Poems about friendship

Not surprisingly, the emcee, the multi-talented Rev. Easton Lee, actor, poet, playwright, broadcaster, folklorist, as well as priest, did more than simply link the concert's two dozen items together. He contributed to the love theme with anecdotes and poems about friendship and love. One poem was about his aunt who, when her husband of many decades died at 95, was most concerned about whether he would get his morning cup of coffee in heaven. Another was about how malicious gossip destroyed the friendship between two men.

Those poems Fr. Lee read in the first half of the concert. In Part 2, he read others, two of which echoed the idea that the path of true love is not always smooth. One of them was about a loving but henpecked husband who silenced his wife's nagging one day with an uncharacteristically clever quip. In the other, a wife confessed after being married 70 years that though she had never thought of divorce or separation from her husband, she had occasionally considered murder.

The first artistes Fr. Lee introduced were, he said, two brilliant musicians, and after the excellent rendition of Wonderland by Night by Tafane (saxophone) and Craige (trumpet), the audience had no reason to disagree with the description. Later, the duo played What a Wonderful World.

The first singer to perform was Rory Baugh. He thrilled his listeners with his superb tenor voice as he sang an aria, translated as The Light Of The Stars, from Puccini's Tosca. Giving even more pleasure were Baugh's later appearances in duets with Reid when they sang Perhaps Love and Time To Say Goodbye.

David Reid, another tenor, was the second singer on stage. Introduced as "a veteran singer whose voice, like wine, gets better with age," Reid sang the tender love song Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal. He pointed out the difference in mood between his song and that sung by Reid immediately after - the saucy Love's Philosophy - although both were by the same composer, Quilter. The two then did a duet, All I Ask Of You.

John McFarlane, who filled in on keyboards for the regular JMTC accompanist, Dorothy Degazon (there was a problem with the piano, the audience was told), chose the haunting Somewhere from the Broadway musical West Side Story as his first song.

Fresh second half

He was followed by 13-year-old Rochelle Watson, who, with Because You Loved Me, showed much promise. McFarlane's second song, the penultimate item in the first half of the programme, was Maria, also from West Side Story, while his third was in a duet with Reid. That song, To Love, which climaxed with a kiss, brought Part 1 to a close.

While all the performers who appeared in the first half returned in the second, a fresh group opened Part 2. Termed in the programme the 'JMTC Ensemble', the group comprised four male singers. Exuding cheerfulness and with voices blending nicely, they sang Standing On The Corner and Some Enchanted Evening.

They returned at the end of the show to reprise Standing On The Corner and to join the others in the final number, Marley's classic One Love. It brought a joyful, fitting end to the concert.

It was the second in the JMTC's 2006-2007 concert series. The next is on March 4.