- CARLINGTON WILMOT/Freelance Photographer
Queen Ifrica performing at Red Label Wine East Fest 2004.
Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
A TRIO of women brought a merry blaze to Red Label Wine East Fest 2004 with well-received solo performances.
While Pashon, who opened the major segment of the concert, and Queen Ifrica blazed fiercely, the more mature Sister Carol was a study in controlled intensity, all before a large audience that turned out for the early going at the Goodyear Oval in Springfield, St. Thomas, on Saturday, December 25.
Pashon came onstage asking for "the fire woman, cause the fire man want de fire woman", proceeding to outline the sexual things that fire women do not do. Joined by a singer who crooned the indifference of the authorities to the poor ("fia truck when we house a bun dung"), Pashon chimed in with "why police always a tell lie?/sey shot fire us an dem return a lie", pulling up as the audience agreed.
LYRICAL ADVICE
She slowed the pace to ask "tell me Lord/why the poor have it so hard?", leaning back from the knees as she got into the song. Pashon ended with lyrical advice to the women about how to conduct themselves. "De woman dem out deh jealous. All me jealous too. But we cyaan do whe de man dem do an' still be a lady, she said, comparing careless male with female behaviour as she deejayed "can imagine/we all walk out pon we kids like him?/can imagine/ every psst we gone like him?" to end to good applause.
Sister Carol opened from off-stage with the slow, moving Conquering Lion, coming onstage with a further declaration of her Rastafarian faith and desire "to go Ethiopia pon a national tour" to a faster rhythm.
Having the attention and approval of the audience, Sister Carol moved into Listening, her voice and body totally in sync with the rhythm, building verses into powerful ending lines. The audience roared as she ended one verse with "nuff a dem a wear Rasta wig". "Me bun Santa Claus. A disillusion, straight up. I have to wonder if Santa is the same as Satan," she said, before doing a lyric about her childhood lookout for Santa, in vain, concluding "the ghetto is no place for a fat white man".
Sister Carol's shoulder-wiggling 'ganja seed' dance tore the house down, linking the herb with her talent as she deejayed "when the weed bus inna me head like a saturated cloud/lyrics fall like rain".
A NO-NONSENSE MOOD
Queen Ifrica was in a no-nonsense mood from the outset. "A fia we a bun pon some big bway whe tek poor people fi eediat," she said, getting into an uptempo lyric that roused the audience to cheers. She pulled up and pulled off her stiletto heels. "It a hol' me back. We no want no heels right now. De Gideon too red fi feminine," she said.
Moving with ease between smooth singing and gritty deejaying, Queen Ifrica urged "think before you take your brother's life/his children will be fatherless tonight".
"If we a tek back Jamaica from de eediat dem, mek mi see di light. Mek people know sey a no all Jamaican inna de foolishness," Queen Ifrica said, doing an intense Streets Are Bloody to a forest of flames and chorus of cheers.
"Dem a gwaan like dem no waan legalise ganja an' dem a gwaan like dem waan legalise faggottism roun' here. A ganja fi legalise!" Ifrica said, hitting an ode to marijuana that went over very well. Blessed Love preceded an excellent rendition of Jah Cure's Longing For, Ifrica saying "show jus' nice!" as the tumultuous response required a 'forward' on the first line. Thousands sang the plea 'when, when, when' for her, and her own Randy was also euphorically received to end Queen her performance.
Genie Slick, who filled in for Lady Saw on Walk and Don't Look Back with Iley Dread, and Miriam of the trio LMS, were also among the female performers of East Fest 2004.
