Jazz festival opens well

Marcia Rowe, Gleaner Writer

The sound of drums signalled the presence of Africa on Sunday, as the Jamaica Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival celebrated The year of People of African Descent.

And later, as the programme unravelled, the concert turned out to be more than a jazz festival with fantastic performances from international musicians, but also a lesson on African culture and an introduction to some amazing instruments.

Myrna Hague, organiser of the event, held at The Courtleigh Auditorium, explained, "This year is designated by the UN [United Nations] as the International year of People of African Descent, and so we decided to honour that. We feel that jazz is African music. Jazz came out of the African connection. So we took the decision to honour that connection."

It was in the second segment of the concert that this African connection was fully highlighted. It began with a fashion show depicting garments from the four corners of 150-million strong Nigeria with its 240 languages. The designs, the colours, and even how they were worn, told the story of the rich culture of a nation.

Magnificent performances

The fashion show was followed by delightful, but problem-plagued performances, from the Swedish band Mynta, and thus began the introduction of new instruments.

In this case, the tabla (two small drums) that speaks in onomatopoeia was the instrument. Seated on a small raised platform in the centre of the stage, Fazal Qureshi, a skilled musician from Bombay, India, explained and demonstrated the use of his two magnificent instruments with their high and low levels that can play spoken syllables.

But the band of six, all male, also gave a performance to remember. With their "fusion of jazz-influenced world music", they delighted the audience with a song from Braputcha, as well as thrilled the audience with absolute samba and a mesmerising song titled Flight 343.

However, the highlight of the evening belonged to the tall Guinean, N'Faly Kouyate, who closed the show. Not only was his performance a treasure trove, but his musical instrument, the Kora, was amazing. The pleasant African told the story of his background and that of his instrument through song.

"The Kora comes from Mandigo," he sang. "I am African but I sing in French, but for you I will try to sing in English." So he did for his opening. But the language of music has no boundary and when he sang what he called "a love song" (N'Dyanamo) in French, while the words were not understood by many, the song touched a chord in all, the loud applause giving testimony to the sentiment.

This was followed by an explanation and demonstration of the Kora, with its calabash shaped bottom attached to a guitar-look-a-like top. It has six stages, he explained to the appreciative audience, and then strummed each stage. N'Faly, with accompaniment from Muriel and Ouida Lewis on dejembe, gave another fantastic performance, alternating with a Congo and a bass drum to close the curtains on the opening-day concert. A week of activities surrounding jazz is ongoing.

At the end of the concert, The Gleaner got Hague's opinion of the opening concert at its new venue.

"We are pleased with ourselves, in spite of something having gone wrong. We have technical problems ... . The important thing is that the people stayed."

And so they did, to the last note. Among 'the people' were, Dr Kwame Boafo, a director from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, and his wife. Both found the show enjoyable in spite of the technical problems.

The first half, while not having as much technical drama as the second, was just as entertaining. Performances came from The Big Band and Myrna Hague. The Big Band performed Duke Ellington's Take the Train, a mento-flavoured Moonlight Serenade, and more. When Hague joined the band, she gave a typically wonderful performance with My Baby Just Cares and Red Top. Other performers include Wylye Rhythm, Kiralina and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's gold medal winners, the Edna Manley College Drummers. Fae Ellington was the MC.