Jamaica Military Band offers colourful tribute to Karl Binger at Hope Gardens

Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Extra colour poured into Hope Gardens on Sunday afternoon in the forms of about 300 people, dressed in all the colours of the rainbow - and them some.

They were a special group of visitors to the world-famous attraction, which in the last three years has regained most of the former floral beauty it had lost to neglect and the ravages of drought.

The visitors congregated in the park with the Shell bandstand, opposite the regrettably still run-down zoo. They were there to listen to the 84 year-old Jamaica Military Band.

They were of all ages. Babies being pushed in strollers. Toddlers tightly gripping the hands of mothers and fathers. Older children and teens running up and down the sloping lawn in front of the bandstand.

And there were adults at all stages of life - most hale and hearty, others needing crutches, walkers or wheelchairs. Many older folk reminisced about how, decades ago, they used to attend monthly concerts by the band.

On the hour, with military precision, the band of 29 men and women - resplendent in their black, red and gold uniforms and carrying a large variety of musical instruments - assembled on the stage under the dome. The last to stride on was Bandmaster Albert Shawn Hird, carrying only a slim baton and sheet music.

But before the music began Robert Lalor, the new CEO of the Nature Preservation Foundation (NPF), the non-governmental organisation responsible for the maintenance of Hope Gardens, had a few words. He welcomed the audience and announced that the band would again be performing monthly at the venue. He later told The Gleaner it would be every third Sunday, beginning in July.

Custos of St Andrew and member of the foundation, Marigold Harding, commended the new leadership for bringing back the concerts. She expressed her sorrow at the recent passing of former executive director Karl Binger, to whose memory the evening's presentation was dedicated.

musical package

After she read a poem about hope for the future, it was time for the opening of the musical package. First out of the box was a bouncy march, Old Comrade. As if reflecting the music, the sun was bright when the concert started but by the time the slower classical pieces - Suppe's Overture Morning and Night and Lehar's waltz Gold & Silver - were being played, the sky had turned grey.

About 15 minutes into the programme thunder rumbled. Hird cast a concerned glance skyward. Lightning flashed. But the band played on. Again thunder. It began to drizzle. First one, then three, then a dozen - and more - umbrellas went up. Parents with babies headed for the exits. Most, though, stayed to listen from under umbrellas and trees on the mound around the park. A few brave, water-loving souls stayed right where they were, lolling on mats on the grass, enjoying the drizzle.

And band played on.

During the 15 minutes or so that clouds delivered their blessings there were selections from the Beatles and a trumpet duo featuring soloists Lt Cpl F. Campbell and Lt Cpl K. Barrett. By the time the band was starting on traditional Jamaican tunes, the drizzle had stopped and the sun was back out.

People started dancing to the infectious beat, some on their feet, others on their cushions, some in their chairs. At 5:15 p.m., an hour after starting, the band stopped playing. The last three items were Tribute to Don Drummond, Buffalo Soldier, and a soca tune, Ethel. Cheers and applause caused Bandmaster Hird to give an encore, to more applause.

Lalor told The Gleaner that it was Binger who had, "with few resources", been able to "bring about the transformation of Hope Gardens that you can see now. He will be missed greatly." The six year-old NPF, Lalor said, had taken a 49-year lease for the gardens from the Ministry of Agriculture and its mandate is "to bring back Hope" to its former much-admired beauty.

Among those enjoying the concert was Edna Manley College School of Music lecturer Ann McNamee, who said that she would be trying to get two music groups with which she was associated - the National Youth Orchestra and the Edna Manley College String Ensemble - to give regular concerts at Hope Gardens.