Street Jazz News - Second Edition

Jazz is alive and well in Barbados in its myriad forms!

Those of you who used to frequent the Jazz Cafe at Carlisle Bay Centre back in the day, and you know who you are, will certainly enjoy this week's edition. I'd love to hear your comments at the end of this, our second edition of STREET JAZZ NEWS!

We hope to incite your taste for all that jazz with insight on jazzy events in Barbados!

Facebook users are welcome to join our complimentary group - Barbados Jazz Festival Lovers!

Potpourri a la Festivale

Forget if that is correct French, just don't let this week pass you by without attending at least one of the splendid concerts of the Barbados Jazz Festival!

At the official press launch of the festival late last year producer, Gilbert Rowe, credited his son for the "changing of the guard" that is taking place during the festival.

Yes, there are still and always will be several accomplished straight-ahead jazz musicians headlining the festival but more and more a youthful offering is emerging with the likes of Chrisette Michele and the BCC Jazz Project.

As Mr. Rowe says, they are the ones who pay the bills. The fact is that many of the top smooth jazz stations in the US have had to close down in the last year due to a lack of advertising funds making way for pop/rock programming.

However, it behooves the new generation to do their homework as a diet of Sir Duke, Ella Fitzgerald, George Benson, Dizzie and the other legends is the best way to build musical muscle in this and I dare say any genre. These are the guys that didn't have the multimillion dollar endorsement contracts who recorded in analog but go the job done to perfection.

Study it.

Christal P. McIntosh
Editor-in-Chief

(Click here to follow this blog for instant updates on when new stories are posted!)

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Go C4 Yourself!

In 2004 or maybe the following year, I met a group of musicians that called themselves C4 and did they blow up! They backed me at my book launch and played for many other performers during the poetry limes at the now defunct Jazz Cafe.

Meet the band:


Stefan Walcott, who owned the stage at the Barbados Jazz Festival in 2008 at Heritage Park, is teaching part-time at UWI and BCC as well as gigging. He just completed a tour of Jamaica with the University of the West Indies. In Jamaica his music was featured in the original play Sugar Pain Blues. He is also producing music texts for CXC on Caribbean music.

Lowrey Leon Worrell is working on getting an endorsement with a drum company...fingers crossed! And Richard "Bill" Evans, who plays a mean upright bass, and Andre Forde, steel pannist/ drummer/ arranger/ songwriter extraordinaire, are both gigging and practising their musical skills!

Each of these guys is truly talented but as the laws of synergy dictate, the whole group is even sweeter to the musical palate.

Make some time on Thursday January 22 or any Thursday after that to check out their weekly performances at Bump and Wine Restaurant (the old Bean and Bagle on Cavans Lane in Bridgetown).

Admission is free free free! Make it a great dinner evening with your partner or a lime over buffalo wings and mojitos with friends!

Also, before you book your regular band keep them in mind when planning your next cocktail or corporate event. For more information visit their myspace or email DDI@dykondevelopments.com.

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Professor Love

Do you remember that smooth baritone that used to hold down weekend shifts on Love FM? Well, Professor Love, also known as Sean Field, is headlining the first anniversary edition of Talk Hard, a local showcase of the bevy poetic and artistic talent in Barbados.

I don't plan to miss it and neither should you! It is always a wonderful medley of music, including some jazz, spokenword and hard talking poetic expositions.

Sean's style is a bit iconoclastic, always jabbing at the core of convention, begging you to reach deeper and reflect and rethink. Anyways, you have to go and see him for yourself.

A model and actor, who has appeared in several ads and plays, who did not let a broken leg stop him from competing in NIFCA (National Independence Festival of Creative Arts), Sean has been in Hollywood rubbing shoulders with the best of them and studying.

I'm so excited I've signed up for the open mic session!

See and be there!



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Acoustic Soul

Some people are great live singers and others are just good in the studio. I am biased to a vocal tone that I could listen to your whole album or a whole set on stage. That is why I have to repeat this story about Janelle Headley and Shane Forrester and their performances at the Waterfront Cafe on Fridays.

I made it to the inaugural night when they were both there with their joint band(in between they take turns showcasing with their individual bands) and Janelle was doing her Saad song. It was therapeutic and seeing so many familiar faces was the cherry on top!

It is the sweetest mix of jazz, blues and acoustic soul.

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LYRICAL LAVA PRESENTS: IGNITING THE FIRE WITHIN

Get a copy of our timeless poetic anthology today!

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Here is a sample of the work you will find inside:

Over You

Breathless, feeble, submissive but not oppressed by your presence
Somehow, for some unexplainable cause I just seem to lose all control
Vaguely frightening the way I can’t seem to get it under my grip
Quite amusing how I am so very able to switch to a mode of pretence
Like “everything is OK, fine and dandy” – what lies!
I wonder if you can see it in my eyes
I feel so pitifully helpless when I let the full thing dawn on me
So I keep these secret journals – sometimes from myself even!



Follow this blog for more Street Jazz News right here at Lyrical Lava PR or at our Barbados Jazz Festival Lovers Group! Spread the word! Submit your articles, photos or get your advertisement listed in the next edition email lyricallava(at)yahoo.com.