Hot jazz in cool gardens at Pegasus

Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Hot music and a cool Christmas breeze were features of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Jazz in the Garden series at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Sunday evening, The series, presented by the hotel in collaboration with the Capital and Credit Financial Group, offers jazz and other forms of music in the hotel's gardens on alternate months.

The combination of the lively music and the cold front over the island gave the extra-large audience good reason to dance in their seats for much of the show's five and a half hours.

That running time, nearly twice the three hours advertised for the concert, apparently proved too much for some patrons. Many started heading for the exit at 10 p.m.

They missed the grand finale with most of the night's performers onstage.

There were two backing bands and the following soloists: pop singer Patricia Edwards, keyboardist Dennis Rushton, steel panist Dean Barnett, balladeer Boris Gardner, saxophonist Dean Fraser, organist/band leader Robbie Lyn and the unclassifiable (for she sings everything, and sings everything well) Karen Smith.

Minor problems

When The Gleaner spoke to Executive Producer Nancy McLean about the length of the concert, she admitted there was a problem. She identified it as the length of time needed to serve patrons food and drink at the intermission, and she promised to in the future have the second half begin, even if guests are still in the refreshment lines.

But there is a second problem. Production Coordinator Ken Nelson is either booking too many performers or allowing them too long a stay onstage. Patrons regularly leave before the final act.

No doubt many have to prepare for work on the following Monday morning, and some of them, McLean told The Gleaner, come from out of town, from as far as Manchester.

This is evidence of the success of the series which McLean conceived 10 years ago when she noticed that the hotel's gardens were not being used in any special way.

During the first few years of the series, alterations were made to the space, including landscaping and the replacement of the original gazebo with a larger one.

Caribbean performers

Asked about the future, McLean said she was interested in getting more performers from the Caribbean region, including Cuba, and putting on theme concerts, like jazz and poetry and jazz and international cuisine.

On Sunday night, the break between performances was exactly an hour long, but the last 20 minutes or so were taken up with the customary birthday and anniversary tributes to audience members and to the giving away of prizes to those who answered questions about products on sale.

Sunday night was special for the show's regular emcee, the suave Michael Anthony Cuffe; he was celebrating both his birthday and his wedding anniversary. To his surprise, members of his family, some from abroad, were there to celebrate with him.

The vivacious Patricia Edwards,the first singer, quickly took the entertainment to a level which, one knew, if it were maintained, would result in a memorable show. (It was maintained.)

Not only did Edwards beautifully deliver some 10 songs, but in between she chatted amiably with the audience. We learned, among other things, that she has been married and in show business for 28 years and has performed with big names all over the world. Most recently, she was in Barcelona, Spain, promoting Viagra, she said, laughing.

Backing her as she delivered her set of songs - including This is Getting Serious, Let's Stay Together and That's How Strong my Love Is - were Sherwayne Thompson (bass) Earl Simmonds (keyboards), Akeil Karim (drums) and Winston 'Bo-Peep' Bowen (guitar).

Rushton - introduced by Cuffe as "dynamic, creative and committed to his craft" - was up next.

Nattily dressed in a dark suit with red and white tie and pocket kerchief, he played a slow, smooth Misty before introducing Toni Ann Baker, the lead singer for his band. In her throaty voice, she sang Moon Dance, a jazzy tune about a moonlit romance.

She returned later, after Rushton had entertained by playing the keyboard with his elbow and shoe, to sing a humour-filled Sammy Plant Piece a Corn.

The gifted young panist Dean Barnett who, Cuffe said had made quite an impression with his first appearance at Jazz in the Gardens, showed he deserved to be invited back. With his upbeat playing of Take Five and Just the Two of Us, among other tunes, on his twin tenor pans, he showed how surprisingly suitable for jazz the instrument can be.

From relative newcomer Barnett to the next performer, Gardner, a veteran of nearly 50 years in the entertainment business, was quite a jump. However, the audience was clearly as happy with the one as with the other. Interestingly, more people got up to dance to Gardner's nostalgic delivery of It's So Nice to Be With You, Someone Loves You Honey, The Last Farewell, Love's Been Good to Me and I Wanna Wake Up With You than had danced to Barnett's faster pieces.

Dean Fraser and Friends, which included ace drummer Desi Jones, keyboardist Andrew Marsh and bassist Glen Browne, was the first act after the intermission. Fraser's style of playing (on his alto and soprano saxophones) is 'conversational'; he seems to be saying something with his music. And it seems to the listener that Fraser is saying something important, whether he is playing - as he did Sunday night - message tunes like Marley's Small Axe, Africa Unite and Freedom Song or the folk tune Brown Girl in the Ring.

Robbie Lyn & Friends matched the temperature by playing cool jazz for 15 minutes until 10:45 p.m. when Smith, the final artiste, began to sing. She was indeed, as Cuffe described her, "warm, wonderful and guaranteed to please".

After beginning with What a Difference a Day Makes, she teamed up with Gardner for a delightful rendition of Unforgettable. The inevitable flirtation between the two led to her introduction of Smith's bass-playing husband Jackie Jackson and to what Smith called "Jackie's Suite" of songs.

As she performed the suite - songs of yesteryear by the Melodians, Hopeton Lewis and Toots - Smith had a score or so of the patrons dancing with almost as much energy as she herself was radiating on the stage.

Those who had left earlier missed quite an act, a worthy ending to a fine concert.