Bands honour Byron Lee with music

• Late start, 'man changes' stretch out four-band concert

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

With four bands slated to honour the late Byron Lee in the Gardens of The Jamaica Pegasus, New Kingston, last Saturday night, Tribute to the Dragon had two potential outcomes - a powerful musical statement by the majority of the meagre handful of showbands remaining in Jamaica or an affair dominated by band changes.

It did not help that the concert started nearly 90 minutes past the slated 7 p.m. blast-off, MC Michael Anthony Cuffe explaining that despite three standby generators in place, there had still been problems with the sound. There would be power problems late in the concert, too, as closing band Fab Five was climaxing their round-the-island sampling of Jamaican women with a sly musical wink at the appetite of the Kingston women. However, Grub Cooper on drums kept the beat going and the cluster of party people gathered in front of the stage chanted "weh di light deh?" until the electricity came back, making for a powerful musical moment.

In the early going, Cuffe promised that there would be no band changes but man changes, as most of the equipment would stay in place with only the musicians coming and going. Still, out of what turned out to be a five and a half-hour concert, one hour and 45 minutes went into 'man changes'.

soca at the core

The time added on took its toll, even as Squeeze packed in the party jammers in the breaks.

Still, even with time added on, Tribute to the Dragon was a high-quality affair of diverse music built around a core of soca.

This was even as, inevitably, Errol Lee and the Bare Essentials started out with their soca hit Back a Yard, about the rebel West Indies cricketers who toured apartheid South Africa, going on to deliver soca about World Cup cricket in 2007 and the various persons who were 'fo cup'.

But it was the band's excellently delivered reggae, starting with selections from Beres Hammond and Tarrus Riley, that really hit the spot and got the audience moving.

Rebel, a Buju Banton soundalike and pre-Rastafarian lookalike, paid homage to his embattled musical 'Daddy' and the band closed with the perennial socaphile statement, "we not going home 'til morning come".

Lloyd Parkes did a good job of improvisation and the audience was understanding when he explained that We the People's Band's lead singer was ill. He may have pleaded for their clemency and support by saying "gwaan Lloydie" a bit too much, though - and unnecessarily so - as his vocals on Jamaica Ska and the Blues Busters' Wide Awake in a Dream were certainly competent. And the vocal shortcomings on one ballad were understandable.

A jolly Chris McDonald, moving from keyboards to lead vocals in a direct Dragon Dance tribute to Byron Lee, gave a lift on a couple occasions, a youngster from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts brought in to do harmony pressed into lead duties as well with Perfidia. The resounding applause at the end was well deserved.

moving closer

In the early going, Errol Lee had got members of the seated audience to move their chairs closer to the stage. On a night dedicated to Byron Lee, his Dragonaires did not have to ask members of the audience to get up and dance, as there was a surge from the opening Soca Butterfly. There was a 20 count into the frenzied rag waving to accompany the chant of "love and unity" and the band could do no wrong after that.

There was a Sparrow medley, when the horns of Tiny Winey hit there was delirium and male lead singer Jomo was competent on the rockers of Morgan Heritage's Down By the River. Tried and proven rock and roll, the standard medley of Sammy Dead and Wings of a Dove and the Skatalites' Occupation all went over very well, and they closed with a tribute to another deceased soca monarch, Arrow.

Cuffe announced the formal launch of the Byron Lee Foundation after the band wrapped up.

Many members of the large audience left and the long wait did not help their cause, but closers Fabulous Five Incorporated showed their mettle and catalogue, moving the party people at the front of the stage mightily and eventually tugging many of the late stayers further away from the stage out of their seats. It was all Fab Five hits to start with, singer and drummer Grub Cooper noting that the Dragonaires had played some of them and, as musical friends, the exchange of material was fine.

Good Buddy, Yu Safe, Ring Road Jam and All Night Party went over very well, as did the ballad I'm Asking for Love. They switched to rockers with Greetings, Alisha and Under Pressure and moved the audience some more, Oliver Smooth delivering some of the rockers - then came Jamaican Woman and the brief power outage which the band overcame in fine style, earning respectful applause in the process.

"I guess we are too powerful. It happens. That's life. Forty years teach us a lot of things," Cooper said.

The audience delighted in Shaving Cream but soon it was the 2 a.m. lock-off time. A pair of Otis Redding ballads hit the spot and there was a 'mad' end with Beenie Man's Rum and Red Bull, Mr G's Swaggerific and a final rag-waving frenzy to Khago's Nah Sell Out Mi Fren Dem.