Seretse Small does 'Kas Kas' for father

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Guitarist Seretse Small plays, literally and figuratively, a lead role on the album Jazz For Hope 2011 which was presented publicly in August. He produced the 10-track set for his company, Griot Music, and has the first (Silhouette) and last (Kas Kas) lead roles on the album.

The closing song, one of the rarities in music written by Jamaicans - a song for the writer's father. Kas Kas was written in 1997, but its origins go even deeper than 14 years ago.

"I had a concept called the Jammers Network which was in 1996 to 1997. I had created an event I would hold at the Hilton every third Wednesday where people could come and jam, and we had a newsletter and everything. In 1997 we shifted it to Olympia Hotel on Molynes Road and we had it on a Saturday," Small said.

Connection to his past

Out of the jamming came a connection to his own past, in words and music. Small said "Dr Cyril Fletcher would come. He is a talented guitarist and a friend of my father. He started playing this progression. He said this is the kind of music your father and I would play as youths".

And Small remembered his father's favourite steel pan group, Desperadoes, and "I thought about his need to connect with Trinidad and how he would dance in the living room under a Trinidadian flag hanging from a piece of driftwood".

However, Kas Kas did not come immediately; the progression and the memories triggered stayed with Small until he was in Boston in the United States on a grant. He took a train "and I was still thinking about it and the melody came to me. I sang it into a recorder I had with me".

Later Small learnt the song on guitar and named it Kas Kas for two reasons - his father's name is Kenneth Adolphus Small (KAS) "and also our relationship was kas kas".