Artistes continue to shine on Talent Stage

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

As it was in the beginning last Thursday night when the Talent Stage acts held their own, so it was at the end on Saturday night when the curtain came down on the 2012 staging of the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium.

Starting with rising Rastafarian songbird Jah9 and rolling musically through to the likes of Tarshea Williams, the fans, who ventured over to the Talent Stage when there was a break on the main stage, were again reminded that, like on Friday night when the electrifying Raging Fyah performed, exceptional talent abounds in Jamaica.

Jah9, who sparkled a few weeks ago at the 2012 staging of Rebel Salute, again demonstrated that her culture-laced songs, including Legitimate and Warning, were potent enough to move even a sophisticated audience.

"This is where we introduce new talent to the world," said Jackie Norman, who was MC on the Talent Stage on Saturday night.

"The acts you see here this year could be headline on the other stage next year."

Captive audience

As if to legitimise Norman's pronounce-ment, former Gospel Festival entrant Tarshea Williams all but had the audience eating out of her hand when she hit the stage. One particular song, Good Man, which spoke to the fact that there are good fathers/husbands/boyfriends in society, drew rich applause.

After the audience was treated to an electrifying main stage performance by R&B star Bobby Brown and his Heads of Stage colleagues, the fans were kept on a high at the Talent Stage as Black As Cole added fresh excitement to the night's potent offerings.

"Based on what you are seeing through the reaction of the patrons, the small stage definitely has its place and will definitely remain a part of the future of the festival," said businessman Walter Elmore, chairman of the Art of Music Productions, promoters of the festival.

"Whether it is the big or small stage, we place a lot of emphasis on quality."

On Friday night, the dazzling group Raging Fyah proved to be as vocally and instrumentally powerful as many of the main stage acts, leaving many patrons proclaiming that they will be the next major international group out of Jamaica.

Popular local videographer José Walton, who has seen many of Jamaica's top acts in their prime, paid the ultimate compliment to the Kumar Bent-led Raging Fyah, saying they reminded him of the emerging Bob Marley and the Wailers.

"This is talent that is bound to go places ... . They are good," said Walton, as the group masterfully reeled of songs like Judgement Day and Far Away. "They have really impressed me."