Large crowd turns out for Crown Prince

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

The public tribute to Dennis Brown, now established as the opening event for the annual Reggae Month calendar organised by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association, has certainly grown. Sunday night's crowd along Orange Street, downtown Kingston, in front of the stage set up outside Big Yard, extended almost a city block to where the crowd barriers established the end of the party zone.

The line-up has also got bigger and, in terms of the names who hit the big stage, more assured of pulling out a crowd. But even with a swathe of the who's who in Jamaican popular music paying homage to the late crown prince of reggae, the night was noticeably short of sustained presentation that moved the crowd, although there were several bursts of excitement.

A striking exception was the Marley brothers, Stephen, Damian and Julian. From the opening Traffic Jam, through a Liquor Store Blues, bereft of Bruno Mars, and their father's Could You Be Loved, Damian stitching his Khaki Suit into the uptempo rhythm. But even their showing, although it stirred the audience, was symptomatic of the night's weakness - it was simply too much quality to put in too short a time.

The night ended with Shaggy appealing to the Strength of a Woman and connecting Jamaican popular music dots with his version of Oh Carolina (Prince Buster, who produced the groundbreaking Folkes Brothers pre-Independence original, has his shop on the Orange Street block the concert encompassed) past 2 a.m. for a lacklustre ending.

It was a matter of the whole concert, despite the many strong moments, being less than the expected sum of its celebrated performer parts during the approximately four hours The Gleaner was at the tribute, from Tarrus Riley's She's Royal hit with the audience through to the close.

Many tributes

The combination format which served the Marleys well worked for Marcia Griffiths, Maxi Priest and Freddie McGregor, Maxi honouring D. Brown with Should I on a night when many performers fulfilled the tribute mandate by doing Brown's material.

That three the singing way, the Marleys and Riley apart, it was mostly a matter of occasional highs, Tony Rebel following a passable version of How Could I Live with Fresh Vegetable to the ladies' delight and If Jah is Standing By My Side for a strong close. George Nooks' God is Standing By showed its enduring popularity and Junior Reid underscored his foundation status by declaring "we start it".

Half Pint brought Greetings and there was an ecstatic reception to Big Youth's I Pray Thee.

John Holt included Wildfire, originally done with Brown, in his set.

Cali P made good use of his limited stage time, choosing to go with one extended lyric, which members of the audience appreciated. Prophecy opened with Bodybags and Iba Mahr closed with I Will, the latter getting the 'pull up' treatment as the audience demonstrated that peculiar Jamaican appreciation of a song - interrupting it.

One performer's delivery of a standout Dennis Brown cover, Little Green Apples was lost due to low volume on the microphone.

Ibo Cooper, Tommy Cowan, Denise Miller and Junior Sinclair were the night's hosts, with Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna on hand to reaffirm the ministry's commitment to Jamaican music.