C Sharp & the Battle of the Bands

Groundins

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

Kudos is due to the tenacious Seretse Small for his relentless pursuit to promote and highlight live-music in general, and the new generation of bands and singers of the various genres of Jamaican music; oft times, at tremendous self-sacrifice. His most recent edition of the Global Battle of the Bands was staged at the Chinese Benevolent Society’s headquarters on Hope Road on Sunday December 10.

While I am not privy to the means by which the bands that participated were selected, the quality of all the bands was of a high standard. That being said, however, there were some down-sides in executing this event which, in my estimation, did a disservice to the promoter, the individual bands, and the objective of the event.

In my opinion, it may have been a poor choice of venue, based on the fact that it is well known in the industry that the acoustics of the hall are not suited to reinforced sound. In this regard, ironically, I heard the music clearer when I was standing outside, but inside the venue, it was a noisy din. To make matters worse, there were numerous distortions of the PA system and the microphones worked intermittently, which interrupted the performances from the very start, compelling the organizers to have the first two bands repeat their performances.

My investigations have informed me that 25% of the scores are given to the popular vote of the audience, and—as undemocratic as this may sound—I wonder if, in a competition such as this where, supposedly, we are attempting to select the best band to represent Jamaica in an international competition, this approach is the ideal one to take, given our herd mentality.

Just look at how this has corrupted our parliamentary votes on issues of critical importance to the country. While it is natural for all the bands participating to mobilize their fans and supporters, if they are not encouraged to be guided by their conscience in making their vote, then we could very well do without the performances and simply select the group based on who has the majority vote.

To make matters worse, on Sunday, the supporters of the winning group came armed with their Vuvuzela Horns, and so, for the life of me, I don’t know how the judges could have made a determination about the quality of the musicianship of the winning group, because their fans, who were obviously the majority of the audience, incessantly blew these horns throughout the performance of Di Blueprint.



Di Blueprint Band

In my view, firstly, due to the competitive nature of the event; due to the fact that you had three judges who were supposedly there to make an objective judgment of the musicianship and stage-craft of all the groups, the promoter should never have allowed the horns to be used. Secondly, because, to my mind, it was therefore impossible for the judges to have heard this group clearly and uninterruptedly, they should have been disqualified to be fair to the other groups.

Whereas these Vuvuzela Horns may be appropriate for the open-air, political party meeting (I don’t really care to hear what their speakers have to say anyway), and for the ‘Kernation Market’ setting, the audible impact of this shrill sound totally discombobulated me, and, I’m sure it did likewise for those patrons who came to this event with an open mind and simply wanted to hear good, live music to draw comparisons and make their individual judgment about the strengths and weaknesses of each group.

With due respect to the organizers, this is not the first time that this herd mentality has had an undue influence in determining the winner of the competition. The same thing occurred at the very first one in 2005 where C Sharp lost to Live Wyya, not because they were better musically, but because of their superior mobilisation efforts.

While I don’t know if it is a criteria mandated by the governing international organization, in my view, whereas I wouldn’t totally eliminate the popular vote, it should not have a value of more than 10% of the overall score given to any participant.

Speaking of C Sharp, thank God they have lived to tell the tale, and are now riding high on the local, live music circuit. On Friday night, they celebrated their 10th anniversary with a concert performance and the launch for their new album ‘The Invitation’ at the Jamaica College Auditorium, and I was pleasantly surprised at the significant amount of people who came out in support of them… and none of us were disappointed. Whereas, Tony Rebel and Cat Coore got tremendous receptions and overwhelming applause, C Sharp was at their musical zenith.



C Sharp Band

The diversity and richness of their music, complimented by the sonorous voice and charisma of the lead singer, and their mastery of stage-craft was simply amazing. This group has not wasted their ten years and the combination of talent, training, discipline, and hard work have certainly paid off. “All Fruits Ripe”… Good luck gentlemen; the world awaits!

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/C-Sharp-n-the-Battle-of-the-Bands_10403262

We are in safe hands

Groundins

By: Charles H.E. Campbell

Sunday, December 04, 2011

I attended the Manifesto Jamaica festival two weekends ago and was impressed with the level of organisation, the sophistication and breadth of activities and the sheer enthusiasm and commitment displayed by their volunteers and management team.
This organisation, in its short life-span, has taken its commitment to empower inner-city youths by giving them the kind of skills-training which will not just give them basic qualifications and experience for the working world, but will go a far way in re-socialising those who have been impacted by the programme as well as re-orienting their mindset.

COOPER... has been credited by a number of the students at Edna Manley College as being a factor in their success

It is unfortunate that other than Director of Culture Sydney Bartley, I did not see other representatives from the public sector or captains of industry and commerce for whom, I'm sure, this festival would have been an inspiration if they had attended.
That being said, however, I wish to highlight in particular the concert held in the Vera Moody Concert Hall on Saturday night and the Evening of Poetry held at the dance auditorium on the Sunday night.

Mutabaruka, Tanya Stephens and Cherry Natural really did themselves, and Jamaica, proud with their poetry on the Saturday night. But, there were some Jamaican Canadians who also performed at this poetry session and their perspective, given the race issues that they have to contend with in that society, revealed the continuing struggle of blacks in Canada against a system that is stacked against them.

The Uprising Roots Orchestra's performance could only be described as awesome. The addition to the group of the horn section and Bo-Peep on rhythm guitar, has truly transformed the band into one of the best sounding local bands in Jamaica presently, and by the end of their performance the entire audience was in a trance. This band is now ready to conquer the world!

Edna Manley had their graduation ceremony on Saturday November 22 at The Little Theatre. I had the pleasure of witnessing their rehearsals for this function on the previous Thursday and Friday, and was totally fascinated and pleased by the concept of Pierre Lemaire and the arrangements of the musical director Michael 'Ibo' Cooper.

They were able to take A Night in Tunisia on a trip through genres ranging from classical, to jazz, to dancehall, so seamlessly weaving the styles together one hardly knew where the actual transitions took place. They were also able to stunningly marry the more stringent European influences to our indigenous sounds, art, and movement.

It is a little known fact that many of the current crop of Jamaica's top, popular bands and artistes, attended and/or graduated from the Edna Manley School of Music; Romaine Virgo, C-Sharp, Raging Fyah, Uprising Roots, Further Notice, Chevaughn, Shereita, Dubtonic Kru, Roots Underground, Diana Rutherford and Warren McPherson (who got the highest marks for the grade 10 classical piano exams) granting him a trip to Winnipeg for a Master Class a few years ago).

Many graduates of Edna Manley have told me that the portion of their success attributable to their tutelage at the college was under the mentorship of Ibo Cooper; they think of the school as having two phases, BC (Before Cooper) and AC (After Cooper). One student actually said he was about to leave the school because the direction he saw himself taking was not being fostered by the previous atmosphere of all classical/jazz, all the time.

Last Saturday, I had the most exhilarating night of live music while attending the Bands Incorporated Concert at Lindsay Avenue. The four bands on the lineup, Blue Grass in the Sky, Roots Underground, Dubtonic Kru and Raging Fyah are four of the top performing groups currently in Jamaica and each has its own distinct sound and vibe.
Raging Fyah stood out on Saturday night with a performance that was second to none. The crowd would not let them leave and demanded two encores before they allowed the band to leave the stage.

The following day we drove over to Asante Adonai in Winefield, St Ann for Jimmy's Jam, and I am certainly glad that I did not miss this event. Even though the attendance was less than a hundred people and the rain fell throughout the afternoon, this did not have a great impact on the recorded and live musical program. DJ Afifa played two excellent sets featuring Jimmy Hendricks, Led Zeppelin and many other famous guitar-driven hits from various genres of music which led to lively discussions, debates, arguments that just added to the sheer enjoyment of the afternoon.

Then we had a live performance from an impromptu band featuring Omar Francis & Maurice Gordon on guitars; Shurwayne Thompson on bass; Akil Krram and Shane Campbell on drums. They literally brought the hills alive with the sounds of music.

Email: che.campbell@gmail.com


Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/We-are-in-safe-hands_10298437#ixzz1fhUkGJrE