As the unending post-Carnival jazz season overlaps with the 2024 Carnival band launch season, the Naparima Bowl became an all-encompassing sold-out space for live music magic and fashion statement making. Vaughnette Bigford, the Creole Chanteuse, on July 22 continued her evolution from jazz singer to producer of live music experiences that go beyond the stage to touch and encourage audiences to show their true colours. Freedom Jazz Jam was described by her as a “celebration of US,” and on the weekend before the Emancipation Day festivities the Jam manifested in a real creative industry mix of music and fashion, pulchritude and pride.
An hour before the showtime was a pre-concert reception in the bowl’s courtyard that showcased more than fan appreciation for this southern songbird, but a manifestation of local fashion design and couture celebration, and a display of individual attachment to heritage in all the colours under an African sun. Local designer names were spoken: Prindela Fashions, Kimo, Diane Carlton Caribbean, Rack.PDH plus, Nadroj, and others that put into perspective that real commercial synergy of sectors in the creative industries at this event. A Caribbean aesthetic that interpreted an echo of Africa, in drums and rhythms that welcomed patrons, in the regal draping of fabric over hips and hair of the many women present – women significantly dominate the audience demographic – in the décor and merchandising choices, singularly and collectively were hallmarks for a holistic experience defining freedom.
But this was primarily a music event, and that aspect of the experience was not short-changed. In the cool auditorium that evening, stage production design superseded other technical aspects in this show, enhancing what would become 90 minutes of curated music excellence. Local designers again were named: Zadd & Eastman for Bigford’s outfits, Ecliff Elie for master of ceremonies Adrian Don Mora’s suit, and Prindela Fashions for kitting out the musicians and background vocalists on stage. A poem celebrating the African spirit in these islands by Roger Bonair-Agard followed by a sung Orisha chant to Ogun, made famous by Ella Andall and perfected by Bigford, prefaced the musical journey that went beyond her usual Trinidad and Tobago songbook sojourn towards a global mix of the African diasporic musical experience.
[caption id="attachment_1028041" align="alignnone" width="683"] - Photo Courtesy Bunney Allan[/caption]
Songs from the African continent, the Caribbean, South America and the US made for a recognition of the diversity of the African presence in the global world of popular song. Songs from Brazil (Milton Nascimento’s Cravo e canela), Jamaica (Dawn Penn’s You Don’t Love Me [No, No, No]) and TT (Shadow’s Looking For Horn, Nelson’s One Family, Merchant’s Um-ba-yao, and more) mingled with songs from Tanzania (Adam Salim’s Malaika made famous by Miriam Makeba) South Africa (Hugh Masekela’s Soweto Blues and Makeba’s Pata Pata) and Nigeria (Burna Boy’s Anybody). Swahili, Xhosa, the pidgin E
