Well you see, I have never heard of Maroon 5 until they were advertised as the headliner for the Friday session and I researched them on the Internet. and still wasn't particularly turned on at the thought of them being the headliner. But what the hell, the annual Jazz and Blues festival has been for years more about a family get together than anything else.
In the meantime I was agreeing with others in my age group who were expressing doubt about this years line up. However, I am here to tell you that as far as under 35's are concerned Maroon 5 is big. In fact, on the Friday I was feeling kind of sorry for those who had rented stalls at the festival and even the promoters, for up to about 10 pm the crowd was disappointing. Then just before Maroon 5 came on I went for another walk only to find that the place had become jammed packed. When they started t0 perform, the younger generation went crazy singing all the popular tunes with them. You could have hit me down with a straw! Despite my ignorance of them however, I was really impressed by what was basically an all white rock band which was really good ( i confess to holding racist views!) and although unfortunately my age has not been reduced, I am counting myself as one of their fans now.
Another act that blew me over was Regina Bell. Man that woman can sing. I guess I should not have been surprised since her bio does say she was professorially trained as an opera singer, but she was absolutely wonderful delivering blues and gospel hit after hit.
Then there were also some unannounced performances. When I finished wondering at one point, I returned to find a guitarist playing the Jamaican national anthem on his guitar with his teeth! Yes with his teeth. It was absolutely mind boggling. They did tell us his name but I have forgotten and could not find anything about him in the official programme, but apparently he is a Jamaican living aboard and he is the leader of a Blues band. Absolutely phenomenal. And talking about announcements, the announcers on Friday were quite poor.It was a girl and boy and apparently the girl is a former miss Jamaica, but they need training. On the other hand, Paula Anne Porter who was the MC on Saturday was so wonderful...professionalism to to the t. What a difference.
Saturday was another thing, for early into to the show, the rain came pouring down. And what we hoped would have been a short drizzle turned down to be about a 2 hour down pour. We had plastics but as we sat in the rain, the water found its way under my plastic and I got fairly wet and cold. While were we were down on the field we noticed that a number of persons were going into the seats in the stadium so as the rain eased, we made our way there. The third floor was totally empty and that is where we wanted to go, but guess what, we were met by a guard, who pointed to a sign saying Prime ministers suite or something to that effect so we could not go up the stairs. We Angrily we told him we had paid our money so the prime minister could not be controlling probably 100 seats while the rest of us who are paying for him could not get a seat, but he was unmoved. I suggested to quite a few people who were there that since there were a number of us and only one guard, we should storm the stairs, a la Tunisia or Egypt (people power) but typical of Jamaicans dem fraid a dem shadow. A lady came up with an id badge and apparently she did not like our attitude so she seemed to have made a phone call and they opened up the stairs so we could got pass the VIP second floor where the dignitaries were, to seats on the third floor.
When the heavy downpour ceased, they uncovered the equipment and started back the show however, we were not able to hear properly so at the next band change we went back on tothe wet, soggy field but at least the drizzle had stopped.
Well after that the show really stated to sizzle . There was a steel band which had about 8 young men and every one was an acrobat/dancer in his own right, The performance was really good....not the music so much as the dancing and acrobatics.
Then came the incomparable Taurus Riley. Boy did he ever have us eating out of his hand! What impressed me about him too apart from his great performance was how he promoted his back up singers. He introduced them one by one and allowed each to do a solo stint and they were all good but the one male singer....Chris was absolutely great. He will no doubt buss out soon and go on his own. What talent. Then Taurus did some humorous stints with the great Dean Fraser and that just took the crowd into the stratosphere.
Natalie Cole was next and I am still unable to decide who was better, she or Regina Bell. Man was she wonderful and when you think how she just had a major operation involving a kidney transplant, he vibrancy and delivery was even more impressive.
The headliner on Saturday was Air Supply and while I love them and know most of their hits, I guess because this was about the third time I had seen them at Jazz fest and since they have no new hits, I put them down as just ok.
However, the festival surpassed even my expectations this year and I know I will be a lifelong fan as long as they continue to deliver the wonderful performances that they have been doing since inception.
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