All that Jazz

Absolutely fabulous, wonderful, great, oh my God, there are just not enough superlatives to describe the performance of Celine Dion at the 2012 Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival. Even the fact that we were stuck for 2 hours in the parking lot at the Trelawny stadium after the performance did not dampen the great feeling of exhilaration that we all felt because of that performance. I had gone there in a chartered bus with 15 other people and for the two hours that we sat in parking lot, unable to  move because of the huge crowd that had attended, all we could talk about was the Celine Dion performance. 

Not only was her performance di lick, but also so was the fantastic backdrop which  kept us transfixed. Most of the back drop reflected Las Vegas images but when she did the themes from Goldfinger and Live and Let Die, James Bond movies, the appropriate action backdrops were shown. It was really professional and totally unmatched. 


I love Celine, but when I saw the line up for the Thursday night, I said it would have been the best night. That night was designed to reproduce Jamaica's musical growth over the 50 years of Independence. That covered the periods of ska, rock steady, reggae and dancehall. It was awesome. In fact it was more of a party than a concert and because alll the artists used 3 bands, Byron Lee, Lloyd Parks and I forgot the other, there was no lag between artists. I haven't danced so  much for years........ on my feet doing ska, rock steady and reggae from  about 10pm to about 3am to such greats such as Delroy Morgan (now blind but fulla vibes same way), Pluto Shervington, Yellowman, Marcia Griffiths, John Holt, Etana and other such greats kept us rocking non stop.

I really love Yellowman whom I have not see since reggae Sunsplash (and you know that has been no more for about a decade) and was really looking forward to seeing him. He certainly did not disappoint and was amusing too as he can't dance so he spent the entire half hour or so that he performed,  jogging up and down the stage and he carried the crowd with him all the way. It was invigorating and really enjoyable.

Of course Shaggy brought down the house (as usual) as the final act and had Ne-Yo as his surprise artist to do "It wasn't me" with him to the great delight of the audience.

We left there at 4am and I thought Celine could not top Thursday night. Richie Stevens also gave a memorable performance but words cannot describe what Celine did to us all.

Saturday night was not in the same class but reasonable. I slept during Celo's performance and Bobby Brown and his group.  They were sub standard and yuck.

There was however a young american guitarist named something Clue who played some great Jazz  and Destra had us on our feet for about half hour with some vigorous Soca. She also did some Whitney Houston hits and was really good and the Temptations were not bad even if a bit passe. Junior Gong who closed the night was also really quite good.

 However after all we got on Thursday and Friday nights, I would never complain about Saturday even if it was really bad for what the heck, how many great performances can one really absorb in one little weekend?