Francois Harewood

Concert Review
Instrumental and Vocal Performance Seminar
Jazz Artists on the Greens
Thoughts of Freedom

Francois Harewood-53946 Concert Review

Jazz Artists on the Greens (JAOTG)

This is an annual event where local and international artist perform their own
arrangements of both jazz standards and other songs in a jazz style. The event took
place in St.Joseph on W.A.S.A's grounds this year and normally takes place in fields
of grass hence the name of the event. In most concerts where you would sit down in a
hall or you stand up in a congested area. JAOTG is similar to a picnic where you
walk with your own chairs and food and sit down with plenty of space for all patrons
to be comfortable. The first band started on time and contained songs that fused jazz
and calypso in an exquisite way. The volume of the first song were a bit too loud for
my liking so I had to put my earplugs in to hear properly but by the second song, the
levels were dropped to a decent volume thanks to the sound engineers. Another
observation I made was that the younger performers didn't seem to communicate as
efficiently as the older ones. They seemed to be in their own bubbles enjoying the
music while the more experienced performers would make eye contact with one
another to do unrehearsed orchestrations in perfect timing while still grooving to the
music they were performing.
The second band on stage starred Llettesha Sylvester who was a newcomer to
performing at JAOTG but not to the jazz world. Her band performed some pop songs
in such a unique way that it felt like a whole new song all together. The way she
performed captivated my attention and some of the audience members as well. Some
of her repertoire had stories of relationships and when she sang it was as though it
was her love story she was singing about.
An aspect that was prominent in all the performers was their ability to
improvise. Everyone who improvised on the show did something unique to their own
musical influence and all who improvised gave me chills from the awesome of their
improvisations.
The last performer I saw that evening was an international artist who had the
audience on their feet in approval of her performance. Michele Henderson was this
performer. Her band consisted of some of the great jazz artist alive in Trinidad and
Tobago today. Her voice was beautiful and she also made sweet melodies from her
Francois Harewood-53946 Concert Review

flute that she also performed with. She was able to switch between her voice and flute
with great ease and never seemed to be out of breath which was amazing since her
set was almost an hour long. There was nothing in the show that wasn't enjoyable. To
me this was one of the best concerts I have been to in a while with it being one of the
rare concerts that features jazz.

Francois Harewood-53946 Concert Review

Thoughts of Freedom
This concert was one of the first held by the American embassy for the year
commemorating the end of Black History Month. The first of the pieces entitled,
The Freedom Suite, reminded me of the music found in country westerns in the wild
west. Most of the audience were captivated by the piece with some minor distractions
from a photographer's flashing camera though the audience were advised to not take
flash photography. The second movement caught my interest with the introduction of
a chromatic bass line at a particular section, reminding me of jazz. The use of closely
stacked harmonies gave a warm feeling accentuated the country western feel. The
third movement of this piece attracted me the most with its use counterpoint between
instruments. Another interesting aspect of this particular movement that stood out to
be was the duet between the violin and the bass as a call and the answer proceeding
this between the second violin and the cello. The harmonious crescendo at the end of
the piece, won over the audience with the piece receiving lustily applause.
The second piece in the program featured tenor Edward Cumberbatch whose
stage presence and emotion captured the attention of the audience. His piece had
eerie and fantasy-like characteristics contrasting to the first performance. Edward's
tone sank deep into me leaving me on edge even after the last note was sung.
To end this concert, the ensemble played the unique work of Steve Reich called
Different Trains where the instruments imitate voices repeating phrases in different
pitches telling a story through the history surrounding a particular train. For me, it felt
like one needed a musicians ear to really appreciate this piece and understand its
priceless value. Though most of the audience attention was in and out, as the sound
died away at the end of the piece there was a moment of deafening silence. The
silence gave the piece the final effect it needed followed by a roar of applause which
the rightfully performers deserve.

Francois Harewood-53946 Concert Review