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Kitchener fans to get rare treat… A Tribute to Kitch by top-flight acts Trinidad Guardian, Friday, October 19th ,2007 |
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Fans of Lord Kitchener’s music, who equally appreciate the talents of keyboardists Raf Robertson and Aldwin Albino and versatility of Lord Relator, will be in for a rare treat on Saturday, when the 2007 T&T Steelpan & Jazz Festival presents The Return of the Hat at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s. Presented by the QRC Foundation, in collaboration with the US-based T&T Folk Art Institute, the concert will additionally feature The Grand Festival Orchestra, comprising 25 members of the T&T Police Band and an equal number of pannists from Witco Desperadoes, saluting the work of Kitchener from the strictly instrumental perspective. The Hat motif represents Kitchener’s trademark couture, a fashion-statement residual from an era when calypsonians confronted perception that their artform was low-life with little or no redeeming features. No calypsonian of measurable value travelled without full suit and matching hat. Except for two mercifully short Carnival seasons, Kitchener topped out his colourful wardrobe with harmonising headgear. But as the 20th century expired and attrition hit calypso’s dandies, few of the next generation sought to maintain the tradition, considering the suit and hat colonial relics in the post-independence era. And as we hurdled the millennium, while full suits still dominated dressing rooms on each season’s opening night, the hat slowly faded into calypso folklore. Headliner Raf Robertson, leading the Caribbean Connection, brings to the concert that brand of flavourful jazz fellow keyboardist Frankie “Maestro” Mc Intosh predicts will help design the very future of calypso. Among contemporary calypso performers best poised to recreate that ambience and aesthetic is Lord Relator, whose composition Nobody Does it Better than Kitchener is a fitting overture for his salute to the grandmaster, which comes replete with tasteful mimicry, extempo and timely but liberal insertions of intricate guitar chords; used as accents in the more intricate songs. The quintessence of sartorial elegance onstage, Relator is also best suited to conjure up memories of The Grandmaster in that regard and, given his elephantine memory which, some say, can summon more than 150 of Kitch’s works, whether in full or by exhuming an infectious verse and chorus; Relator knows how best to use each song’s critical elements for optimal effect. Headliner Raf Robertson, leading the Caribbean Connection, brings to the concert that brand of flavourful jazz fellow keyboardist Frankie “Maestro” Mc Intosh predicts will help design the very future of calypso. And Mc Intosh, a son of St Vincent, should know, as one who was instrumental in assisting calypso to graduate from using basic music beds to some of the more intricate constructions heard in our time; fashioning yet another outlook for the fundamental form. Then there’s the reeds-man supreme, St Lucian saxophonist and flautist Luther Francois, whose external influences include varied experiences on the North American circuit, which are often brought to bear on Caribbean musical rhythms and energies spawned by his native West Indian persuasion; making for attractive but complex interpretations and strikingly mellifluous solos. Homeboy Robertson, whose reverence of Kitchener’s music is not in dispute, is agreed leader of the calypso jazz and improvisation genre, which are staples in his concert repertoire and eloquently evidenced in recordings; dating back to Branches (1994). Indeed, it is Raf who originally conceptualised a new concert celebrating the Grandmaster’s extraordinary catalogue, locating full length pieces and excerpts in a context that doubles as the backdrop for telling the story of this incredible composer. The Hat motif represents Kitchener’s trademark couture, a fashion-statement residual from an era when calypsonians confronted perception that their art-form was low-life with little or no redeeming features. After discovering creative differences with his production partners, Raf withdrew and the project traveled a contorted route to oblivion. It therefore gives him the greatest pleasure to revive and present the original idea. Indeed, one imagines Raf is intent on rescuing the model with a performance that will permanently erase any memory of the contretemps, and with fellow professionals of the Caribbean Connection, heap added value on The Return of the Hat; proving calypso must never be considered a poor relative of the jazz family. An entirely different approach is in store from Aldwin Albino’s, concept of rearranging Kitchener’s works to reflect the European “classical” feel. He has delivered in this style two successful CDs (Calypso in Classics I & II), the first of which was itself fully dedicated as A Tribute to The Grandmaster. A far cry from his early days in Laventille, where the family’s backyard hosted Savoy Steel Orchestra and nurtured the talent of Robert Greenidge, Albino, who spent years as resident musical director of Scouting for Talent, also taught music at various inner-city public schools before migrating to Montreal where he continued in that same vein and first got the idea of transposing Kitchener’s music some 40 years ago. To complete Saturday evening’s exploration of the vast Kitchener music catalogue is this year’s edition of the Grand Festival Orchestra, which features a collaboration between Desperadoes and the Police Band, an act that last year proved to be one of the festival’s major crowd pleasers when presented with Phase II Pan Groove and the Police Service Orchestra. This time around, the formidable and deservedly famous Desperadoes, no strangers to the T&T Steelpan & Jazz Festival stage, will provide the tuned percussion for the mass band, which has long been hard at work rehearsing conversational maneouvres in addition to the stand-alone pieces each orchestra will render. In the sum, The Return of the Hat —A Tribute to Kitchener promises to offer patrons the most complete appreciation of the depth and breadth of the Grandmaster’s works since his passing, as performed by the Caribbean region’s finest musicians. Showtime Saturday at Queen’s Hall is 8 pm. |