Hearty party at Harvard

The event was part of the Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan and Jazz Festival which started last Tuesday with a photo exhibition at the Museum and will be ending this Friday at Queen’s Hall. Among the attendees were Professor Ron Reid and his team from the Berkeley School of Music, some members of the New Orleans Connection, Ettienne Charles who leads Culture Shock in the United States and other performers from Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.

The show began promptly at the advertised 8 pm time with the National Anthem followed by the St James Unity Tassa Group who made their way centre stage from the car park area.

Ten minutes later, Los Alumnos de San Juan parang group, led by Alicia Jaggesar, delivered a repertoire that included “Gabilan”, “Frio”, “Bambalayo” a merengue song and another on historic Trinidad. The choreographed movements of the lead singers added to their entertaining 30- minute performance.

Like the tassa group, Tripolians steelband started their playing “Run Your Run” from outside, ending up in the middle of the event area. From that point they played “Government Boots” then a medley comprising “Tribute To Spree”, “Margie”, “The Road Make To Walk”, “Flag Woman”, “67” and “Rainorama”. The band continued with “The Hammer”, “Feeling It”, and “Social Disorder” before leaving with “La La”.

Chutney star Adesh Samaroo, backed by three members of JMV Triveni, raised the tempo with “Rum Till I Die”, “Indian Parang”, “Rajin” and “Caroni Close Down”. He then slowed the pace with some raunchy verses of no song in particular that had the men in the audience cheering, while women had their hands covering their open mouths, while others just screamed.

Samaroo ended by singing “Rajin” once again and left declaring: “Music will bring unity in this country.”

Then came the star of the night KV Charles & his Retro Kings with a high energy performance that turned the show into a hearty party.

Charles began with “Disco Daddy”, followed by “Ah Coming”, “Caribbean Connection”, “Party All Night Tonight”, “Tension”, “Wine Down”, “Ethel” and “Ah Want It”.

The Retro Kings changed the tempo with the R&B hit, “Feel Like Making Love” before Charles returned to deliver powerful renditions of “How Can I Leave” and “Me and Mrs. Jones”, then ended with bout of soca that included “Teaser”, “Soca Baptiste”, “When ah Dead Bury Meh Clothes” and “La La”.