Michelle and Marva make musical vibes

ISLAND Vibe guitarist Marva Newton and fellow saxophonist Michelle Marfan-Urquhart said the stereotype — that women are not as efficient as men at a male-dominated task — still exists. So that when Marva was complimented, by a woman, with the words “you play really well for a woman,” she stood amazed, but maintained her pleasant dispostiton. Marva is one of the first female guitarists in a soca band, and Island Vibe is the only soca band to have two female musicians as members.

Together, Marva and Michelle add a uniqueness and innovation to the 13-member ensemble that has Anna Assing as its lead vocalist. “People used to say I’m just miming, that I’m just there for style,” Michelle said. “But you expect that (comments). You stick it out so that women out there know they could do it too.” Michelle has been with Island Vibe for two years. Marva, on the other hand joined in late December 2004. “There is a skepticism about your ability,” Marva explained. “It’s just a female thing. Music is male-dominated field. For them, females playing in a band is a rare sight. So you really have to prove yourself. But I’m not going to break my neck. It’s not renting space in my mind. You just go out and do what you have to do.”

Marva brings to the band years of experience as acoustic guitarist with the Rawle Gibbons Company in Camboulay Productions at the Creative Arts Centre. After grasping her feel for vintage kaiso, she teamed up with David Bereaux and Friends to become the first guitarist in the band. All of this she achieved mostly on her own, with the inspiration of her uncle Mathias Marfan and grandmother Henrietta Wilson. She tells her story: “My first image of somebody playing the guitar was Michelle’s father... I said to myself I had to play the guitar one day. So I asked my grandmother, who was the church organist, for one. Actually, she bought me a cuatro and my sister got the guitar, and I took it and started playing on my own.

“Now I’m playing the electric guitar. I’m enjoying it. The challenge comes with the entertainment side of it. And how you look and how you dress is so important.” Marva said she was a bit hesitant at first, when she was called to play with the band because of her religious background. “I said ‘oh my god! Me in this soca thing!’ Music, you see, is about true musicianship and technical ability, but with entertainment it’s about glamour and glitz. So I realised it was not just music I was getting into, but all the other things. I am more conservative and that is what I bring to the stage.”

Marva left her full-time job in September last year and now focuses her time also on her band “Dominant 7th — a jazz ensemble of five, which was formed in 2002. “Musically, I want to be able to pursue jazz. That’s where my heart is, to be able to execute comfortably within that sphere. When I joined Island Vibe people said you’re gonna mash up your technique, but a senior musician told me that was not so. He said, instead, it will help with my areas of weakness.”

Michelle, too, formed her own band “Jazzmine” three years ago. So, playing with both Island Vibe and Jazzmine, and holding a full-time job as Music teacher at St Mary’s College is hard work. “Juggling my other job and the long nights are tough,” she said. Born in Tobago, Michelle was exposed to playing for an audience at an early age. “I started playing the flute in church. That’s the instrument my dad wanted me to play.” At age 20, Michelle joined the Police Service and together with Susan Quammie, became the first female musicians to gain entry into the police band. She described her five-year stay with the band as “more militant. They play a lot of classical music and more kaiso as opposed to soca. While there, I got exposure and got my first gig at Kitchener’s Revue. Then I joined Atlantik and later I played with Wayne Bruno and the Rapid Response at Spektakula.

“I’ve been playing the saxophone for many years so there was no real adjustment in joining Island Vibe. The one time, though, that I recall being overwhelmed had been the year I didn’t play, while attached to Spektakula. But now, with Island Vibe, it’s like chemistry. The band is family. I think I have accomplished what I wanted to do. “My family at first was worried because of the late nights. Actually my father wanted me to become a doctor,” Michelle said. Now she has the full support of her husband, Alister Cedric Urquhart, a percussionist with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Band.