Germaine's 'Happy times 2' CD for charity

The second, Happy Times 2, is locally flavoured and contains traditional favourites, some with a Trini twist to reflect the Caribbean lifestyle. In an attempt to reach the younger generation because these are the people buying CDs, Scott has featured her grandchildren and artistes like Kees Dieffenthaller and his mother Diana, Nigel Rojas of Orange Sky, Michael "Soca Elvis" Salloum, M’Ba (Gary Thomasos), Etienne Charles, Lester Sangster, Bayete Williams and Michelle Xavier, who, when approached by Scott, were all very excited about the project, and responded readily.

Happy Times 1 enjoyed a very successful run on the local market and sold over 4,000 copies at $100 each, every penny went to local charities which included The Missionaries of Charity, KIND (kids in need of direction), ALTA (Adult Literacy Tutors Assoc of TT), Immortelle Children’s Centre for Special Education, Finbar Ryan Geriatric Home, Sister Paul’s Foundation for Human Development, Living Water Community, The JC Macdonald Home for the Aged, HOPE, Diego Martin Regional Life Centre (Servol), Anthony Pantin Home for the rehabilitation of prisoners, and many other individuals.

Scott’s marketing strategy is unique. She does not become involved with sales and collection of money. "It’s a case of direct selling by the charitable organisations. You ask for so many CDs, I hand them over, you sell them and the money goes to your organisation. On the other hand there are individuals who benefit from record shop sales."

So far she has funded the entire production of the CDs including the young performers who have responsibilities and must be reimbursed, but this time she hopes that some kind sponsors will offer to stand the cost of "duplicating" (packaging).

One thousand copies of Happy Times 2 are already on order, and as soon as there are requests for more copies the duplicating process will continue until the demand no longer exists.

Having spoken to this vibrant, retired businesswoman, who hadn’t planned to do a second CD, it is easy to see that she totally enjoys creating, performing, co-ordinating and producing, and I am positive that there will be a Happy Times 3.

The recording starts after she has decided what music is going on the disc, and as she owns a beautiful Yamaha Clavinova, this allows her to record all of the music in the comfort of her home.

"I play by ear so it just comes out with no practice at all, just first runs, but I have to remain focused until completion of the product which took about three months from the start of recording at home to final production. I choose everything, sequence, who is to sing what, artwork, I get permission from the artistes to use their music and also to re-arrange the lyrics, if necessary, which was done by Nigel Rojas this time.

"M’ba did "Ash Wednesday Gaol" by Chalkdust, who was so kind to allow me to use his music." The diskette with Scott’s music is sent through the computer to Robert Johnson’s Audio Concepts recording studio where the mixing and arranging is completed. Scott was surrounded by beautiful music all of her life through her grandfather and mother, Ruby Delmas. She trained in classical music at a very young age and then in her early teens was introduced to "ear" by Tom Durham, who taught her how to find the chords, major, minor augmented 7th diminished, etc.

Hence the reason that it is easy for this talented woman to accompany any performer. Germaine, who lost her husband Tony in 1991, has dedicated Happy Times 2 to her children, Gregory, Bernadette, Danny, Johnny and Graham.

The proceeds will again be given to local charities of all denominations. "People are people" said Scott. "This is a fun CD with its tracks by the younger, more rock-oriented singers infusing an interesting mix into the more traditional Christmas songs. On this CD people are having fun and helping the less fortunate in the society at the same time."