Great Jazz voice goes silent

Esdelle was among those who spoke to Newsday on the passing of Rogers. The jazz vocalist died early Monday morning at her Barataria home. Rogers was 58. Esdelle recalled not having taken up a spot to be Rogers’ pianist but when she asked Rogers to perform at Women in Jazz, 2004, “her willingness was so generous.” She recalled that Rogers was always interested, after that show, in what she was doing. “I always liked her spirit. I liked even the manner of her dress. She was a gentle spirit to be around,” Esdelle recalled.

Rogers, she said, was an example to other vocalists of how to work a general circuit. “She was generally interested in other people’s well-being,” she said. Percussionist Tamba Gwindi said when he heard of her passing, it was very hard for him.” Gwindi and Rogers played together over the past ten years on the jazz circuit. Gwindi described Rogers as a true soldier. Carl ‘Beaver’ Henderson told Newsday, described her loss as big one to the jazz industry. Henderson said he wished she had gotten her ‘just due’ before she died. He described her as ‘trudging along quietly’, very humble and professional.

Close friend and entertainment journalist, Gary Cardinez said, “Trinidad and Tobago was stunned and shock by the passing of Jasmine Patti Rogers, a beautiful and honest soul with a permanent smile on her face. If ever there was a sincere person in the music industry it was Patti Rogers, she loved life despite whatever it brought her.

“Patti has been singing jazz from school days, fighting against the odds, working very hard to make Trinidadians see there is a market in jazz music. It was not easy. She toiled and toiled and was able to see her dream come to fruition.” Her last performance was at Trinidad Hilton on Sunday, he said.