Musicians jam for Rogers

The event was simply called “A Jam For Patti” and it asked musicians, friends and family to bring their love, their instruments and just jam together in memory of Rogers. The musicians, all carrying their instruments get on stage to bring Rogers’ memories back to life.

There was the great Clive Zanda, Michael Boothman who worked with Rogers, Ann Fridal who hosted Rogers’ last concert, Michael “Ming” Low Chew Tung, Russell Durity, Theron Shaw, Douglas “Doggie” Redon, Richard Joseph, Roger Salloum, David Collymore, Andre Jack, Jerry Banfield, Earl “Biter” Edwards, Mavis John, Candice Alcantara, Llettesha Sylvester, John John and Whitney Cummings.

Alcantara and John John started the jam with songs like “Fever” (one of Patti’s favourite) and “Is this Love”. The young and talented Cummings appeared a bit shy but went on stage among the “big guns” like Ming, Theron and Richard and delivered “I Will always Love You” to a thunderous applause.

As she left the stage there were shouts of “one more”, “one more”.

After consulting with Ming, Cummings obliged with Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” again to the delight of the audience.

There was a change in musicians as Zanda replaced Ming and Durity replaced Jack and Roger Salloum came on congas.

Master musician Zanda started off with with “Sayamanda” and it raised the level of musicianship in the room. He controlled the set perfectly. Zanda told the audience he knew “Girl from Ipanema” was another of Patti’s favourite and he allowed his fingers to roll on the keys.

During the song Patti’s mother Lorna came on stage with her maracas and performed with the band. The audience went wild as Zanda again controlled the players to perfection. She received a long and sustained round of applause before she left the stage.

Zanda continued with Kitchener’s “Carnival is Over” and finished off his set with his very own classic “Fancy Sailor”. He made way for Ming and the Caribbean’s queen of jazz, Mavis John. As always John kicked things off with “Jazz in the Callalloo” an “Ode to Patti”, “Lifeline”, a beautiful duet with Candice Alcantara and then finished off with another classic “Carnival is Over”.

The music just kept coming, John’s exit made way for Michael Boothman’s entrance and he played with Ming on keys, Joseph on drums and Salloum on congas.

Boothman’s set included his Billboard hit “Heaven”.

Theron Shaw was back on stage as Sylvester made her entrance and she delivered “The Way We Were” to the amazement of the audience. She too was lustily called back by the audience and she performed “Summertime” (a song Patti grew up on) as an encore. That was supposed to be the end of the jam session but one of Patti’s schoolmates and long-standing friend, Kenwin Frank, held back the tears and performed “Smile” with the band.

Alcantara climbed on stage to give him support.

The jam for Patti was organised by Alcantara and Arlene Sylvester in association with Carl Jacobs and Kaiso Blues Cafe.