Coleman
Hundreds turned out for the United States Embassy-sponsored celebration of African History Month, Blues on the Green, at Hope Gardens on Friday evening. They were treated to more than the expected musical feast.
From the dozen or so booths set up around the perimetre of the seating area, they also got food and drink for the body - chicken, fish, turkey, rice and peas, gungo peas soup, crackers, cookies and beverages of various kinds, including coffee.
Throughout the evening, there were people at the booths eating. However, most of the audience focused on the performers, especially on the headliner Deborah Coleman, an award-winning American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter.
The effervescent MC, Fae Ellington, told the audience that while the visit was Coleman's second, it was her first as a performer, the initial visit being just on a cruise. Coleman has grown to love Jamaican food, Ellington reported, but did not go on to make any connection between the abundance and quality of the food being served at the concert and the abundance and quality of the music Coleman herself served up.
The evening's other singer was Jamaica's premier jazz vocalist, Myrna Hague, who ended her excellent set with a couple of standards, St Louis Blues and The Way We Were. Judging by the audience's applause, Ellington's term for Hague's performance, "stupendous", was met with general agreement.
E\xperienced band
Backing the singers was a band of mixed experience. The veteran bandleader Sonny Bradshaw (on piano) was one of the instrumentalists accompanying Hague. Also in the band was keyboardist Kenrick Lawrence, a recent graduate of the School of Music. Others in the band were leader Maurice Gordon (guitar), Adrian Henry (bass), Peter Samaru (on drums for Hague) and Tony Ruption (on drums for Coleman).
To get to the concert ground, most drivers parked at either Jamaica College, or in a parking lot adjoining Hope Pastures, from where they were picked up by shuttle buses. Happily, the wait on a bus was not long, for the night was cool and more than a little damp.
To enter the seating area, you walked through an arch of red, white and blue balloons. On one side of the stage, there were balloons of the same colours forming the American flag. On the opposite side were black, green and gold balloons forming the Jamaican flag.
A variety of colours also came from the disco-style lighting used for the stage. Clearly, much thought went into the design of the venue.
Even the programme handed out to the patrons was attractively designed. It spoke to Coleman's impressive achievements.
Called by one US newspaper "one of blues music's most exciting young talents", Coleman won the Orville Gibson award for Best Blues Guitarist Female in 2001 and has been nominated for a W. C. Handy blues music award nine times.
Her discography spans a decade and she has played at the top American blues festivals as well as in Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, Belgium and now Jamaica. Born into a musical family - with father, brothers and a sister all playing instruments - she started playing the guitar at eight.
Husky voice
Coleman has a strong, rather husky voice and a most engaging personality. Every now and then, in her patter, she would try the Jamaican accent: "Yu feeling all right, mon?" And she'd laugh at herself, knowing she hadn't quite gotten it: "Dat sound funny, eh?"
However, her playing and singing were absolutely on target as, in jazz, blues, and even rock and roll style, she delighted her listeners with Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?, I'm a Woman, I Had a Dream, What Goes Around Comes Around, and other songs and instrumental pieces. She played her guitar as much as she sang and showed she was great at both.
Awed by Coleman's skill as a guitarist, Ellington quipped as the show ended, "I've wanted someone to take on Maurice Gordon [one of Jamaica's top guitarists] for a long time. It took a woman to do it."