Instead of the Plymouth Jazz Festival, plans have been unveiled for a five-day “Jazz Experience” according to Secretary of Tourism, Oswald Williams of the Tobago House of Assembly.
Williams acknowledged that Tobago’s economy could suffer considerable negative fallout by the shelving of the Plymouth Jazz Festival, hence the reason for staging the “Jazz Experience.”
That, he said, ought to minimise the impact particularly on the island’s tourism sector.
Williams revealed that noted jazz exponent, George Benson, is being proposed as the headline act for the event which would showcase the various genres of jazz, including traditional, pan, Latin, calypso jazz, rhythm and blues etc.
A mix of local and regional artistes will also be featured in the “Experience”, which, according to Williams, would be funded by a variety of sponsors including the THA. It is to be staged at various venues throughout the island from Pigeon Point on the southwest to Speyside on the far north-east end, and would be co-ordinated by John Arnold, events co-ordinator at the Tourism Division.
Giving a detailed breakdown of the planned format, Williams disclosed the event is to get underway on Wednesday, April 22, with a jazz concert at the Milford Road Esplanade in lower Scarborough, featuring some of the country’s leading jazz groups.
According to Williams, this opening concert is being sponsored by the THA Division of Tourism and Transportation, and is scheduled to start at 7 pm.
The following day, Thursday, April 23, the action shifts to the Pigeon Point Heritage Park at 7.30 pm for Latin-flavoured jazz featuring the Cuban group “CaneFire”, in a presentation promoted by “Production One”. Pan Jazz, featuring Andy Narell and Liam Teague, among others, takes centre stage in a Pan Trinbago production at the Montgomery Recreation Ground, Bethel, on Friday April 24 at 8 pm.
The following day, Saturday April 25, will feature jazz on the beach at Mt Irvine from 10 am, sponsored by the Mt Irvine Bay Hotel, as well as a THA-sponsored “beach jazz” session at Speyside at 11 am and later, at 8 pm, Pan Jazz sponsored by Pan Trinbago.
The “Jazz Experience” culminates on Sunday April 26, with an all-day affair dubbed “Sun, Sea and Jazz” from 10 am at Pigeon Point Heritage Park featuring local jazz artistes and George Benson possibly as the headline act.
spacer
March 4th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
“So farewell, my dear Plymouth Jazz Festival. You have one year to find a formula that is true to the Jazz that sits in the middle of your name. Use that time wisely. In the meantime, we wait…”
This is how we ended our piece on the demise of Plymouth Jazz Festival a few days ago. Never did we think that we would not have to wait even a week to witness the emergence of the real Tobago Jazz from the Ashes of the loosely named Plymouth Jazz.
I knew something good would emerge from the loss of the CLICO sponsorship.
Now that “Plymouth Jazz” has been ditched though, we hope that “Jazz Experience” will take its place – PERMANENTLY. (Sorry, I’m shouting!)
WEC
…the Caribbean Jazz blog
March 4th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Jazz was never the point of the Plymouth “Jazz” Festival, it was only a safe sounding word to attract upscale tourists to Tobago for a weekend . The Jazz Experience is an interesting development but as soon as the economy recovers it will be back to the big name pop acts to lure the mass market.