Entertainment

Music served as men cook

By MEL COOKE, Freelance Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

THERE WAS A healthy serving of music from the stage to go along with the samplings of food on the lawns of the Liguanea Club in New Kingston on Sunday afternoon.

While Andrew Lawrence carved up his pot roast and Ferdinand Madden Jr. guarded his secret ingredient, the Harmonizer mento band warmed up the audience with Nobody's Business.

Gospel came in the harmonious duo of Pinky and Janice, who used recorded tracks on I Want To Be More (Than An Ordinary Servant). The two, who have been singing together for only a few months, went for reggae again before doing the slower, Pinky-penned You Sent From Above from their upcoming album.

Jammin' on turntables

Stokey Love got a jam going from the turntables with To Be Real, before Harmonizers signed off with What The Hell The Monkey Won't Do and the beat was changed to soca.

Garfield Lawrence was superb on the saxophone, starting with a reggae track. He did an uptempo rendition of No Woman No Cry, dropping in rippling notes before hitting a screaming high, leaning back with the effort and emphasis, before ending with a soft refrain to applause.

Lawrence went slow for the Dave McLauglin composition Love, before going R&B with the R. Kelly-style Step In The Name of Love, in which he hit a groove with his shoulders twitching and body swinging.

He ended with a reggae arrangement of My Way that he had put together only that day and which he dedicated to all the chefs.

Tricia 'Wild Child' Spence rocked from the turntables with the 1985 as well as the 2005 editions of the Sleng Teng rhythm, playing the all too rarely heard but superb Know How Fe Rock by Shinehead in the process.

Diamara Neil, with Donald Waugh on guitar, harmony vocals and, briefly, human beat box, was the final performer on the small stage under the almond tree. She warmed up on her first song, an interesting interpretation of Marley's Waiting In Vain. When she opened her second offering with Can't Take My Eyes Off You, she sounded more in her element, hitting a high "I need you...", with her enunciation precise.

How I love you

With microphone in one hand and the other putting emphasis on the song, Neil ended to good applause. She waited patiently through a break for a gastronomical cause, then with dusk coming on, expressed the various actions which epitomised "that's the way I love you" to an appreciative audience.

She went uptempo on Video, personalising the song with "No matter what I am wearing/I will always be Diamara Neil". She ended on a high with a "yeah!", the audience letting the two on stage know they had been heard.

The two packed up to leave the stage but more was demanded and they conceded willingly with a Stevie Wonder interpretation.