Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Beres Hammond - winston sill

When 'A Moment in Time', a four-hour concert centred on Beres Hammond, was launched at Harmony House on Thursday evening, the numbers kept growing.

Martin Lewis, who is producing the event, told those gathered on the grounds of the Burlington Avenue, St. Andrew, music production facility, that there will be room for 4,000 people in the raised, arena-style seating of the National Indoor Sports Centre, where 'Moment' will be held. There will be 1,500 numbered, reserved seats on the floor of the arena around the stage, which will be in the centre of the audience.

10 cameras

Brian St, Juste, who is in charge of the recording of the concert, said that some nine to 10 cameras will be used, a first for a Jamaican production. And, he noted that his working relationship with Beres Hammond goes back to 1979, while working on the movie Children of Babylon.

The 30-person Sugar Hill Orchestra will be coming in from Harlem, New York, to play alongside Hammond's standard backing outfit.

There was one set of figures, though, that stood out, laughter coming from the audience when Beres Hammond stood up to speak with Lewis as he announced the $4,000 price tag for the arena seating.

Before he continued, Lewis said it was a challenge for Mr. Hammond to hear the prices and that it challenges his cross-section of supporters.

The reserved seating costs $6,000, with a $500 reduction on both sections if the tickets are purchased before December 15.

High price

When he spoke, Hammond said "me neva know sey a so far up the money gone", more laughter coming as he joked that for the level of production that is planned it should cost $7,000 to get in.

"If it was up to me you would come in free," Hammond said, "but somebody has to pay the bills."

And Harmony House had been willing to foot a large part of that bill, as Lewis said that in the initial stages of planning, sponsorship was hard to come by. Hammond told him that the 'Moment' will happen, no matter what. So, "Mr. Hammond, through Harmony House, is totally underwriting the production of 'Moment'."

Eventually sponsors came on board, including the Gleaner, VP Records and ScotiaBank.

Quality is being emphasised in the recording, as St. Juste said "we are shooting in high-definition, which is sort of like how your plasma television looks".

And when the DVD is ready, Lewis said "we expect this product to sit beside a Celine Dion, a Justin Timberlake".