RIP Dewey Redman

With maynard Ferguson passing only a week or so ago, the jazz world now has to
say goodbye to another great. Tenor legend Dewey Redman died on Saturday
after slipping into a coma followinga massive stroke. he was 75.
Though more famous in later years as the father of Joshua Redman
Dewey was known and acclaimned throughout the jazz world - especially
by his fellow musicians who praied his obviousl ove of music, his versatility
his powerful sound (in the Texas tenor tradition) and his engaging personality

condolences and prayers to the family. He will be missed
but the music remains.

RIP Dewey Redman

With maynard Ferguson passing only a week or so ago, the jazz world now has to
say goodbye to another great. Tenor legend Dewey Redman died on Saturday
after slipping into a coma followinga massive stroke. he was 75.
Though more famous in later years as the father of Joshua Redman
Dewey was known and acclaimned throughout the jazz world - especially
by his fellow musicians who praied his obviousl ove of music, his versatility
his powerful sound (in the Texas tenor tradition) and his engaging personality

condolences and prayers to the family. He will be missed
but the music remains.

Cuban jazz in the Gardens

Hurricane Ernesto had pushed the date back a week (and into a flood of other events) but
the latest jazz in the Gardens, dubbed The Cuban Connection part II proved a worthy
and sultry evening of music, with some exemplary trumpet work from Cuban maestro
Basilio Marques
backing (and often chasing0 Marques were Aeion Hoilett (bass) Akil Karram (drums)
Jerome Tulloch (keyboards) and Seretse Small. Alex Martin-Blanken played addiitonal
keyboards during the early session
Marques kicked off with night In Tunisa before renderign an exquisite My Funny Valentine
on French horn. he returned to the trumpet for the rest of the programme , doing
Herbie hancock's Cantaloupe Island and Watermelon man(encore) as well as other Dizzy Gillespie
and MIles Davis numbers.
Notably he teamed up with Small for an excellent rendition of the latter's 'signature' tune,
Cass Cass

Christine Fisher was great with a blues-gospel programme in the early going and free-wheeling
singer Hezekiah divided the audience into sympathisers and scoffers with his ex tempo riffs
on Perhaps Love and Perfidia among others

Jazzofonik sghred a 'tune-for-tune' three-way spin with Mutabaruka and Gladdy of the Wild Bunch

A great night - Check back soon for pics. Next in the series: October 29 Check back for more details.

From Cuba via Chicago

Internationally acclaimed Cuban jazz trumpeter Basilio Marques headlines the next
instalmento f jazz in the Gardens at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, this Sunday, starting
at 6:00 pm
He'll be complemented by Jmaaican vocalist Christine Fisher and jovial keyboard whiz
Harold Davis & Friends. Mutuabruka, Austin Campbell and yours truly, jazzofonik
will provide 'jazz on CDs' during the breaks.
Marques is a graduate of the Escueal nacional de Artes in Cuba, wehere is currently an instructor.
He has led workshops, in Spain, South Africa, and New York City and has played several major
festivals, including North Sea Jazz, Montreux and the Chicago Jazz Festival.
Marques has also been the Musician-in-Residence at the Chicago Jazz Institute and the Fundacion
Mario Santo Domingo, Colombia.

Laughter & Lyrics

A new spot for mature entertainment has opened up on the South Coast
Taino Cove in the Treasure Beach area, staged the first of
what is intneded to be regular entertainment showcases,
dubbed Laughter & Lyrics.
The show was hosted by American Phyllis Yvonne Stickney,
seen nationally on BET and author Loud Thoughts for Quiet Moments.
The show featureed j'can comedian Owen 'Blakka' Ellis as well as
dub poets IION Station and singers pauline bell and Barbara McCain.
The venue, owned and managed by WInifred Hytlon and her husband
Patrick. Winnifred was former press secretary to Rev Jesse Jackson
The lodge may also become home to a monthly(?) Jazzofonik X-perience.
stay tuned.

jazzofonik in the gardens

Jazzofonik X-perience returns to the bi-monthly Jazz in the Gardens
series atthe jamaica Pegasus lawn come August 27
beginnignat 5:30 pm
We'll be spinning jazz shots alongside Mutabaruka and Ausitn
Campbell
More on the lineup later.

Christopher's Jazz

Night of the 'Boom-bap'
Tuesday Night Live @ Christopher's
Reviewed by Michael A Edwards
Thursday, July 06, 2006

The drum is the beginning of all music.
Jazz pianist Dr Kathy Brown understands this and though she leads (very effectively) from the piano chair, the "musician who also practices medicine" unequivocally summoned a funk vibe during her set as the second headliner in the weekly series, Tuesday Night live at Christopher's jazz bar in the Quad complex.

Brown's cohorts on the night were only too eager to oblige. Aqil Karram and the irrepressible Denver Smith formed a potent drum-percussion tandem that was given extra spice and kick by Aeon Hoilett's bass licks. The leader alternated between tasteful comping, her own sprightly solos and, at times, playing 'starter' in the intense but jovial races between Karram on the trap set and Smith on his congas (he was also exemplary on a range of smaller percussion instruments).
Jazz pianist Kathy Brown led a spirited quartet in African, Latin and Caribbean selections at Christopher's Jazz Bar in the Quad complex in New Kingston. Brown headlined the second in the Tuesday Night Live series.

The programme, expectedly, leaned heavily toward the Southern hemisphere, with African, latin and Caribbean influences dominating. There were several South African selections, the obligatory Bob Marley and an intriguing Brown original, titled Mission, that prompted a call from emcee and co-ordinator Seretse Small (who opened the series the previous week) for Brown to complete and release what will be her debut CD as a leader, a call supported vigorously by the sizeable audience.

The last set in particular, provided several memorable moments, with notice being served on brown's wickedly clever dancehall-funk adaptation of the Flinstones theme (known to dancehall heads as Cobra's Dun Wife). The drum duel escalating to the point where Smith picked up his drum and walked to over where Karram was sitting, intent on offering a stronger challenge.

The only clear winner was the audience, who were still hungry for more improvisational brilliance even at the end of the 'official' programme. With calls coming in for one more, the quartet made an appropriate final statement, a funky claypso strut on St Thomas.
It was indeed a strong statement overall in support of quality live music in the capital, an entity much in need of defence.

Papa blogger's family

P1010466
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

wife Jackie (in black an green at right), son Zachary at left and daughter Gabrielle in pink striped shirt at foreground enjoy the great fare and hospitality at Royal Plantation

Saxman

Saxman
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

idris Ackamoor blows up a storm for father's Day at Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios

singer

singer
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

singer

singer
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

Cheryl Scales channelled Nina Simone and Billie Holiday

singer

singer
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

Cheryl Scales channelled Nina Simone and Billie Holiday

singer

singer
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

Saxman

Saxman
Originally uploaded by mike e.bop.

idris Ackamoor blows up a storm for father's Day at Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios

Idris Ackamoor @ Royal Plantation

Sax man Idris Ackamoor, who apprenticed with Cecil Taylor,
was in fine form at oal Plantation resort in Ocho Rios
over the father's Day weekend. Ackamoor was joined by singer
Cheryl Scales, who was laso in great nick, as was the
RP house band. Big up to Sean, Brimsley, Willie
and Lennie, as well as super-liaison Andre reid
and GM Peter Fraser as well as the kitchen
and wait staff - Excellent job. excellent day.

Every Little Thing #10

Style Week welcomes 7th Avenue
Social
BY MICHAEL EDWARDS Entertainment editor
Sunday, May 28, 2006

"THE world doesn't need another pretty dress."
With that observation, Carmela Spinelli-Schaufler, Associate chair of New York's Parsons School of Design has mapped
out the future direction of the fashion industry - for the world in general but for Jamaica in particular.

The undergraduate fashion design programme of athe Parsons School takes about 480 students. Less than 100 will actually
walk out with that coveted piece of paper.
"Our requirement is that our students actually solve problems, rather than simply making outfits," she says as we endure
the mid-afternoon heat by the poolside of the Jamaica Pegasus. "Talent is important, obviously, but its by no means enough.
This industry is so multi-faceted today and our students are expected to go beyond just making a dress."

Schaufler is here, along with Beth Charleston of parsons and freelance fashion writer David Noh to take part in the annual
Style Week extravaganza hosted by Saint International.

It was Beth who first received the notice of the event and then busied herself on the Internet checking facts about Jamaica,
about fashion and about Style Week.

"This sounded like something really interesting and something which we hadn't been getting much information on at all in
New York," Beth said.

"Right away, you know the light and thus the colours are different," Carmela agrees. "We want to see how that impacts the
design ideas, but more than that we want to see also the impact of the whole culture, the lifestyle, the tastes and smells,
on the design and the style."

For Hawaiian David Noh (who is covering Style Jamaica for fashionwire), the most welcome aspect is to experience diversity
of a different nature than what he has become accustomed to in the fashion capital.

"Even in a place like New York, things can become kind of gray after a while. Here, you have the natural beauty, the
diversity and the strength of the culture, which is your own natural resource."

Byard Lancaster on piano

Byard Lancaster on piano
Originally uploaded by alankin.

A arare shot - atl eastto this writer's eyes of reed man Byard Lancaster at the piano in his Philly hometown

Every Little Thing # 8

Afro-Canadian filmmaker explores the ties that bind
Michael A Edwards, Entertainment Editor
Thursday, February 23, 2006
From left: Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica Claudio Valle, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie and Canadian author Cheryl Foggo in discussion during a special reception/presentation at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence in Kingston on Monday.

The last thing many of the incoming guests expected to be greeted by in the patio of the Canadian High Commissioner's residence this past Monday was a movie.

Yet, by evening's end, not only did all present come to thoroughly enjoy the film, but everyone was brought to the realisation of just how deep the connections are between peoples of this hemisphere and our varied Continental (Africa, Asia and Europe) forebears.

The film in question was The Journey of Lesra Martin, a biographical feature. The subject may not at present be a household name to Jamaicans, but those who witnessed Denzel Washington's performance as Reuben 'Hurricane' Carter may have heard the name mentioned a few times.

It was a young Lesra Martin, native to an already depressed Brooklyn neighbourhood, who was instrumental in bringing attention to Carter's case and precipitating his eventual release.

But what, you may ask, are the connections between these characters, and further, how is a Canadian so integrally involved?

The Canadian, multi-talented writer-producer-director Cheryl Foggo, who was guest-of-honour at said reception, is in fact the writer and director of Lesra Martin's journey. Cerebral yet entirely personable, Foggo has her own interesting journey, but more on that shortly.

Lesra Martin of Brooklyn was able to escape the ghetto grind when he caught the attention of visiting Canadian entrepreneurs while on an internship programme.
This meant eventually Lesra (a combination of the biblical Lazarus and Ezra) settling in Canada, where he
considerably augmented his then meagre education, fulfilled his eighth grade dream of becoming an attorney
and met and married the woman of his dreams.

He would also meet Reuben Carter, whom he first came across via a book picked up from a discount bin. The two
became fast friends - more like father and son - and of course, on the release of the movie, celebrities in their
own right. Lesra managed to parlay his fame into a lucrative and important career as a full-time motivational speaker.
But of course, journeys tend to cover valleys as well as peaks, and Lesra has had to deal with loss in his family,
including two brothers (one to AIDS, another to a shooting incident) and both of his parents.

These misfortunes, however, make his story more, rather than less, compelling, and the film ends with Lesra
"coming home" to face the things that have changed, as well as those that remain.

The Journey of Lesra Martin is but one arrow in a quiver full of interesting projects that Cheryl Foggo has undertaken.
One of the others is Pourin' Down Rain, a family memoir outlining Foggo's own multiracial heritage. It's a heritage
that incorporates Native American, African and European elements, and which geographically pulls in Bermuda, Oklahoma,
and Alberta, Canada, where her forebears established the northernmost Black community in the world in the early 20th Century.

Every Little Thing #9

Their best shots
UK photographer to organize summer programme for inner-city youth
by Michael A Edwards Entertainment Editor
Sunday, March 05, 2006

Being exposed to the harsh realities of inner- city life in Jamaica, its easy to believe that the youth in
these communities have little to offer, and that their choices are limited to either a gun or a microphone.
But one British photographer, is aiming to get more inner city kids used to another object: a camera.

David Gill is a freelance photo-journalist, who has visited Jamaica several times, and has done assignemtns here
for the likes of Puma and VP Records. "I know it sounds horribly cliched, but I fell in love with the place,"
he recounts to Sunday Observer.

But its not the fairytales and moonbeams, idyllic country roads kind of love affair. Gill's previous assignments
include teaching tsunami-affected children the joys of photojournalism in Sri Lanka, chasing round the mountains
of Morroco hunting West African migrants on the run, and being "embedded" with the

Black Watch ops team and the Bomb Squad in Iraq.
And whether its football in Arnett Gardens, or a local dance in Spanish Town, Gill is every bit as fascinated by
Jamaican inner cities as he is with the other exotic locales.

So much so that, through an organization called Wee Fi' Life, based in London, Gill is aiming to do something about
the situation.
"What we envisage is an eight-week workshop, sometime in July, where we take some of the kids, teach them photography
, and then at the end of the period, rather than just have a static exhibition, which most of them won't relate to
anyway, we're going to give them the opportunity to become published photographers."
Photos by photo-journalist David Gill

To that end, Gill has secured the co-operation of UK-based style and imaging magazine Plastic Rhino (total readership,
as per its website: 50,000), which plans to run a special pictorial on the works of the young photogs. A similar document,
entitled No Place Like Home, was produced after the Sri Lanka tsunami experience.

Gill is working along with a number of vouluntary groups in putting the project together, including Children First,
Upliftment Jamaica and S-Corner. These organizations, he says, "are doing tremendous work, and it is good to have their
support. The whole welcome has been fantastic and its starting to come together really well."

Every Little Thing # 7 of 10

Michael Grant's Daylight Come

Portrait of a generation: Michael Grant's novel Daylight Come
Michael A Edwards Entertainment Editor
Sunday, April 02, 2006

For the average Jamaican today, in a population largely under age 40, the thought of Jamaica during the WWII years
is near impossible to conjure up: food and gas rations, young men going off to aid the war effort on behalf of the
Empire, all this as the then colony lurched toward self-determination.
Michael A Grant is an advertising executive and lecturer in Advertising and Visual Communication at UWI.

Add to that the growing contest between American and British interests in the Caribbean, which were intensified during
the war as well as in its immediate aftermath, and one has the ingredients of a compelling and little told story.

It is that story, or his own approximation of it, that marketing executive and designer Michael Grant seeks to tell in
his book, Daylight Come. Grant, a child of the Independence period, presents an engaging portrait of the generation that
predeced his, as symbolised by the protagonist, Peter 'Pico' Campbell.

The reader first sees Campbell in two extremes, as a young promising athlete, and then in a 'flash-forward' as an aging
picaresque, hardened by drink and the ravages of his wartime experiences but still holding on, beneath the cynicism to
some vestigal thoughts of his own prowess (both sporting and sexual).

Part wartime suspense thriller, part social studies treatise, part character sketch Daylight evolved out of the author's
mutlifaceted literary and historical interests "I was always drawn more to cultural history than political history," Grant
says in explaining the novel. "My father was a young boy at the height of WWII and I was fascinated about what Jamaican life
would have been like during that time."

For Grant, there is an extent to which characters like 'Pico' Campbell write themselves. "What I sought to do with this story
is to plug an ordinary Jamaican - but one with a burning desire to get out of Jamaica, as indeed many of us have - and place
him in a fanciful situation and have him work his way through it."

Though the book is published on his own Great House Publishing imprint, Grant rebuffs any thought of it being a mere vanity
exercise; "What self-publishing did was give me a greater measure of control, but also a greater measure of responsibility.
I still had it edited and read professionally, and I had friends who were agents that I showed it to who graciously gave me
their unbiased feedback and recommendations.

As a 'Jamerican' (he was educated at top-tier schools in the US and worked in the media and communications indutries in
New York City), Grant believes that Jamaicans and Black Americans should enjoy closer relationships. "There's kind of a
distance, a kind of stand-off that I've observed and it shouldn't be that way. Some of the circumstances may have been
different, but culturally, we have a lot in common."

Daylight Come, in the mold of the folk song that informs its title, is a reflection on a time when, as Grant explains,
the society was less jaded, indeed more innocent than it is today.

His current project cuts across a number of time periods. It is a book about notable Jamaican men, called Changemakers,
along with well-known photographer Peter Ferguson.

Of his own decision, to leave the world of Madison Avenue and writing assignments with the likes of the Wall Street Journal
and the New York Times, to return home, Grant offers this explanation, "I understand what obtains here and I understood that
there was and is a cost to my decision, but I really believed it was time to come home. There is a point at which you can be
making money, but losing value."