Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray

Over the past four years, a sol­id net­work of lo­cal artistes has band­ed to­geth­er to cre­ate spaces and op­por­tu­ni­ties to per­form, pro­mote and ex­pose their mu­sic to wider au­di­ences.

They call them­selves the Fringe Move­ment and they be­lieve in the pow­er of artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion of all lo­cal mu­si­cians and artistes to­ward build­ing a more in­clu­sive mu­sic scene.

One of the high­lights of their cal­en­dar year is the Af­ter Jazz Fringe Fes­ti­val, which takes place every year dur­ing the jazz sea­son in To­ba­go.

Shel­don Hold­er, front man for 12 The Band, one of the Fringe Move­ment or­gan­is­ers, said, "This is an ini­tia­tive be­ing un­der­tak­en by sev­er­al lo­cal artistes with a view to shar­ing their mu­sic with a dif­fer­ent, more in­ter­na­tion­al lis­ten­ing au­di­ence."

Be­fore the event in To­ba­go, the Fringe Move­ment pre­sent­ed its Af­ter Jazz FUNdrais­er 2 on April 17. Held at Bo­hemia on Mur­ray Street in Wood­brook, it fea­tured the neo-kaiso band West In­di­an Rhythm Kon­nec­tion (Wirk) and T&T hip hop artist Chro­mat­ics.

This year's fes­ti­val which takes place from April 25�27, starts at Mt Irvine Beach Fa­cil­i­ty with a free-to-the-pub­lic cool­er lime and acoustic jam by the mu­si­cians on the beach.

On April 26, the fes­ti­val's first night of per­for­mances will be at Bar Hop-In, fea­tur­ing the T&T bands Sol­man, Kin, Gyazette, singer/song­writer Jeff Wight and Chro­mat­ics.

On April 27, the fes­ti­val clos­es at pop­u­lar To­ba­go night­club The Shade and fea­tures the bands Wirk, Buzz Rock, R&B per­former John John and To­ba­go broth­ers Uku.

Ad­vance tick­ets for the shows cost $80 and are avail­able through Fringe Move­ment com­mit­tee mem­bers via Face­book. Tick­ets can al­so be pur­chased on­line at O2tick­et.com, or at the door.

Hold­er sees the fes­ti­val as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case the va­ri­ety of mu­sic bub­bling up on the edges of the T&T mu­sic world.

"The kind of mu­sic we are bring­ing to the To­ba­go res­i­dents, vis­i­tors and pa­trons of the Jazz Ex­pe­ri­ence is the best of Port-of-Spain's live mu­sic scene which takes place through­out the year and not just at Car­ni­val time."