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Friday, July 25, 2025

?Key­boardist daz­zles San­do Hill

Lord Kitchener's music on show

by

20091008

?Key­boardist/arranger Le­ston Paul's stun­ning ren­di­tion of Lord Kitch­en­er's Pan in A Mi­nor was, by far, the defin­ing mo­ment of the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed San Fer­nan­do Jazz Fes­ti­val which cel­e­brat­ed the mu­sic of The Grand­mas­ter Ald­wyn Roberts. Paul's show-stop­ping cli­max, as part of the Er­rol Ince Quin­tet's set, took the evening's pro­ceed­ings to yet an­oth­er lev­el. The fes­ti­val, up to the point of the Ince Quin­tet's ap­pear­ance on­stage, had al­ready achieved its stat­ed mis­sion of crys­tal­is­ing Kitch­en­er's worth and prowess as a com­pos­er of world-class pro­por­tions. From the open­ing act of Lord Su­pe­ri­or's Jan­u­ary Girls to Ray Hol­man's cere­bral treat­ment of Pan in Har­mo­ny, the sul­try voice of Vaugh­nette Big­ford-Grif­fiths, with bassist Dou­glas Re­don, scat­ting and glid­ing with lush au­thor­i­ty through the clas­sic The Car­ni­val Is Over (a la Cas­san­dra Wil­son), or the mas­tery of Ald­win Al­bi­no at the grand pi­ano giv­ing clas­si­cal treat­ment and colour to the Roberts canon, the 2009 Fes­ti­val de­liv­ered with style.

Wit­co Des­per­a­does, not to be out­done, gave pa­trons atop the scenic plateau of the San Fer­nan­do Hill a flaw­less set of Kitch­en­er's mu­sic for pan from the leg­endary steel or­ches­tra's col­lab­o­ra­tion with mae­stro Clive Bradley. But it was The Er­rol Ince Quin­tet, with a sur­prise ap­pear­ance by Ker­nal Roberts chan­nel­ing his fa­ther's an­tics and en­er­gy on 12 Bar Joan, that pulled all the el­e­ments and nu­ances of the fes­ti­val's stat­ed mis­sion to the fore. If there was one draw­back to the Ince set (and for that mat­ter all the pre­ced­ing acts,) it was over­play. The per­for­mances, while un­doubt­ed­ly en­joy­able, were a tad long. But, take noth­ing from Mr Ince and his group (Paul, key­boards; BJ Saun­ders, bass; Earl Car­ruth, sax­o­phone; Von­rick May­nard, drums.) From Quin­cy Jones' Killer Joe, Jo­bim's Girl from Ipane­ma, to Robert's Car­ni­val is Over, and Pan in A Mi­nor, the en­sem­ble (de­spite Car­ruth's oc­ca­sion­al tonal flaws,) were a de­light for jazz lovers. Sad­ly, by the end of Ince's set, around 12.30 am, the crowds had start­ed for the down­hill shut­tles and left the fi­nal act Raf Robert­son, fea­tur­ing sax­o­phon­ist Ar­turo Tap­pin, a sparse au­di­ence to close the 2009 fes­tiv­i­ties.

Robert­son, whose sem­i­nal CD–Branch­es–opened the doors for the ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the jazz side of Lord Kitch­en­er, played on de­spite this ob­vi­ous draw­back, culling from the Branch­es reper­toire such gems as Margie and Bad Im­pres­sion, show­ing why he is con­sid­ered a fore­most mu­si­cal au­thor­i­ty on Kitch.

More in­fo:

?For jazz lovers who may clam­our for an en­core or for those who may have missed the mag­ic on D Hill, The Er­rol Ince Quin­tet ap­pears this Sun­day, at 110 Jazz and Ca­lyp­so Lounge, cor­ner Cipero and Robert­son Streets,

San Fer­nan­do. Show­time is 7 pm and cov­er charge is $60. Reser­va­tions are rec­om­mend­ed. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion call 758-7090 or 653-9725.


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