Nigel A Camp­bell

There is some­thing re­fresh­ing in the prospect that live mu­sic pro­mo­tion in Trinidad is see­ing a re­nais­sance and en­er­gy, not nec­es­sar­i­ly from the same old hands, but by a new cadre of en­tre­pre­neurs with a pas­sion and de­sire to break the next big thing. The next big thing in my es­ti­ma­tion is the singer-song­writer NOT singing ca­lyp­so. New Fire, a con­cert se­ries cre­at­ed by Ger­ry An­tho­ny at the Nu Pub is do­ing just that.

On Thurs­day night, a spe­cial event in the se­ries, We Are New Fire–a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the TT Film Fes­ti­val–show­cased some of the most gift­ed singer-song­writ­ers in a sol­id two-hour show of un­plugged va­ri­ety and ver­sa­til­i­ty.

That show fea­tured the new age folk of Sol­man, the acoustic di­va Gillian Moor with her new band Bush Tea Par­ty and roots rock band Gyazette front­man and re­nais­sance man (ac­tor, singer, painter) Nick­o­lai Sal­cedo in tan­dem per­for­mances by lo­cal rock main­stays Or­ange Sky and Joint­pop. And, as if that was not enough, neo-folk stars Free­town Col­lec­tive and Marge Black­man and hip-hop so­lil­o­quist, St Ans left in­deli­ble im­pres­sions that the art of the word with mu­sic is in good hands, and ripe for com­mer­cial ap­peal.

The per­spec­tive of the cre­ative in­dus­try en­tre­pre­neur is not to be ig­nored as pro­mot­er Ger­ry An­tho­ny out­lined the syn­er­gy be­tween him as pro­mot­er and the artistes to­ward a com­mer­cial goal of wider ex­po­sure of lo­cal mu­sic that does not get reg­u­lar ra­dio air­play: "We have to work to­geth­er to get this mu­sic out there. And tonight, these artistes were asked to give of their time and ef­fort pro bono to make this hap­pen."

De­spite what was clear­ly pop­u­lar and pop­ulist mu­sic and songs be­ing per­formed that night in the packed Nu Pub, the con­tin­ued "ra­dio si­lence" to these genre forms out­side of ca­lyp­so, so­ca, chut­ney for lo­cal con­tent as­tounds.

Sol­man per­me­ates a sin­cere spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and world­li­ness with­out be­ing faux in his songs and pres­ence: a bare­foot hip­pie, for re­al. Gillian Moor dash­es tech­nique for sin­cer­i­ty in her vi­sion and songs of em­pow­er­ment. I call her the acoustic di­va, pi­o­neer­ing un­plugged per­for­mances with her Song­shine se­ries in the ear­ly 2000s. Nick­o­lai Sale­do ad­mit­ted that he was now a "wise" man, shed­ding his an­gry man sneer and pos­ture fronting Gyazette. Two beau­ti­ful­ly ren­dered songs that sug­gest­ed a ma­tur­ing of songcraft proved that point.

Marge Black­man is the daugh­ter of so­ca cre­ator, Ras Shorty I, and rep­re­sents in per­fect sym­me­try the ideals of what he was said to be think­ing at so­ca's cre­ation. Her use of tabla and con­gas to fu­el her ex­cel­lent set was that fu­sion of rhythms and as some say, cul­tures that res­onat­ed un­der a folk-pop sound that was bal­anced with her pure voice and ring­ing gui­tar. Her bois­ter­ous fans that night in­clud­ed ca­lyp­so re­searcher Ray Funk and fol­low-up act Or­ange Sky, who opened their set with a short trib­ute to ail­ing Black Stal­in by ren­der­ing Black Man Feel­in To Par­ty with just gui­tars and voice.

The Ro­jas broth­ers along with Dax Carter on lead elec­tric gui­tar trans­formed an en­gaged crowd in­to a scream­ing herd. Their an­them Re­al Love woke a spir­it, a jumbie, a voice. Rap­per, St Ans had a unique po­si­tion on the show as the on­ly act per­form­ing to tracks, but for the keen lis­ten­er, the words were all that mat­tered. His song Third World Prob­lems was both lo­cal and glob­al in lyri­cal con­tent, and showed a deft touch at rhymes, rhythms and opin­ions that are cut­ting.

Joint­pop rep­re­sents an idea that to per­se­vere in the mu­sic busi­ness here in these is­lands, you have to per­se­vere. Clos­ing in on two decades in the busi­ness un­der this name, Gary Hec­tor and com­pa­ny rev­elled in har­monies that re­mind­ed one of The Bea­t­les and lyrics that re­mind­ed one that they take no pris­on­ers. De­but­ing new mu­sic, the crowd sing along stat­ed that their longevi­ty is se­cure. "You know what you know, and if it is good, you stick with it."

Neo-folk stars Free­town Col­lec­tive closed the show, and in their short time have built a loy­al fan base that speaks to the idea that there is mer­it in con­tin­u­ing with these show­cas­es of "al­ter­na­tive mu­sic" in these icon­ic venues. New au­di­ences were made with the blend of the var­i­ous acts' fan­bas­es, and the com­mer­cial pos­si­bil­i­ties in­her­ent there from are grist for the mill. Bra­vo!