It was stand­ing room on­ly as those in the packed cul­tur­al space at Ather­ly’s, op­po­site Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, last Sun­day, were treat­ed to per­for­mances by some of T&T’s world-class artistes.

The evening’s en­ter­tain­ment be­gan with pan­nist, arranger and founder of Fu­sion Steel Or­ches­tra Dar­ren Shep­pard per­form­ing some clas­sics in­clud­ing mu­sic from Grover Wash­ing­ton Jr, George Ben­son and David Rud­der. His fi­nal piece, this Car­ni­val’s in­fec­tious Long time by Na­dia Bat­son, had the au­di­ence danc­ing and in full voice and set the stage for the evening.

The cozy venue was al­most filled by then and the en­try of ace sax­o­phon­ist Fran­cis Prime added to the al­ready mu­si­cal­ly charged at­mos­phere. The renowned sax wiz­ard left the au­di­ence spell­bound with his clean, mov­ing and well ex­e­cut­ed ren­di­tions as he shift­ed from one sax to an­oth­er.

Su­perbly tal­ent­ed yet hum­ble, he had the au­di­ence break­ing out in­to spon­ta­neous ap­plause as he ca­ressed each note with a sparkling fi­nesse and in­ter­act­ed with the mu­si­cal faith­ful be­tween se­lec­tions. It was Prime’s ren­di­tion of his Scout­ing for Tal­ent win­ning se­lec­tion, A Whiter Shade of Pale, that brought down the house and when he tried to leave the stage the au­di­ence de­mand­ed more.

By in­ter­mis­sion, those in the now “stand­ing room on­ly” space would have in ex­cess of their mon­ey’s worth (in the words of some pa­trons) even as they tried to con­tain their ex­pec­ta­tion that the best was yet to come.

En­ter Queen of Caribbean Jazz Vaugh­nette Big­ford. Ac­com­pa­nied by lo­cal mas­ter jazz gui­tarist Theron Shaw, the “La Brea Gyal” as she is fond­ly known in some cir­cles, took the au­di­ence on a mem­o­rable mu­si­cal voy­age. She per­formed pieces from Ma­ma Africa—Miri­am Make­ba, Ras Shorty I, The Mighty Shad­ow, her pop­u­lar piece by Spar­row, No Mon­ey No Love, and more. It was a per­for­mance of breath-tak­ing ex­cel­lence as Big­ford shared the stage with Shaw do­ing some so­lo runs that stunned an al­ready elat­ed au­di­ence.

What was strik­ing about Big­ford’s per­for­mance was her “down to earth­ed­ness” and her abil­i­ty to so ca­su­al­ly in­ter­act with her au­di­ence. This woman of La Brea is the re­al deal. Not on­ly does she pos­sess a beau­ti­ful voice, but car­ries her­self with the grace and fi­nesse of a queen while keep­ing the com­mon touch.

The au­di­ence was primed and ready for the fi­nal per­for­mance by so­ca artiste and ra­dio an­nounc­er Tony Prescott. It not on­ly rep­re­sent­ed the ic­ing on the cake but a jour­ney to an­oth­er point of mu­si­cal ec­sta­sy. Tony P, as he is called, per­formed a reper­toire of so­ca and some back in time reg­gae that even­tu­al­ly had the en­tire au­di­ence danc­ing with joy and de­light. When he per­formed his ever­green All Aboard, Prescott had an en­thu­si­as­tic, adu­lat­ing au­di­ence as his danc­ing cho­rus group.

It was tru­ly an evening of ex­cel­lence that was su­perbly guid­ed by host Sue Ann Ben­gochea of WACK 90.1FM. Pro­mot­er Desmond Pe­ters and his very pro­fes­sion­al team, as well as the man­age­ment of Ather­ly’s, must be com­mend­ed on a mem­o­rable event, jazz, funk, so­ca and steel.