Studio Jay Recording, under the leadership of prolific music composer/arranger/producer Jason Dasent, took a cast of new, emerging talent performing mainly 30-something year old music to MovieTowne’s Fiesta Plaza last Saturday and the stage there glowed in glittery, enjoyable ways.
Young Tracey Gopichan and Jillia Cato, for example, are outstanding talents currently under Studio Jay mentorship. They could have stayed on stage all night as the studio also celebrated 18 years in the business.
The team of entertainers performed a combination of original tracks along with a selection of pop standards to the accompaniment of the band Overdrive comprising Dasent and Richard Ahong on the keys and Richard Millien on drums. On background vocals were Lisette Khan, Candice Corbie and Neisha Smith.
Midway into the programme, music composer/arranger/performer extraordinaire, Pelham Goddard, joined the fray on the keyboard for a David Rudder medley with Dasent and the singers.
The evening opened with operatic tenor Raymond Edwards’s pitch-perfect renditions of Al Jarreau’s Morning and Earth Wind and Fire’s After the Love is Gone. The growing crowd wanted more. And they got more, though not from the popular singer/broadcaster.
The Rudder medley was followed by original music from Gopichan and Cato together with the now familiar face and voice of Aaron Ifill and Peruvian songstress Juriem Lavalle, who is well known by the local Salsa crowd.
Smith then moved from her role in the background for two superb solos on Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend and Rita Coolidge’s We’re All Alone.
Dasent, who is visually-impaired, flirted with the audience by suggesting that, unlike Stevie Wonder, he could not sing. He then promptly attempted a few lines before Ifill appeared on stage to render his interpretation of the timeless hit, Lately.
Gopichan returned to the stage and was dared by Dasent to reach the late Minnie Riperton’s high whistle register on Lovin’ You. Gopichan did not quite get there, but she sure tried, before launching into far less challenging Eternal Flame made popular in the 1980s by The Bangles.
Cato also returned up front with Janet Jackson’s Let’s Wait a While. This paved the way for a lively version of Camila Cabello’s Havana from Lavalle.
Committed to a lively end, Cato returned with Bruno Mars’ 24K Love and Ifill closed off the set with Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster.
Studio Jay now has in its stable some of the country’s emerging musical lights. Nailah Blackman, for example, was one star of the studio’s DiscoverMe project. She was DiscoverMe’s Artist of the Month in August 2016. In June, she was nominated for a BET award in the Best New International Act category.
Dasent suggested on the evening that there is more where that came from. The June 23 performances at Fiesta Plaza enhanced the credibility of such a claim.