JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Studio Jay’s Glittering Stars

by

Wesley Gibbings
2509 days ago
20180630

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.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

A model in a costume from The Lost Tribe’s 2026 presentation Island Circus

KERWIN PIERRE

Ringmasters of the Road: Crowds flock to Tribe’s circus-themed band launch

7 hours ago
Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Students, principal and staff of St David’s RC Primary, along with the UWTT and Scotiabank Foundation teams at the handover of steelpans at the school.

Scotiabank Foundation, United Way donate steelpans

7 hours ago
The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday