The Carnival Culture in the Park series at Opera Holland Park is now in its fourth year. Trooping off to this superb tent-like venue has become an established part of the carnival connoisseur’s ritual preparation for Notting Hill’s annual bacchanal. Where better to spend a perfect summer evening, mingling with good friends, listening to the music we love and, for some at least, enjoying a chilled glass of wine or a drop of spiced rum?
CCP 2024 encompasses youth steelbands, samba and calypso. On Friday 16 August it was the turn of ‘pan-jazz’, a catch-all term for an eclectic mix of musical styles. The concept is simple: a solo pannist (this year all were female) accompanied by a superb band. That friend to purveyors of stylish shirts, Martin Jay, was our host for the evening.
The band’s intro gave us a taste of the quality to come before steelpan talent, in the glittering form of Carlene ‘Sweet Wrists’ Etienne, made her entrance. Her opening slow jazz number was followed by a lively rendition of David Rudder’s High Mas, evoking memories of the Master’s unforgettable performance at this venue a couple of years ago.
Siobhan Mitchell’s skills turned her single pan into an entire orchestra, the notes falling sweetly like a summer rain shower. In her second number, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, the pan brought new vitality to what otherwise might have been slightly soporific dinner-jazz. After each performance, Martin Jay had a few words with the pannist, but it took an emotional turn as Siobhan paid tribute to her old teacher Alfred (Freddy) Totesaut, who passed away recently.
If Nightingale is broadly what you’d expect from pan-jazz, Romaya definitely stretched the concept in unexpected and exciting ways. The 18-year-old’s two self-penned compositions fused gentle and clearly enunciated rap/hip hop vocals and danceable beats with steelpan. After her second song, Picture Perfect, she revealed that she’s captain of New Generation Steelband, which was founded by her mother.
The irrepressible Delphina James brought another change of musical gear, creating a deep, soulful, almost orchestral sound for All of Me. That was followed by her own composition, dedicated to her Nigerian husband: Obeoma, meaning ‘happiness’ in the Ibo language, went at a cracking pace and generated some audience participation.
Trinidadian diva Anne Fridal made the brave decision to combine jazz and operatic styles. When she turns on full power, her soprano voice lifts the audience out of their seats, but the transitions to the lower, smokier jazz style in numbers like Lullaby of Birdland and All of Me were less successful.
To close the show, self-confessed Michael Jackson fan Deborah ‘Pan Diva’ Eden, resplendent in a full-length sparkly red gown, launched into Billie Jean. After slowing down the pace for her second number – her consummate pan playing beautifully complemented by the band’s excellent horn man – she got the audience on its feet for Arrow’s evergreen Long Time.
In the words of the late, great Alphonsus Cassell: “When last yuh went to party and de music grip you? Oh, oh! Long time!”
