Versatility may be a big word in spelling but its meaning is simple. It really just means, according to Oxford, “the ability to be used for many different things.”
Perhaps “adaptability” would have been a better phrase for CAL Invaders to use to brand its August 22 Versatility concert at Lord Kitchener Auditorium, Napa, Port-of-Spain.
Being the devil’s advocate here, the show didn’t demonstrate that the national instrument could be used for different things but certainly showed the instrument’s adaptability to enjoin any genre of music, or accompany any performance discipline.
What Invaders did show was the versatility of its guest performers as well. For instance, Invaders pan player Enock “Tiny” Lewis laid aside his pan sticks and took up his alto sax and performed a pore-raising interpretation of George Michael’s Careless Whisper.
As he played I wondered where has this musician been all this time? I foresee good things are in store for Lewis.
Then, there was Karen Eccles of Invaders, also one of this country’s popular female calypsonians, turning gospel singer and turning the auditorium upside down with a gospel medley and getting one of the evening’s most tumultuous ovations.
Also standing out on the night was Bishop Anstey High School Choir. Performing a “quadlibet” of I Believe and Ave Maria, under the astute direction of Lorraine Granderson, short in stature but tall in musical acumen and accomplishment.
What the audience got was a titbit of what this choir thrilled audiences with during its just concluded concert tour of South Africa.
Invaders is blessed with truly talented musicians and this was very evident in the soloing of 13-year-old wunderkind Luke Walker, Jason Ho, Jamal Gibbs, Anthony Phillip, Richard Bentham, Atiya O’Neil and of course the band’s musical director Arddin Herbert, winning soloist of the 1987 School Steelband Festival—Ten Thousand Flowers Bloom—and member of champion band WoodTrin.
Invaders also showed indications of longevity through the performance of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No 5 in F# Minor by its youth steel orchestra, conducted by young Joanna Shortt, and its accompaniment of nine-year-old calypsonian Aaron Duncan, rendering Machel Montano’s I Love My Country.
While all the guest performers shone on the night, guest conductor Ben Jackson was outstanding as he led the orchestra in the playing of Vittorio Monti’s Czardas, a traditional 18th century Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from csárda (old Hungarian term for tavern).
In terms of classical music, Jackson has pedigree, as, like Herbert, was nurtured in pan from childhood. Among his accomplishments is taking Success Stars and Skiffle to winner’s row in senior and junior steelband music festivals.
As Invaders performed the piece I wondered if Jackson would do, as he did in the 80s in a music festival final in Jean Pierre Complex, run off the conductor’s podium, into the audience to signal the climax of the selection.
But, he maintained his composure, ending with his trademark flourish atop the podium.
Kudos must go to Invaders for staging a near-perfect production. Members of the production team included the band’s music co-ordinator Desiree Myers; manager Michael Dinchong; PRO Elizabeth Namsoo; and, Herbert, music director.
Except for one little lull when the junior orchestra had to be replaced by the senior musicians, stage manager Sydney Callender ran an almost seamless show.