Island Beats Super Concert on tomorrow

THE ever-evolving music of the Caribbean diverse, full of vibes and echoing a spirit of a people will be on show tomorrow night at the Island Beats Super Concert.

That is why the organisers of the concert chose to represent most music of the Caribbean with a range of artists from different countries as part of the “big bang” for Carifesta XIV’s penultimate day.

Ian Pantin, event co-ordinator for Island Beats, said, “The name was chosen as the beats of all the islands. We tried to incorporate all aspects of the music from the Caribbean.”

The show, on Saturday at the Queen’s Park Savannah from 7 pm to 3 am, will feature acts such as Grammy-award-winning singer Shaggy and world-renowned French Caribbean zouk band Kassav’. TT’s own Machel Montano will headline the concert.

Zouk is a traditional French Caribbean folk music. With more than 20 albums, Kassav’ was formed in Guadeloupe in 1979, and helped introduce the world to fast-paced carnival zouk style music. Its current band members are Jocelyne Béroard, Jacob Desvarieux, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Jean-Claude Naimro and Georges Décimus. It’s been more than a decade since Kassav’ has performed on TT’s stage.

Shaggy will represent Jamaica for both dancehall and reggae music. He has won two Grammy awards for Best Reggae Album in 1996 for Boombastic and 2019 for 44/876. The last time Shaggy performed in TT was in 2013, with Sean Paul and Jay Sean. Some of his biggest hits were, It Wasn’t Me, Angel and Keep’n it Real. This year’s Road Mach champion, Montano, will close the show with his full band. Montano, who has won Road March ten times, will represent soca and the power the art form brings to the Caribbean.

The show opens with with Blaxx and the All Star Band, featuring Ricardo Drue.

As Antigua and Barbuda will be hosting the next Carifesta in two years, Drue, who sang Vagabond, Rum Again and The Teacher, is representing Antigua.

Allison Hinds from Barbados will also be one of the regional acts.

“We could not get everyone in from the Caribbean because they are all on tour, so they would be the highlight of it,” Pantin said.

Calypso Rose, the first woman to win Calypso Monarch, and dubbed the Queen of Calypso, will represent calypso music and Nailah Blackman and Voice the younger generation of soca stars.

Chutney and soca chutney are genres that are not just popular in TT, but other Caribbean countries with East Indian populations such as Suriname and Guyana. Chutney Soca Monarch winners Rikki Jai, Nishard Mayrhoo and Neval Chatelal will share a one-hour-15-minute set on stage.

Pantin promises Island Beats will be a spectacular show filled with live music.

He said ticket sales have been steady and encouraged people to get theirs as soon as possible.