Being of sound mind and body, yet not being in the Carnival spirit was slightly perplexing to me until last night – when we went to the 3 Canal show Vibes It Up at the intimate Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook. Christmas is barely out the door when most Carnival enthusiasts start “catching the fever” – but as the festival has, in recent times, become more commercialized and less creative, Carnival (at least for me) begins with the 3 Canal show.
Like any good tradition, there is the familiar – the Greek Chorus-like comments from the Jamettes, the inclusion of well loved guest artistes like Shaft and Black Lyrics. But this year’s offering also inlcuded what modern Carnival now lacks – a sense of the unexpected, a clever twist on a theme, that little “something extra” that the businessmen of mas’ making mistakenly believe they offer via limitless access to free drinks, which really, after a while, only serves to dull your senses to what the real experience is supposed to be – life, joy, living in the moment!
3 Canal has all that covered with their contagious vibes, seamlessly brought together by the addition of the Cut + Clear Crew, the trio’s tight and amazingly talented backup band. The live music makes all the difference to the group’s performance – they are able to play around a lot more with the timing, mood and pace of some of their staples – Piti Pata, Ben Lion and Talk Yuh Talk were all made new.
The theme of this year’s show was inspired by the qualification of T&T’s Soca Warriors for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the whole feel was reminiscent of that energy – an easy jam in some parts, an intense attack in others, but always a united team effort.
I remember hearing a comment from an audience member at last year’s show: “But it’s no different from the year before!” I beg to differ. It’s always different. Some of us, happily wolfing down the fodder dished out by our radio stations, have a bad habit of listening to local music only at Carnival – and when we do, we only pay attention to offerings from that particular year. But good music has a way longer shelf life than that. If I attended a U2 concert tomorrow, I certainly wouldn’t expect to hear only tracks from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. So why is it that when our boys play their classics, it’s criticized as being “no diffferent” – especially when their new tracks make just as much of an impact and the message is often given a new context in the ever-deepening mire of “Trickidad”?
The difference is, perhaps, that many of us hear without listening – and miss the fresh angle, the hidden meaning, the endless possibility, the criticism and the optimism, the je ne sais quoi that made my husband remark at the end of the show, “This is a great place to live.”
[...] Carnival-related blogging heated up in early February. Caribbean Free Photo posted images from the Phase II Pan Groove panyard, and photographer Stefan Falke paid a visit to the Kilimanjaro moko jumbie (stilt-walker) school. Francomenz wrote about an exhibition of Carnival masks by veteran masman Wayne Berkeley, but also about noise pollution from Carnival parties, a huge frustration for people living near to popular fete venues. She finally caught the Carnival “vibe” at a performance of the 3Canal show. Attillah Springer had previously blogged about sitting in on one of the rehearsals; Caribbean Free Photo posted a full set of images of the opening night performance at Flickr; and I was struck by the Canals’ attempt to link the message of their protest songs to the tradition of Carnival “resistance”. [...]
what about word sounds and power, how u thought they were? I went to the show and I found it was great!
Yeah, they were very good as well. All in all, an excellent show.
[...] My time spent here so far has been anything, but quiet and uneventful. Over the past two days my ears have taken in so much Soca, Calypso, Soca-Chutney, Rapso, and various other forms of the two main genres. With two more weeks remaining on this trip it is guaranteed I’ll know every single song by heart. My first real dive into an unknown was an evening spent at the Little Carib Theatre for the Vibes It Up show featuring popular Rapso group 3canal. Rapso is the mixture of island Calypso in its slower and traditional form with today’s urban up tempo Rap music. Fueled by personal experiences and political issues in Trinidad & Tobago the group accompanied by their band, the comical Jamettes and a handful of other artists kept the night moving despite the blaring music seeping into the venue from a fete next door. As an outsider looking in, I felt the show was interesting and filled with a range of talented artists, but prefer regular Calypso’s over Rapso. (For a perspective other than my own and from someone who seems to follow their music regularly I suggest visiting this Francomenz site.) [...]