SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­san­dral@ya­hoo.com

Un­der the dis­tin­guished pa­tron­age of the Prime Min­is­ter, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, the aus­pi­cious con­cert, A Mu­si­cal Evening with Lord Nel­son, will be held in ho­n­our of Nel­son on Ju­ly 30, 2022 at 7:30pm at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, Port of Spain as host­ed by The Friends of Lord Nel­son.

Not­ed for his spir­it­ed per­for­mances and match­ing garbs from head to toe, Lord Nel­son will be 91 on Ju­ly 29, and the Friends, es­tab­lished in 2019 aim to keep him singing for a very long time to come.

Shar­ing stage with Nel­son will be De­von Seales, Os­car B, Ron­nie McIn­tosh, and Sig­nal Hill Alum­ni Choir, with mu­si­cal ac­com­pa­ni­ment by Er­rol Ince Mu­sic Mak­ers Or­ches­tra.

Flu­ent in Por­tuguese and Span­ish, Seales is said to have cut his ca­lyp­so teeth in the year 1988 at the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion and the Ju­nior Rov­ing Ca­lyp­so Tent, where he was classed as an out­stand­ing mem­ber. He ac­quired his mu­si­cal skills from Es­ther Bat­son, and the mas­ter vi­o­lin­ist, pi­anist and pan­nist, was a clas­si­cal singer and al­so lead singer in the Melville Memo­r­i­al Trin­i­ty Boys Choir.

Among his tiers of ac­com­plish­ments, Seales is a for­mer na­tion­al ca­lyp­so monarch and holds a BSc in com­put­er sci­ence and an MBA with spe­cial­i­sa­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nance (dis­tinc­tion).

Mas pro­duc­er and artiste McIn­tosh, be­gan his singing ca­reer at age sev­en, and sits with a na­tion­al so­ca monarch ti­tle from one of his in­fec­tious tunes, On the Road. Oth­er hits in­clude Whoa Don­key, Ent, As long As I Get It, Hap­py, Shak­ing It and Do What You Want.

To­ba­go na­tive Os­car B (Os­car Den­nis Ben­jamin) de­vel­oped from pre­teen singing sen­sa­tion to front­man for the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-fa­mous, Ja­maican mu­si­cal out­fit By­ron Lee and the Drag­o­naires. He pleased au­di­ences with tunes such as Brassline, So­ca But­ter­fly, Rag­ga So­ca, Go Down Low, and So­ca Tat­tie span­ning his So­ca, Ska and Reg­gae gen­res. He sits among the first artistes to have blend­ed so­ca and dance­hall. In an at­tempt to as­sist so­ca re­main rel­e­vant, ap­peal­ing­ly evolve, and grow, Os­car B fer­vent­ly worked with chil­dren and or­gan­i­sa­tions, and promised him­self to be one of the con­duits to take so­ca/lo­cal cul­ture to the widest points of the world.

The Sig­nal Hill Alum­ni Choir was es­tab­lished in Feb­ru­ary 1981, and opened them­selves to the world as “a dy­nam­ic group that presents in­ter­est­ing arrange­ments, eye catch­ing chore­og­ra­phy and sub­tle har­mo­niza­tion.” They were de­vel­oped out of the Sig­nal Hill Com­pre­hen­sive (Sec­ondary) School Folk Choir of past stu­dents and friends.

The choir has un­der its belt the Louis Blanche Fras­er Cup for the Best Folk Choir, 20 singers and un­der; the San Fer­nan­do Chorale Tro­phy for the Best Folk Mas; the Sir Ed­ward Beetham Shield for the Best Folk Song Choir (over 20 singers) and the Olive Walke Memo­r­i­al Tro­phy for the Most Out­stand­ing Choir in the en­tire fes­ti­val.

Known for mes­meris­ing in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ences, the cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tion of T&T launched its first-ever al­bum, Xmas Com­ing, in 1987, mak­ing way for their Xmas Com­ing se­quel (cas­sette al­bum), and in 1992, Sea­sons por­trayed moods of typ­i­cal Caribbean fes­tiv­i­ties and tra­di­tions. Pre­serv­ing their na­tion­al Hum­ming­bird (Gold) award, the choir is said to be a trib­ute to To­ba­go, its peo­ple, its cul­ture and “all those who were pre­pared to pay the price of progress.”

Pow­ered by the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, NL­CB, Caribbean Air­lines and Carib Brew­ery; part pro­ceeds of the event will go to Lord Nel­son.