Aba A Luke

It's on! The race has be­gun and the adren­a­line is pump­ing, if not in your house, cer­tain­ly at ra­dio sta­tions across the is­land. This year our twin is­land will cel­e­brate ap­prox­i­mate­ly 173 years of Car­ni­val. Ac­cord­ing to Tu­co in­ter­im pres­i­dent, Lu­ta­lo "Broth­er Re­sis­tance" Masim­ba, the time span should be cal­cu­lat­ed from the year of com­plete eman­ci­pa­tion, 1838, to Car­ni­val March 7, 2011.

Con­tenders for the road

In 2011, the mu­sic of the sea­son is vi­brant, some quite rem­i­nis­cent of the old days-among them, Ben­jai's Tri­ni and Wine To The Side. Strange enough, these two songs, while filled with the vibe of tra­di­tion­al ca­lyp­so, are at the top of the list of pos­si­ble Road March win­ners. Some may say it's too ear­ly to judge, a sen­ti­ment ex­pressed by Broth­er Re­sis­tance, who high­light­ed that the mu­sic this year was re­al­ly good and he would con­tin­ue to lis­ten for more to come. Oth­ers, how­ev­er have placed their stamps of ap­proval on hits that have emerged from some of the is­land's top so­ca artistes, among them Fay Ann Lyons, Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter, and Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller.

The on-air crew have their say

A quick chat with mas­ter of the old school, Howie Tee, placed Ben­jai's Tri­ni up top. He said it wouldn't be strange if some­thing as slow as Tri­ni copped the Road March in 2011. "Stranger from Shad­ow won it in 2001-that's the most re­cent slow Road March," af­firmed Howie. Boom­cham­pi­ons dri­ve-time pre­sen­ter, Kevin Bak­er, went with Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter's Over and Over, main­tain­ing though that the sea­son was still ear­ly. "All I'm hear­ing right now, be­sides Shur­wayne's song are Pow­er Monarch con­tenders," he said. From the all-so­ca sta­tion, Trini­bash­ment 91.9FM, Se­lec­tor Bris­tow ac­knowl­edged that Fay Ann Lyons' Con­sid­er It Done, was his num­ber one so far. An­oth­er on-air ra­dio DJ, John Boy of Red96.7FM en­dorsed Ben­jai's Tri­ni, say­ing, "If the of­fi­cial choice was to be made to­mor­row, I'd go with Tri­ni. We could take a chip this year," he laughed. Chris Seon al­so agreed with Howie Tee and John Boy, in­di­cat­ing that his top tune so far for the road was Ben­jai's Tri­ni. An­oth­er DJ, Mag­nif­i­cent Sounds of the Ra­dio­vi­sion net­work, said, "Shur­wayne's song is built for the stage." He made it abun­dant­ly clear that Over and Over was his favourite for the road in 2K11.

Mas­querad­ing women call for Fay Ann

On the street, the vibe of Car­ni­val is slow­ly pick­ing up. The peo­ple are prepar­ing for big fetes like WASA, which takes place on Jan­u­ary 29; Li­cens­ing on Feb­ru­ary 12; and the big one, Army Fete on Feb­ru­ary 25, but even as they pre­pare to head to the events, they al­ready know who they're an­tic­i­pat­ing most. San­ta Cruz-based mas­quer­ad­er, Patrice Al­fred, said she would pa­rade on the streets to Fay Ann's Con­sid­er It Done, while Kees' Wot­less was the top pick for moth­er of two, Joanne Joseph. Solange Fletch­er, who's prepar­ing to play mas with Yu­ma in 2011, said her pick for the road would have to be Fay Ann's Con­sid­er It Done, so far. The race is def­i­nite­ly on and the peo­ple are talk­ing. What's left to be seen, how­ev­er, is the vibe felt with­in the fetes. A re­cent re­lease from so­ca di­va De­stra Gar­cia en­ti­tled, Wel­come Back, and an­oth­er mon­ster track from Pelf called, Dusty, are al­ready cre­at­ing a stir. With Jan­u­ary quick­ly com­ing to an end, there's much to an­tic­i­pate as the count­down con­tin­ues to C2K11. Stay tuned.