Engaging, exciting, informative–words used by participants to describe the Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan and Jazz Festival (TTSJF) annual series of Developmental Workshops for Young Musicians.
An instructive accompaniment to its concert programme, these free workshops provide opportunities for young musicians to improve their craft by observing the refined techniques of, and listening to the discerning advice dispensed by professional musicians from abroad and at home.
Sponsored by First Citizens Bank, the TTSJF 2010 workshops run from October 26-29 and are facilitated by acclaimed keyboardist Jeremy Ledbetter, and award winning trumpeter, Alexis Bar�.
Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, and classically trained as a musician, Bar� moved to Toronto in January 2001.
Since then, he has performed live and recorded with Andrea Bocelli, Paquito D'Riviera, Jon Secada, David Foster and Hilario Duran among others.Bar� was voted Canada's National Jazz Awards' "Best Trumpet Player" in 2004. He opened recently for Herbie Hancock at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. A versatile writer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Jeremy Ledbetter grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, and was classically trained on the piano from age seven.
He completed a degree in jazz performance at York University, Toronto and also studied the steel pan at UWI, St Augustine.
Ledbetter has lived and worked in Australia, Cuba, the USA, and Nicaragua; he founded CaneFire in 2005 as a vehicle for incorporating the various Caribbean and Latin sounds that influence his music.
Ledbetter describes the TTSJF workshops, as crucial to stimulating the natural musical talent that abounds in T&T.
"The workshops aim to expose young musicians to a very high level of musicianship, and kinds of music that they may not see all that often, like jazz for example," said Ledbetter.
"During the workshop students have an opportunity to interact with professional musicians from T&T and abroad, to see how jazz and blues relate to more familiar genres like calypso and soca."
Previous workshop facilitators include Trinidad born, internationally acclaimed bassist David "Happy" Williams; steel pan virtuoso Robert Greenidge; veteran drummer Louis Hayes and US jazz vibraphonist Joe Baione.
"Each lead facilitator is an international professional performer and teacher who brings a different expressive style and development focus to the workshops," said Mortimer Baptiste, of the Festival's production team.
"Our expectation is that many of the participants will be influenced to pursue excellence in their chosen musical medium–voice, horn, percussion etc–and to develop an appreciation of jazz and other genres that are little exposed by mainstream media."
Local pan talent Natasha Joseph, who arranges for Tobago's Carib Dixieland Steelband, will assist Ledbetter and Bar� with this year's workshops.Last September she was a special guest performer at Fall Into Jazz: Kim Waters in Concert at the impressive Schwartz Centre for the Arts in Delaware, USA. Joseph also led a workshop for more than 350 students.
