An­geli Blood

Hav­ing al­ready treat­ed na­tion­als res­i­dent in Amer­i­ca's Light­ning City in re­cent years to the best of lo­cal mu­sic via the likes of Baron, Scrunter and Leon Coldero, Or­lan­do Is­land Boys held its an­nu­al Christ­mas Parang So­ca Nite on De­cem­ber 6, at the Or­lan­do Cit­rus Bowl.

Cen­tral Florid­i­ans got their first taste of parang so­ca gi­ant Nin­ja, plus live per­for­mances from for­mer Char­lie's Roots vo­cal­ist Roger George, Ly­ma Dun­bar, Le­ston Paul New York Con­nec­tion vo­cal­ist Lennox Pi­cou and Lloyd Her­bert. George, his gold­en voice still in­tact, sent his au­di­ence in­to a fren­zy when he did Chip­pin'.

How­ev­er, a def­i­nite crowd-pleas­er on the night was Her­bert, whose reper­toire in­clud­ed items ti­tled Fever, Musiq and Com­pa­ny. De­scribed as "a wicked iron man," Her­bert who hails from Barataria, paid trib­ute to his old "boss" Bry­on Lee by ren­der­ing Tony Winey.

Be­cause of be­ing rushed with oth­er en­gage­ments, Dun­bar, who was a reg­u­lar fea­tures at Dis­ney's Ep­cot Cen­tre for many years, could on­ly of­fer two se­lec­tions–Kitch­en­er's Drink ah Rum and her 2007 hit sin­gle Gie Mih More.

All the pop­u­lar eats and del­i­ca­cies from "home" were avail­able at the par­ty, in­clu­sive of san­coche; rice and peas, com­pli­ment­ed with stewed ox­tails, pork and chick­en; shark and bake; pastelles and souse; and, beef and fish pies, just like those sold out­side the Queen's Park Oval, on Tra­garete Road.

There was some nip in the air, so, just land­ed from Trinidad, Nin­ja warmed up the night, es­pe­cial­ly when he per­formed Parang de Wrong House. Once again Or­lan­do Is­land Boys have pulled off a ter­rif­ic event, giv­ing Tri­nis and Caribbean folks away from home a gen­er­ous slice of Christ­mas in T&T.

(Re­port­ing by An­geli Blood)