The sixth edi­tion of the an­nu­al San Fer­nan­do Jazz Fes­ti­val (SFJF) is sched­uled for Sep­tem­ber 26 on the ma­jes­tic San Fer­nan­do Hill. The show starts at 7 pm sharp, with gates open­ing at 5 pm to al­low pa­trons to take the ear­ly bus shut­tle up the Hill, so they can catch some breath­tak­ing vis­tas, long be­fore the sun would have set. This year's fes­ti­val is fo­cus­ing on Lord Kitch­en­er, his life, times and work.

Bring­ing this the­mat­ic ex­pres­sion of cel­e­brat­ing the great bard in a jazz-ca­lyp­so id­iom is not a nov­el idea, as such, be­cause Kitch him­self was se­ri­ous­ly im­ple­ment­ing this in his work, for ex­am­ple in his "Be­bop" ca­lyp­so. His mon­ster hit Sug­ar Bum Bum is a note­wor­thy fu­sion of sorts, where Trou­ble In Ari­ma and Cof­fee From Brazil get worked in­to the melody. Raf Robert­son and Le­ston Paul will be bring­ing the rich­ness and full­ness of their in­ter­pre­ta­tions in­to the mix. Er­rol Ince and his Quin­tet will al­so be fea­tured. Lord Su­pe­ri­or, who knows the Kitch­en­er era well, is cer­tain to add di­men­sion to the reper­toire of work that Kitch­en­er, not­ed for his sar­to­r­i­al el­e­gance and trade­mark hat, left as a lega­cy. Supie will pour out nos­tal­gia with a dash of his own styl­is­tic in­ter­pre­ta­tions of the kitsch in­flu­ences.

The sole fe­male on the cast, Vaugh­nette Big­ford, is wor­thy of her place as one of the best fe­male jazz ex­po­nents on the cur­rent scene. There is no doubt that the woman will cer­tain­ly have the au­di­ence mes­merised by her smooth­ness and de­liv­ery. The plot will thick­en when Ald­win Al­bi­no steps on to the stage. Ap­ply­ing his pi­ano wiz­ardry and Kitch's mu­sic, he is set to put his own stamp up­on things. Des­per­a­does Steel or­ches­tra will bring the cur­tain down and will cer­tain­ly do it in their own unim­itable style.

More in­fo

Tick­ets are $200 Gen­er­al and $350 all-in­clu­sive; at the door $250 and $400, re­spec­tive­ly.

Tick­et out­lets in­clude:

110 Jazz and Ca­lyp­so Lounge, Cipero St, San Fer­nan­do;

Puff N' Stuff, Cir­cu­lar Road, San Fer­nan­do;

Ceev­er­ney's, St James St, San Fer­nan­do;

Ather­ly's By the Park, Cipero Street, San Fer­nan­do;

Cache (Gulf City and West Mall);

Cleve's Port of Spain; and,

Cros­by's San Fer­nan­do and Port-of-Spain.

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, call

758-7090, 620-3918, 741-7362, 683-7129 and 752-5328.

First 100 all-in­clu­sive guests to get spe­cial re­serve park­ing.