SAN­DRA L BLOOD

On March 28, ace mu­si­cian, com­pos­er, arranger and pro­duc­er Dr Pel­ham God­dard gave pa­trons a night to re­mem­ber when he and a cadre of mu­si­cal col­lab­o­ra­tors cel­e­brat­ed his jour­ney in the pro­duc­tion Echoes of an Era: Friend­ship at Kafe Blue in Port-of-Spain.

Cu­rat­ed by Gary Car­dinez and Carl Ja­cobs, the show tru­ly lived up to its theme as God­dard’s era was brought to life through a stel­lar en­sem­ble. Per­cus­sion­ist Von­ryk May­nard—God­dard’s long­time friend—bassist Rus­sell Du­ri­ty, trum­peter Hay­den Robin, gui­tarist Dean Williams, sax­o­phon­ist/flautist Michelle Mar­fan-Urquhart, drum­mer Richard Joseph and pan­nist Den­nis Smith pro­vid­ed mu­si­cal back­ing for vo­cal­ists Car­ol Ja­cobs, Na­tal­ie Yorke and Os­car B, who de­liv­ered se­lec­tions stamped with God­dard’s un­mis­tak­able cre­ative sig­na­ture.

Pa­trons danced, sang, swayed, clapped and tapped their feet, while oth­ers soaked in the per­for­mance in qui­et ad­mi­ra­tion. Many took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to cap­ture the mo­ment, adding to an at­mos­phere rich in nos­tal­gia and cel­e­bra­tion.

The night de­liv­ered sev­er­al sur­pris­es. God­dard and May­nard were pre­sent­ed with to­kens of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for their con­tri­bu­tions to the arts, but the biggest mo­ment came with the dra­mat­ic en­trance of ca­lyp­so icon David Rud­der. Emerg­ing from the shad­ows dressed in black, Rud­der—for­mer lead vo­cal­ist of Char­lie’s Roots, the band found­ed by God­dard—brought the au­di­ence to its feet.

He per­formed two of his clas­sics, Dus In Deh Face and The Ham­mer, be­fore invit­ing God­dard to ac­com­pa­ny him on Get Up and Dance. The per­for­mance elec­tri­fied the au­di­ence, earn­ing Rud­der a pro­longed stand­ing ova­tion.

Ja­cobs and Yorke stood out not on­ly for their pol­ished vo­cals but al­so for their sleek, mod­ern black at­tire, which con­trast­ed sharply with Os­car B’s bold gold-and-white suit. Os­car B, a for­mer lead vo­cal­ist for By­ron Lee and the Drag­o­naires (now The Drag­o­naires), brought both flair and ex­pe­ri­ence to the stage.

God­dard, whose mu­si­cal jour­ney dates back to 1968, re­mind­ed pa­trons of his mas­tery when he opened the sec­ond half of the show with a so­lo per­for­mance of Just Give Me Love.

His com­mand of the key­board un­der­scored his rep­u­ta­tion as one of T&T’s most ac­com­plished yet un­der­stat­ed mu­si­cal fig­ures.

The set list al­so fea­tured a range of cel­e­bra­to­ry se­lec­tions, in­clud­ing Tri­ni Prince, Tum­ble Down, Too Ear­ly For Your Love, Song For a Lone­ly Soul, Run­away, Come Leh We Jam, Jour­ney, Soul­ful Ca­lyp­so Mu­sic, Cul­ture, More Tem­po, Mu­sic For the Peo­ple and Ded­i­ca­tion.

Be­yond found­ing Char­lie’s Roots in 1978, God­dard’s achieve­ments in­clude 13 Road March ti­tles—among them two hat-tricks—four Na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­onships, na­tion­al and aca­d­e­m­ic ho­n­ours, the es­tab­lish­ment of a record­ing stu­dio, and the award of the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver).