Jamaica. Music. Jazz... and the whole nine yards

Jamaica and Jamaicans have a long and decorated history with music and quality live entertainment, after all this little island gave birth to a whole musical genre called reggae and with it, bonafide global superstars like Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Aswad, Shaggy and so many others.

One of the most sought after events staged in Jamaica every year for the past 18 years is the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival. I say sought after because there was a time when it was the hottest ticket in the Country, if you didn’t have a Jazz & Blues ticket, you would have just missed the best event/lyme of the year, simply because the best performers came to Jazz.

This little Island, hosting its signature event each year have been able to showcase a long list of superstars:  Gladys Knight, Maroon 5, Natalie Cole, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Anita Baker, Hall & Oates, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Maxi Priest, Babyface, The Whispers, Joss Stone, Monty Alexander, Billy Ocean, Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Dionne Warwick, Estelle, Lionel Richie, George Benson, Chuck Mangione, Smokey Robinson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, Boyz II Men, Micheal Bolton, Jill Scott, Brian McKnight, Atlantic Starr, India.Arie, Norah Jones, Harry Belafonte, Julio Iglesias, Patti Labelle, Air Supply, Al Green, Queen Project, Mary Mary, Lou Rawls, Erykah Badu and Céline Dion. OMG it is safe to say we’ve see it all.

A few weekends ago, I attended this years staging of the Festival and along many patrons hoping to see multi-platinum, grammy award winning Mariah Carey for the first time on Jamaican soil. To say we were left totally disappointed would be a terrible understatement. Mariah was a colossal failure, she didn’t perform most of her hit songs, she spent most of the time off stage changing her wardrobe, when on stage, she couldn’t pull one note and try as she might on a couple of occasions, it just wasn’t there and to cap it off Mariah lip synced through more than half of her performances. It is safe to say, at least for me to say that of all the artiste who have been to Jamaica and as you can see, it's been a lot; Mariah performance must be ranked as one of the worst. Do these artiste and promoters get it that consumers and patrons are paying top dollar to attend these events and they have an obligation to entertain and give the paying audience value for money?

Dear Jamaica Jazz Festival, we know you get majority of your patronage from folks who live on the other end of the Island in Kingston. Some of you readers may ask yourself why is that important and the answer is simply, COST! For a Kingstonian to attend the festival they must rent a hotel room in the tourist City of Montego Bay or Ocho Rios, the cheapest of which may cost US$200 per night. A full tank of petrol is at least US$100. The cheapest ticket at this years’ Jazz Festival to see Mariah’s performance or lack thereof was US$120. By now you can see a patron is down this rabbit hole for US$380 for one nights' performance and I haven’t factored in food, drinks and if they decide to take their significant other, which I am sure they did, that figure just got tripled.

While I think that artiste who come to Jamaica and take our fans for granted owe the Jamaica public an apology, I cant put all the blame at their feet. In fact, the organizers of the festival have totally lost my confidence and doubt very strongly I will be going back to another staging unless there is significant changes including the venue. The logic to my personal position are numerous and so in the interest of time I am will list a few. 

Firstly, for the last three staging of the festival, the organizers have struggled to put together a proper line up and one just have to look at the dwindling attendance to understand and agree with this view. Secondly, the ticket prices are now completely out of reach and unaffordable which also contributes to the dwindling attendance. Thirdly, what made Jazz & Blues in Jamaica a must have ticket annually, was the intimacy and closeness of the venues used prior to its move to the Trelawny Stadium. Securing a venue the size o the Trelawny Stadium to host the festival was a brilliant move but with perennially poor line ups and increasing ticket prices, what we have now is not a festival, it’s an expensive flop.

Save and except for Morgan Heritage whose performance was interrupted by rain on night #2, Charlie Wilson and Pointer Sisters on night #3, Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival 2015 would have been a complete waste of time. It was actually embarrassing to see the handful of patrons who turned out on the first and third nights of the festival, if that isn’t enough of a message to the organizers I am not sure what will send them message home to them. To add insult to injury, increasing the ticket prices every year to compensate for disappearing sponsors and not addressing the quality of the show, is a sure recipe to lose the support of hard core music affectionados. Afterall, for us it is more than just an artiste that appeal to us music lovers, we want the complete package like we are use to and nothing less is acceptable.

All in agreement say AMEN!

One love as always

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