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playlist<br />
Palmyra and Other Places David Bertrand<br />
(Blujazz Productions)<br />
The flute, in jazz music, has a<br />
less prominent place than the<br />
saxophone or trumpet, but<br />
in this new album New Yorkbased<br />
Trinidadian flautist David<br />
Bertrand makes a sincere<br />
attempt to expand the repertoire<br />
of the instrument. Seven<br />
of the eight tracks of sublime<br />
quartet playing are new compositions by Bertrand: the<br />
listener is given an opportunity also to revel in the studied<br />
application of jazz language to the inherent native<br />
vernacular of Trinidadian rhythm and tone. The titles of<br />
the tunes also suggest the idea that this is a subliminal<br />
musical autobiography: “Palmyra”, “Claude’s Nariva”<br />
and “Wood Slave” recalling Bertrand’s home island’s<br />
habitat and fauna; “Lexington and 63rd” and “245<br />
South 1st” offering a survey of his New York present.<br />
The result is testament to the continued strides made<br />
by musical émigrés from the <strong>Caribbean</strong> to an American<br />
diaspora, inspiring art that takes no prisoners.<br />
Vacation Jimmy October (OverDose Music<br />
Group)<br />
Young <strong>Caribbean</strong> musicians are<br />
taking the lead in placing their<br />
innovative native rhythms and<br />
the cadence of their accented<br />
voices at the centre of the new<br />
pop music, rather than just<br />
being mimic men. With this new<br />
five-track EP, Trinidad’s Jimmy<br />
October articulates over the<br />
myriad rhythms of the modern <strong>Caribbean</strong> to identify his<br />
brand of pop in a world hearing island beats as the new<br />
normal. These songs <strong>—</strong> four of them collaborations of<br />
unselfish musical partnership <strong>—</strong> also point to the trend<br />
of locating subjects as maudlin as love at first sight and<br />
titillating them to excess as paeans of what will happen<br />
when two get together. “Girl, you got the waist, like a<br />
merry-go-round / Looking at your face make the time<br />
slow down / Girl, I can’t wait, I need to know now / If you<br />
gonna let me be with you.” It works! Hip, singable hooks<br />
and mid-tempo dance beats with a <strong>Caribbean</strong> DNA make<br />
for a short set of easy listening <strong>—</strong> and an urgent wish for<br />
more of this kind of sly island pop.<br />
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