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Alaine was a hit with the audience as she closed the Ascot Primary School benefit edition of Seh Sup'm at the Village Blues Bar, Barbican Road, St Andrew, on Sunday night. - Mel Cooke photo
Alaine closed the show in good form and Floyd West showed wry humour to go with his memorable voice (slightly nasal intonation and all) at the Village Blues Bar, Barbican Road, St Andrew, on Sunday night.
They were the singers on a night when poetry took most of the stage time for the Ascot Primary School board benefit edition of the monthly event (although The Mighty Ginsu started out singing, along with Asante Amen). Jean Small and Fitzroy 'Viva' Cole were featured poets along with Ginsu and open mic participants also contributing verse to the evening.
Closing off Seh Sup'm, initially Alaine was confined to a corner of the small stage, two keyboards beside each other leaving little room for her to stand, much less manoeuver. Luckily, Rise in Love, her first song, demanded more vocal and facial expression than movement. And, after getting off to a strong start, Alaine could not put a foot wrong for the substantial audience.
Dreaming of You was done slow then, in Alaine's style, complete with a deejay part - and now movement was definitely required, though Alaine kept her feet in place and let the rest of her body do the dancing.
There was hesitation before the next song and she turned to the harmony singers, saying "Deeper, remember?". "Is one rehearsal we have," Alaine told the audience, then gave the story behind Deeper (recorded in a basement in New York when she was still working in an investment bank) before getting into the song.
"I go to Japan, Africa, South America, all over the Caribbean, and it is all because of the power of a dream," she said.
She stepped off the stage and was able to move much better; from that position she also told the brief history of You Are Me before singing it. Alaine went back on stage to sit at one of the two keyboards, the other played by André 'Carlos' Marsh, and play as she sang No Ordinary Love. At one point the band stopped and the harmony continued; then, with a ripple of a finger across the keys, Alaine got the music going again.
Floyd West sat on a high chair during his performance, a drummer and guitarist in tow. Two songs into his set, West, who showed wry humour throughout, said "you done know say I am a Rastaman. I have to bless up the ladies, you so beautiful like rose in a garden".
But there was another garden on his mind as well, West referring to "Labour Day massacre" and observing in song "dem a run come".
One striking line from West was "is like a fat sexy girl with no glamity".
When West got round to his song for the ladies, as he took off his shades and sang "for you" the drummer's phone rang. There was laughter and the phone was taken care off - then, as they started the song again, the phone interrupted once more. "I recommend you just answer and perform," West said and the drummer held up the phone's battery to show that it was taken care of.
Coming to the close of his stage time, West went into a falsetto, singing "what make me feel so misty blue/my world without you", closing on a high.
