Chat-bout.net - JAVA's September To Remember

JAVA's September To Remember

The notion that ‘Jamaicans fraid a rain’ was totally shattered at the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes’ September to Remember – at the Jamaica Pegasus

It was as if when John ‘2,000 Volts’ Holt, took the microphone to perform, it was a cue to the heavens to open up. And the showers did come. Instead of ‘bolting’ for the exit during the downpour the audience simply got up out of their chairs and used them as shelter.

In a little chat with Chat-Bout later that night a surprised Holt said “I know that people say that Jamaica is a dry weather place so I thought that the patrons would leave when the rain started. I was surprised when they did not leave, this motivated me to deliver as best as I could.” Belting out hit love songs one after the othe, Holt kept the audience rocking with ‘Winter World of Love’, ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, ‘Doctor Love’, ‘Love I Can Feel’, ‘The Tide Is High’, ‘Stick By Me’ and ‘Wear You To The Ball’.

With chairs over their heads or sheltering under trees the audience danced and danced. When it was time to leave, he exited the stage to calls of “more, more, more!” He obliged twice and luckily by the end of the second encore, A.J. Brown arrived and went directly to the stage. Like Holt, and several others before, Brown took a walk down memory lane with several of his songs, which many had not heard in a while like ‘When You Love’, ‘All Fall Down’ and ‘Love People More Than Money’. This was all well received but when he turned up the heat on what has become his recent signature song ‘Con Te Partiro’, known in English as ‘Time to Say Goodbye’, Andrea Bocelli would have been stunned at the magnitude and depth of Brown’s talent which once kept audiences rocking all across the Las Vegas’ massive entertainment scene.

Earlier in the set, ‘Baggadito’ (Bagga Case & Ras Mandito) now a duo in response to the call of veteran entertainment journalist Basil ‘Ras Bas’ Walters after their last smashing JAVAA performance, put in some fancy foot work and smooth vocals into their performance which was simply charismatic. Again they paid tribute to the Blues Busters but widened their range to include Peter Tosh’s version of the classic Chuck Berry 1955-penned hit, ‘Johnny B Goode’ and entertained with ‘Soon You Be Gone’, ‘Wide Awake In A Dream’ and ‘Love Has Found Its Way’.

Keisha Patterson who was promoting her new album ‘Sunday Kind of Love’, jazz standards done to reggae, was sublime with ‘Fever’ while Clancy Eccles Jr wooed the ladies with ‘You Know You Want To Be Loved’ and Otis Gayle was humorously dramatic when he went down on his knees to declare ‘I Who Have Nothing but I Love You’. A wet evening it was, but it was worth every moment and every drop of water.

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