Asher Joseph photo
Kenneth Joseph on the steel pans.
Music lovers young and old found their seats with the help of the early evening sun, the only source of light in the dark gymnasium of the Q House.
The space would not remain dark for long, however, as the Dixwell Community Management Team’s (DCMT) “Jazz & Contemporary Music Concert” lit up the space with singing, saxophones, and selections from various poets.
DCMT Chair Crystal Gooding opened the event, held last Friday at 197 Dixwell Ave. She introduced the 75 audience members to radio host Bobby Ramos, who emceed the event, which doubled as a fundraiser for the Q House and for Wexler Grant School’s music program.
“Hello, I’m Bobby,” Ramos bellowed with no assistance from any of the several microphones in the center of a horseshoe of seats. The in-the-round stage featured arrangements courtesy of Alisha Crutchfield, owner of the flower and gift shop Bloom. The night’s decorations included lattice pedestals emanating red light and crawling with ivy, and a gutted guitar bursting with flowers bathed in blue.
“As you can see, I’m very quiet and shy,” Ramos joked. “I don’t shut up. I stuttered until I was 20 or 22, and now I’m doing TV and radio. Kids, let this be a lesson that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Following Ramos’ introduction, St. Luke’s Steel Band Director Kenneth Joseph silently took the stage. Without a word, he launched into “Fantasy,” a song that needed no introduction when the audience finished Joseph’s sentence with “by Earth, Wind, and Fire!”
Remy Adair dazzling the audience with her original songs.
As Ramos had introduced him, Joseph truly was “the master.” He’s currently seeing the St. Luke’s steel band through its 25th anniversary. Joseph concluded his set with Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us” and a flourishing riff that earned a thunderous round of applause.
Jayla Buford kicked off the second round of performances with a reading of her favorite poems, followed by an original song by nine-year-old Remy Adair.
With her soaring vibrato, delicate piano skills, and signature tip-of-the-hat, Adair quickly became an audience favorite.
Adair returned with a second original song driven by the lyrics “I choose love,” before passing off the microphone to ten-year-old Wexler-Grant student Naomi Johnson. As Chambers sorted out a few technical difficulties with Johnson’s backing track, Ramos kept the audience laughing with his wit.
“We’re just giving everyone time to see how pretty you look,” he said of Johnson, who rocked a green floor-length dress in the style of Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog, whose song “Almost There” Johnson would be singing.
An aspiring actor and singer, Johnson practiced her red-carpet interview skills as Ramos asked her about everything from her favorite color (“Blue — no, green, because I’m Tiana!”) to her dream pet (“A cat! Wait, no, a lizard. Actually, a chameleon.”).
Johnson also learned how to answer the hard-hitting questions, “Do you think I can sing?” asked Ramos.
“If you have Ms. [Jaminda] Blackmon to teach you, then sure,” she suggested, shouting out her voice teacher.
Once Chambers had fixed the loud speakers, Johnson was ready to prove that her solo was worth the wait. She easily scaled the notes of “Almost There” with flair, bringing the audience to its feet during a final high note that would be too ambitious for most.
Saxophonist Stephen King was worried about “having to follow that incredible act,” but he captivated the audience from his first soulful note. “If you need to feel what you feel, feel what you feel. These songs remind me of Black people, and they make me proud to be Black.”
King owned his space, moving his feet in time with his bouncing playing, before making space for a few cast members of Wexler-Grant’s production of The Wiz, which runs May 2 – 4.
Buford, Pearson, Jordyn Bookert, and Jai’Myz Demps shared a rousing rendition of “Believe in Yourself,” channeling the power of its original singer, Diana Ross.
The night wrapped up with a few more poems and songs, the sun still peeking through the windows. Gooding closed the event, thanking the audience for coming. “It takes a village to raise a child, and this event is a testament to that.”