Love and Happiness Era with Don Silverfox

By William Doyle-Marshall

   Remember the days of the two tone shoes and the Blue Gardenia dances? That’s when young ladies frowned on any young man who failed to meet the dressing standards?  If you don’t, then you are too young. Those were the hey days in Trinidad and Tobago and indeed the Caribbean when you had to know your dance steps. If you stepped on a girl’s feet once that’s the end of your dancing chances. Even worse, you did not even think of saying “hello” to her or her friends. You would be banished in that circle.

    Well, a group of Canadians with Trinidad and Tobago connections are reintroducing that experience to real dance lovers as an end of summer venture. “I feel pretty confident in that I think we are going to be unique with what we are doing because you don’t get a concert, dinner and dance; you are not going to get the kind of music we are providing for dancing at all, says Trinidadian impresario and headline performer of that era, Don (Ali) Silverfox. Based on a really fantastic reception he received from a Queen’s Hall and Port of Spain Central Bank auditorium audiences, Silverfox has decided to undertake this Canadian venture. “I was told that nobody in Trinidad was doing what I did and I am saying the same thing is happening up here. I don’t know anybody who does what I do. The era of what I do up here, I don’t know anybody who does it,” Silverfox concurs.

   The September 17^th Nostalgia III is a formal evening of Concert, Dinner and Dance at the Thornhill Community Centre between 6:00pm and 1:00 a.m. The show will include performances in Spanish, Italian and English -- to illustrate the performer’s expertise and a little difference compared to regular pops and ballads entertainers. In addition, songs are being chosen to encourage audience participation. Don promises his repertoire for that night will evolve around compositions with which members of the audience will be familiar.

   Sel Duncan’s “Concert Hall Medley”: is lined up to begin dancing feet slowly moving on the dance floor on that special night. Tan Tan by Fitz Vaughn Bryan, Stormy Weather by the Dutchy Brothers and Clarence Curvan’s “Delicado” are among favourites that will be dusted off and spun for the crowd’s delight.

    Caribbeanites starving for the type of musical offerings synonymous with tender, loving moments will be in for a special treat on September 17 at the Thornhill Community Center. It will be a case of rekindling flames they may have thrown out with the dreams. Don Silverfox is dusting off his musical tracks and preparing his vocal chords to entertain music lovers. The Producers of Nostalgia III are promising Golden Pops and Ballads by Don – a nominee for the Canadian GMA Covenant Award. It will certainly be an opportunity to dance to some favourite bands of the era like Stanley Black, Los Indios Tabajares, Clarence Curvan, Dutchy Brothers, Perez Prado and more.

   Don first hit the stage at age six and ten years later he had already   performed live concerts, on radio to an audience at one point estimated at 10,000. By 17 he was introduced to live television and appeared at popular night clubs throughout the City of Port of Spain. Performing on stage with the Light Operatic Society provided Don a vehicle to appear in the internationally renowned Pirates of Penzance, Chu Chin Chou and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Nostalgia III is a continuation of Don Silverfox’ youthful ambition to command centre stage with an appreciative audience.

Wow! What a Cultural summer

Canadian summer cultural offerings

By William Doyle-Marshall

This year’s CaribbeanTales International Film Festival(CTFF), returns to Downtown Toronto, at The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street, with an Opening Gala September 7, then daily between September 14 - 17 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

   Now in its 11^th year, the festival celebrates the talents of established and emerging filmmakers of Caribbean heritage who practice their art across the Caribbean Diaspora worldwide - including Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, the Americas, and those of African, Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern descent.

From September 6 through September11, the Festival hosts the 8^th Annual CaribbeanTales Incubator Program (CTI). This year the program is sponsored by Flow, the Caribbean's leading TV and communications provider, as part of its commitment to the development of the Caribbean filmmaking industry. The CTI's flagship program is the Market Incubator Program (MIP), a marketing and packaging forum for long-running series projects. It includes five weeks of online training, and one week of intensive workshops in Toronto. It culminates in The Big Pitch at the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) Bell Lightbox. Winners of The Big Pitch will graduate to the nine-month CTI Production Support Program (PSP), that takes projects from pitch to production and for the first time ever, PSP projects will receive pilot funding from Flow.

    The annual Stone sculpture exhibition from Zimbabwe known as Shona sculpture, will be held at the Rice Lake Gallery, Rice Lake 17 from August 6th to September 4th.  The curator, Fran Fearnley, travels to Zimbabwe to purchase sculptures directly from the artists. She travels extensively around the country to choose a body of work that fully represents the breadth of style, form and stone that makes this art movement so dynamic and universal in its appeal. 
     Stone sculpture from Zimbabwe is often called Shona sculpture, named after the largest tribe engaged in this indigenous art movement. Zimbabwe, morphed from the Shona word “dzimbadzamabwe” which means “house of stone,” is the only country on the African continent that has large deposits of stone suitable for sculpting. 
   Zimbabwean sculptors, who traditionally carve entirely by hand, work outdoors – creating and frequently displaying their work in open air-studios. Al fresco shows of Zimbabwean sculpture are very popular in the UK, many European countries, Australia and the US. 
ZimArt brought this concept to Canada and hosts a number of public and private outdoor exhibitions annually, including The Rice Lake Series, which was launched in 2000.

 All summer long in cities across Canada jazz and other cultural events were staged in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Alberta as well as Victoria, B.C. and elsewhere.

Bonnie Lawrence, flutist and her Cuban counterpart Raul Tabera on
drumsaccompanied the Bruce Hoagg Latin quinntet during  the
Calgary Jazz Festival 2016.

It is Sunday afternoon with a sort of tropical style Victoria setting – brilliant sunshine and gentle breeze blowing through Veteran’s Memorial Park, Langford, Victoria. The audience is enjoying a musical journey by Fraser Kersley and his team of very experienced musicians called the Hornetz R&B Review. They took fans on a merry melodious route, tapping into hits of the sixties by Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, the Temptations, Wilson Pickett and many others popular in that era.

   Making up the Review were Fraser Kersley on guitar,  Raman MacArthur on lead vocals, Roger OPlant, bassist and Dave Pretty on drums.  The horn section goes by the name of 'The Capital City Horns' and when they jam with Seacruze the outfit is called the Hornetz R&B Review. 

   Whether they occupied wheel chairs, electric scooters, or park benches, it was almost impossible to keep them seated. Dancing is always enticement to musicians in any surrounding. These musicians were served their full share of appreciation especially with the presence of spontaneity throughout. When Peter Willing, coordinator of the series, stepped on stage with the band, he was applauded for his efforts. His outfit the Ready Willing Band will offer a repertoire of Motown R&B, Blues and rock combination August 14. Willing said the music series has been running for 15 years and was contacted by the Mayor of Langford to produce it over the past seven years. The City of Langford sponsors it and he is responsible for the eight-week production which began the first Sunday in July. It is a free public event from two to four o’clock every Sunday afternoon when parents bring out their children to have fun and enjoy the water park facility while adults embrace the concert offerings.

Gerald Mar, TD Victoria Jazz Int'l Festival

   This Sunday Fat Cats, a country band will be featured. The next week will be the Ready Willing Band with its offering of Motown R&B, Blues, rock combination to be followed August 21 by the Maureen Washington Jazz Quartet performing jazz and blues selections. Rukus will close out the series August 28 with its classic rock and roll numbers.

   Indeed, it is turning out to be quite a summer packed with cultural offerings across the country. Gerald Mar, founded the TD Victoria International Jazz Fest which celebrated its 32^nd anniversary this year as part of the Jazz Festival Canada network was elated with the Victoria turnout for his production..