Entertainment

Music, exercise in the park

By MEL COOKE, Freelance Writer

Luciano - Norman Grindley

Western Bureau:

DEAN FRASER WAS in black track pants, as were Abijah and Errol Dunkley, Tony Rebel was in grey sweats, while Ken Boothe and deejay Colla Colla were sporting shorts.

'Music Is Medicine: Defeating Diabetes' was definitely not a typical concert, not by time, line-up, attire or cost. The joggers in the Emancipation Park, New Kingston, on Saturday morning gradually fell to music, exhaustion and heat, to join those who came for the music only as the morning sun rose over the business district to beam on the early morning concert.

The music was free and so was the fruit, available to all who would partake.

Body designs

There were hard bodies and soft ones, lean physiques and a few leaning to accommodate excess weight, but the happiness was uniform as all rose for Luciano's closing number, Lord Give Me Strength. Even before, as he observed the audience reacting to Your World and Mine, Luciano commented "what a vibes sweet! Big up all athlete in the house. Ah see some people ready fi champs!".

Luciano closed off a high quality concert, which covered reggae, dancehall, R&B, poetry and sweet band music, as well as a talk on dealing with diabetes.

Tony Rebel was also in an exercise mood. "Gimme a mix deh! Exercise!" he said, as he did Sweet Jamaica, knee-lifts on the stage and across the breadth of the stage causing his bandana wrapped locks to bounce rhythmically.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you know why I am singing so good this morning? I took a couple laps. I walked with you," Ken Boothe said, as he closed off a stint which included The Train Is Coming and Puppet On a String.

Colla Colla's knee-lifts as he deejayed that "past is history/future is mystery" were impressive.

Abijah may have been dressed for exercise, but he was not in a running mood on stage, as he opened with I've Been Loving You Too Long and then did Revelation, a lady at the front doing the dancing honours for him.

Black Cinderella

Errol Dunkley's Black Cinderella search was answered by waving arms ­ with more than a few male arms among them as the music hit.

Cherry Natural was in jeans, but kept active on-stage and had the audience stretching mentally to Be You, which observed that "Dem give you a costume dat is not your size/an yu punish yuself to fit in it". Black X was dressed the part of the official, jacket and all, diving into his bag to come up with a notepad from which he calculated the staggering sum of his Tek Tax. There was laughter all around as he applied "tax brought forward".

Myrna Hague was casually dressed, but there was nothing casual about her delivery of I Shall Sing A Rainbow; Sonny Bradshaw's suspenders were well in place as he played his trumpet.

And Dean Fraser on saxophone, Nambo Robinson on trombone and Dwight Richards on trumpet blended superbly, as well as taking solos, honouring the Abyssinians with Sattamasagana, Robinson going for the vocals with The Spirit of Love.

And if there was any doubt that exercise was the order of the day, one of the questions asked for a giveaway was how many laps Dean Fraser had done that morning. The answer "half" brought a smile from the saxophonist ­ and 12 was met with doubt from the audience.

The answer? Ten laps.