The Rounds - October 21, 2007

Good Evening Soca Lovers, I’m nurse Karen and these are Doctor Jay’s Rounds. It’s another hot Sunday in Toronto, and to mark the occasion, I’ve brought you some equally hot news.
Guyana’s ministry of culture, youth and sport has decided to bring back the Guyana Music Festival that was first started in 1952. Next year, Guyana will play host to the Caribbean’s ideas expo, Carifesta Ten...and the government is praying for a cultural renaissance. The initiative aims to provide more support for the nation’s music industry, and better training for its next generation of entertainers.
St. Lucia’s 2007 groovy soca monarch is not just Goin Down de Road, he’s been jet setting over to gay Paree. Teddyson John and his pan-caribbean performance band, BlueMango just took their act to the 2007 Cibrations Caraibe Jazz festival in Paris France. The band whose members come from Barbados, Martinique, French Guiana and Saint Lucie, received rave reviews after opening for John Legend at the Internationally renowned St. Lucia Jazz festival earlier this year. And now it’s paying off. The group got to take their sound to a festival featuring Caribbean jazz expressions, in Euro’s afro-music mecca!
Another soca artist who’s NO stranger to having his business all over the world, was just invited to speak at Washington D.C.’s historical Howard University. Machel Montano was booked to provide the keynote address at a program called Soca 101, organized by the school’s Caribbean Students’ Organization. Invited, but de big star mussee catch a little stage fright. The educational event went on with no Machel to be seen. He sent his regrets, and I’m told he made an appearance on campus the next day to sign autographs.
When I think of Machel Montano, the last thing that comes to mind is SHYness! Whether he on stage sending a mampie flying in the air, or if he’s just proving dat he’s a real winer man, dat boy oozes confidence. On Friday, Machel and de HD family proved THAT to be true at the ever popular Zen night club, when a couple of bullet proof vested trini cops threatened to shut down de session. Why, you ask? LEWD CONDUCT! Everybody knows, is a regular day in the life of a roadmarch king when the artist gets on stage only to have the girls in the front row INSPECT THE QUALITY OF HIS FAMILY JEWELS. Machel tell de police to lock him up if they want to, but is not he fault de gyal dem getting on scandalous. In the end, the incident produced nothing but hearty laughter from all in attendance…and earned Mr. Montano Nurse Karen’s 2007 award for the King of Commess. Machel, I love you bad jed. You make my job so much easier.
Look out for him in 2008 with a brand new roadmarch contender called Unconditional Love, and a groovy follow up to One More Time that he previewed for the giggling crowd at Zen.
I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Please text your comments to 9-3-5-9-3-5, now back to de doctor.