The Rounds: Caribana Results are in!

Good Evening Soca Lovers, I’m Nurse Karen and these are your Caribana 2010 Rounds!

Can you believe it?  Caribana 2010 is upon us...and the parade of the bands went down yesterday on lakeshore boulevard.  I hit the road early Saturday morning with Dr. Jay’s Portrait of Innocence section in Saldenah Mas K Club’s  2010 presentation “ Portraits”.  Hundreds of revellers took to the streets in a display of vibrance, colour and energy, jumping, waving, palancing and wining all the way to victory.  Thats right soca massive.  With 446 points from the judges, Saldenah is your 2010 Band of the year!  In second with 426 points was mega band Carnival Nationz, and for a very close third, we have Toronto Revellers, this year featuring live performances from Machel Montano HD on the road.

It’s been a great year for Louis Saldenah. At Thursday night’s King and Queen show, his loyal revellers shook their mas into first position for Queen of the Bands, as well as male and female individual. Another special honour was being conferred the Ontario Science centre Innovation Costume Award for “Queen” Pat Horsham’s portrayal of D’Chandelier – A Portrait in Chrystal.  This stunning representation of an elegant light fixture was constructed mainly from Recycled materials.

Seven points shy of clean sweep, Dexter Seusahai of Tribal Knights shook up the competition winning 2010 King of the Bands for his portrayal of “Predator Returns”  Congratulations to all the mas makers, and players keeping the culture healthy and strong.

Now on Friday, Pan Alive was a veritable Battle Zone, with 12 bands trying their darnedest to dethrone Montreal’s Salah’s Steelband Academy from their 3 year domination of the pan arena.  As it turns out, much like the winners ... the two bands who tied for 3^rd place, namely Afropan and Panatics also chose to compete with their own arrangements of Anslem Douglas’ pan tune “Battle Zone”.  In second place, we have Golden Harps international with “Surrender”...and in first... hard luck Toronto.  Salah’s reigns supreme again.   

Before I go, gotta update you on the results out of Antigua.  Tian Winter is now a 2-time King.  He took the party monarch title last night in his home Island of Wadadli.  In the groovy category, local soca queen Claudette Peters took snatched the crown back from last year’s winner Tian.  Ricardo Drue also competed in Antigua last night, celebrating his birthday in heavy competition.

I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay's Caribana 2010 Rounds.  For more information on all you heard today, visit me online at www.nurse-karen.com or follow me "nursekaren" on twitter...

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The Rounds: Edwin Yearwood shares winnings with Mikey!

Hey All,

Sorry for the delay in getting this to you! With Caribana...and all the resulting fireworks this year, I must admit I have been struggling to stick to my regular schedule. Don't forget to check 'DE LATEST NEWS' for more detail on these items...

In this edition:
- Caribana Band of the Year Results
- Crop Over Pic of de Crop Calypso Monarch
- Crop Over Peoples' Monarch
- Antigua Soca Monarch

Good evening soca lovers I’m Nurse Karen , and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Happy
Caribana weekend 2009! Wow....this is the time of year when sweet soca music takes center stage, and our fair city of Toronto show off the incredible beauty and culture of the Caribbean to the rest of the world. If you’re visiting from out of town. Sure hope you’ve had a chance to experience the exhilarating vibrations that only soca can provide. If you’re not already feeling the vibe...keep listening. Marxman and Dr. Jay are making you wine from 6 to 9.

So first the results from the road. Congratulations to Carnival Nationz on their 2009 Band of the Year title. The presentation of In Full Bloom was absolutely stunning to see. Runner up was Lousi Saldenah Mas K Club with a Tribute to Harold Saldenah. Congrats Dr. Jay...2nd place ain’t so bad. Toronto Revellers took home the 3rd place spot with Brasil, Bacchanal in RIO.

If you didn’t know, Toronto isn’t the only place celebrating carnival right now. Down in beautiful Barbados...it’s all about Crop Over. Red Plastic Bag took hom, yet another Calypso Monarch Crown this weekend. Then this weekend De General Edwin was votes Peoples’ Monarch of Barbados. That is a competition sponsored by a group of radio stations. Listeners get to text in votes for their favourite song and artist of the festival. Edwin’s uptempo...Middle of the road was the clear winner. He beat out his opponent Mikey 82 percent to 18 percent.

None the less, I can vouch that Mikey’s song I in Dat is a very big tune. Edwin thought Mikey deserved to get something too...so get this. He actually offered to give him 10 thousand dollars out of his $25,000 top prize.

Before I head out to continue the carnival action, lemme tell you what happened in Antigua last night. Tian Winter dethroned long time crowd favourite Claudette "CP" Peters in both the Groovy Soca Monarch and Party Monarch categories. So get used to the songs "Baby I" and "Soca Rebel"...and the name Tian Winter. He's on top of his game for 2009, and he's here to stay.

I'm Nurse Karen, and those were Dr. Jay's Rounds. For more info on anything mentioned here...check out your best source for reliable soca news, Nurse Karen Etc at www.nurse-karen.com or follow nurse karen on twitter.

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Booster Shot: Carnival Nationz is Band of the Year!

Mas was maaaaaaaaaaaaad yesterday! I had so much fun on the road with Tribal Knights. The DJ's kept me moving all day, and the performances from Shyann Bailey and Skinny Fabulous turned out to be the icing on my carnival cake.

Had tons of fun with with family and friends, just wish the marshals would have studied the stormers a bit more the people's daughter bam bam and ting. Sadly...we didn't rule the road for Caribana the way we had hoped.


Here's who did!


1. Carnival Nationz - In Full Bloom, Fruits and Flowers
2. Louis Saldenah Mas K Club - A Tribute to Harold Saldenah
3. Toronto Revellers - Brasil, Bacchanal in Rio

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The Rounds: Porn distributor resigns from radio

In this edition: 

• Curtis Eustace leaves Carnival Nationz
• Jamaica Carnival 2009 cancelled
• Davy Murray resigns from Boom Champions 94.1
• Red Hot Flames about to hire a new female lead vocalist

Good Evening Soca Lovers, I'm Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay's Rounds. Happy Easter! This is the time of year we tend think about cute fluffy bunnies and little chicks being born.  But that stuff just reminds ME of all the little mas bands in Toronto hatching their big ideas for Caribana 2009.  It's band launch season kiddies!  Which means carnival come back again! This year, Dr. Jay has joined forces with veteran title-winning bandleader Louis Saldenah to bring his own section called Crave.  Marxman has signed on again with Tribal Knights, who's portraying the theme, Birds of Paradise.  Jamaal MaGloire's Toronto Revellers invites you to Brazil this year.   And Carnival Nationz?  Well, for the time being, they are saying goodbye to former Bandleader Curtis Eustace.  He's cooked up a brand new band called All Spice.  Check your favourite caribbean websites for details.
      Earlier this week, the daughter of Byron Lee dropped a bomb on the Jamaican media when she announced that Jamaica Carnival would be cancelled this year.  2009 was to be the 20th anniversary of the street jump up founded by her famous dad in the 80's.  She points the finger at the recession for the cancellation, saying 80 per cent of the carnival events do not earn revenue, and a carnival was not viable with waning corporate support.
       To avoid confusion, I want to point out that there are two carnivals in Jamaica.  Bacchanal Jamaica, the more popular offshoot of the original carnival will continue as planned, complete with all the bells and whistles I've been telling you about: the Mas camp concerts, Beach J'ouvert and of course, the parade of the bands!
        This recession ting not easy, yuh know.  But, lucky for you, I know a few places hiring if you happen to be out of work.  Trinidad and Tobago's Boom Champions radio station received a letter of resignation on Thursday from a long time news presenter called Davy Murray.  He's in some serious legal hot water right now after appearing in court Monday on porn charges.  Crazy, yes? Murray is charged with using the internet to distribute naked photos of a female soca artist who used to be pretty popular in Trinidad.  And NO, I'm not telling you who.
       If presenting news isn't your thing, perhaps you'll consider becoming the new lead singer of Antigua's Red Hot Flames!  The popular soca band from the island with a beach for every day of the year is looking for someone to replace Esther Dyer who *cough cough* left the band back in August.  The field has been narrowed to two.  Oungku tells me he's having the hardest time choosing between Florida-based Saffire and Trini-based Bitts...you soca fans have known over the years as Lil Bitts.  He hopes to announce the new leading lady by the end of the month after both candidates get one last chance to come and gig with the band.
      So, that's the kind of week it's been in soca.  One last thing.  Fay Ann finally got paid on Tuesday.  So, I guess the recession missing THAT family.

          I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds.  Satisfy your curiosity about all these News Stories online at the Nurse Karen Etc blog at triple w dot mustard seeds dot net.  Or just follow NurseKaren on twitter to get up to the minute info as it happens.  Now, back to de Docta!

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The Rounds - August 5, 2007

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Doctor Jay’s Rounds. This is it Toronto: Caribana 2007! 40 years of mas in T.O….and we’ve STILL got it.
Congratulations to Jamaal Magloire and the Toronto Revellers Mas band for stopping Carnival Nationz in their tracks. The larger than life presentation of Viva Las Vegas clinched the band of the year title, denying last year’s winners their highly anticipated 3-peat. Instead Carnival Nationz had to settle for 3rd place, right behind longtime favourites, Louis Saldenah’s Mas K Club.
Friday night, the action was at Pan Alive…and there’s no doubt the music was sounding sweet, sweet, sweet. So sweet the judges and them had a hard time picking a winner. In the end, Salah’s Steelpan Academy from Montreal caused a major upset on Toronto turf. Rivals Pan Fantasy, Afropan and New Dimension left Lamport on equal footing, stunned…in a three way tie for second place.
Did you see how pretty the pretty mas was looking on the road yesterday. Sure, all the sexy Toronto men and women could take credit for that. But you really have to big up the bandleaders, mas designers and mas men and women for building some of the most spectacular big costumes Toronto has ever seen. If you were fighting up to get a glimpse on the lakeshore, do yourself a favour and buy yuhself a ticket to the king and queen show next year. That is theatre and pageantry….Masquerade at it’s best. Congratulations to Barokeete Canada’s Joanne Boisson for winning Female Individual of the Year. And Carnival Nationz Kurt Alexander, Tamara Alleyne Gittens, and Rudy Rampersad for winning top prizes for Male Individual, Queen of the Bands and King of the Bands respectively.
For all the bajans and Antiguans who weren’t able to find an outrageously priced flight to this year’s cropover and carnival festivities…let me tell you what you’ve missed. Over in Antigua, they’re celebrating 50 years of Carnival. As predicted last week, Claudetter Peters is once again Soca Monarch and Little Rick was Crowned party monarch last Sunday in BIM. His win was overshadowed, however, by a terrible car crash that claimed the lives of six barbadians on the way to the show. Allyuh remember to be safe on the roads as you enjoy the carnival. We want to see you again next year.
On a lighter note, Mr. Dale was just crowned the Peoples Monarch for Soca Junkie. As the Winner, he earned himself a brand to mazda sedan…The problem is… my man doesn’t exactly know how to drive. But don’t laugh too hard. Since they started giving out cars at these shows, he’s the seventh artiste to win that has no experience behind the wheel. Whappen tu yuh bajan posse…allyuh have the flattest island, with the safest roads…and if they sharing out cars…the least you could do is get a license.
I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s rounds for Caribana 2007. Please text your comments to 9-3-5-9-3-5. Now back to de docta.

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The Rounds - May 11, 2007

Good Evening Soca Lovers,
I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. In case alluyuh missed de memo, today is Mother’s Day! If your moomie is anything like mine, then if you haven’t called by now, you better just be sure have something good for her Christmas. You always hadda remember your mother! So, I want to send a special greeting to the woman who dressed me up in Vincy colours to go down University Avenue. She taught me the words to Rum and Coca-cola. She even taught me how to roll my waist in the kitchen. I’m sending love and thanks to the sweet West Indian woman who showed me how to be both feminine and strong.
To all the mother’s listening, whether or NOT the children you’ve reared are your own. To all the mothers who are no longer with us. Today we salute you!
LAST NIGHT…while we WERE still loving de mommies and dem, the main focus was on something else. Toronto was injected with a healthy dose of carnival fever. Your favourite KOS DJs and Yours Truly were spreading the love to at a score of Band Launches. Maybe you were jamming with Marxman and Callaloo crew over at Palazzo for the Conquest of Alexander. Could be you got a dose of musical medicine from de Doctor. He was bringing his vibe to Jamaal Magloire’s Toronto Revellers when they transformed Shangri-La to Viva Las Vegas. Soca Sweetness lent HIS honey to the brand new Tribal Nights band at the Ramada hotel. And your nurse was there too…administering a little treatment of my own. I also want to big up Louis Saldenah and de Expats who were warming up last night as well. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Summer is almost here.
Springtime in Toronto is the perfect time to get out and do something different. Starting Wednesday, audiences here at home can look forward to a new play from Trinidadian playwright Tony Hall. Twilight Café opens at The Great Hall this Wednesday, but today Director, Rhoma Spencer is here in studio to tell you all about it.
Here in Ontario, Summer unofficially starts with the Victoria Day long weekend. So, if you’re ready to cast off those dark clothes, get a fresh pedicure and a sassy new hair cut...now is the time to get organized. Next Sunday night, be sure and start your summer right! Soca or Die “Take 6 Love” is the only name you need to remember. Where else can you see Nadia Batson, Kes the Band, Kerwin Du Bois, Collie Buddz and Ziggy Ranking. Where else can you hear the entire cast of KOS DJ’s under one roof? Where? Feel free to text me, because I want to know! You MUST get your tickets now, because come next weekend you won’t get any sympathy from me. Betta safe dan sor-ree.
I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Send your comments to soca at FLOW 935 dot com. Now back to de docta!

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