The Rounds: Naki is "Always On Time", etc

Originally aired on FLOW 93.5 FM's "Soca Therapy" with Dr. Jay de Soca Prince,on Sunday, December 6th, 2009. Tune in every Sundays from 6 to 9 pm.

In this edition:
- Rate Kes the Band for the Independent Music Awards (Trinidad and Tobago / USA)
- First TEMPEST CD is released! ( St. Lucia)
- Naki transitions to soca (Trinidad and Tobago / Canada)
- FREE Iphone / Ipod Touch Steel Drum App (England)
- Birthdays:  Nadia Batson (Trinidad and Tobago), Black Roots (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Sedale (St. Lucia)
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Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Trinidad’s Kes the Band is waiting with baited breath to find out if they will be the 2009 Winners in the World Beat Category of the Independent Music awards. A panel of industry professionals is in the process of choosing a winner right now, but the public can still play a part in helping them to possibly win Peoples’ Choice. They’re up against four other acts. Just surf over to Musicians Atlas dot com, and do your part to support soca.

A couple of St. Lucians who have been working tirelessly to support the development of music on their island, have just launched a brand new compilation CD showing off some of the hottest up and coming talent on the island in various genres including soca. Francis "Leebo" De Lima and Christopher Hunte  are behind a project called "The best of TEMPEST Volume One". Tempest is an acronym that stands for “Televised Event Marketing and Promoting Emerging Sound Talent”. The organization has promoted four live concerts in St. Lucia since 2006, and also participated in the internationally known , St. Lucia Jazz Festival.

On the home front, one of Toronto’s own female Calypsonians, Naki Tuitt has made the transition into singing soca for Trinidad Carnival 2k10. If you’re not sure where you’ve heard the name before, Naki was the 1995 Junior Calypso Monarch in South Trinidad. Years later she moved here to Toronto where she has been competing in the Caribana Calypso Monarch for the last three years. Now, she’s got a groovy soca tune out called "Always on Time", produced by Jimmy Nutron...the same guy who did "Ramajay" for Machel Montano. If you’d like to support your hometown girl. You can grab copies of A Caribbean Soul Christmas and A Mastamind Christmas 4, where you can hear her take on soul music and and soca parang too!

For all the Iphone and Ipod touch users out there, I found an app that you can use to play along with your favourite soca tunes. Carnival Village UK released a free download called “Carnival Steel Drum”, which...no lie...is and electronic tenor pan that you play with your finger tips. Just tap different parts of the screen, and you can rehearse for pan alive! Surf on into the itunes App Store and download it for FREE!

This weeks birthday greetings go out to Trinidad’s Nadia Batson on Monday. St. Vincent’s Black Roots and St. Lucia’s Sedale on Saturday! I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. For more up to date information on everything to do with soca, check me out online at triple w dot nurse dash Karen dot com, or follow me “Nurse Karen” on Twitter. Now back to de Docta!

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Booster Shot: Redman is 2009 OCPA Calypso Monarch

Results from Caribana Calypso Monarch Final!

SCOTIABANK CARIBANA FESTIVAL 2009
Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes (OCPA)
“KAISO 365” Calypso Monarch Finals


2009 CALYPSO COMPETITION RESULTS

Toronto, ON, Canada: The Organization of Calypso Performing Artistes (OCPA) hosted its 2009 “KAISO 365” Calypso Monarch Finals at Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Exhibition Place on Saturday, July 18th, 2009. Attended by over 500 avid Calypso music lovers, nine singers/calypsonians competed for the title to become OCPA’s 2009 Calypso Monarch.



A panel of qualified, volunteer judges awarded points based on the following criteria: Lyrics (max. 35 marks); Melody (20); Rendition (25); Presentation (10); and Originality (10) for a total of 100 marks. The order of merit was determined by discarding the highest and the lowest score per contestant.



The above judging criteria was used at OCPA’s Preliminary, Semi and Final competition(s). At each competition level, (i) the judges’ decision was final, and (ii) their results were announced at the end of each competition level. OCPA’s 2009 Head Judge is Lennox Borel.





2009 OPCA Calypso Monarch

(top four finalists only)



RANK NAME (STAGE NAME-SOBRIQUET)

1st Michael Thomas (REDMAN)

2nd Bill Newman (The CALYPSO CROONER)

3rd Bryan Thornhill (STRUCTURE)

4th Tara Eulith Woods (MACOMERE FIFI) (2008 defending champ)



Nine other OCPA annual, special prizes were also handed out on Saturday, July 18th, 2009. They were:



BEST LYRICS

Michael Thomas for the song “Black Hen Chicken” sung by Redman

BEST MELODY

Winston Maingot for the song “I Eh Taking More” sung by Macomere Fifi

BEST PRESENTATION

Tara Eulith Woods (Macomere Fifi) for the song “I Eh Taking More”

MOST ORIGINAL CALYPSO

Bill Newman (The Calypso Crooner) for the song “Ah Living Backwards”

BEST RENDITION

Tara Eulith Woods (Macomere Fifi) for the song “I Eh Taking More”

BEST COMPOSITION ON A LOCAL TOPIC

Tie: (i) Bryan Thornhill (Structure) for the song “Ah Sticking To Commentary,” and

(ii) Michael Thomas (Redman) for the song “Ah Done With Picong”

MOST HUMOUROUS CALYPSO

Michael Thomas for the song “Black Hen Chicken”

BEST ARRANGEMENT

Winston Maingot for the song “I Eh Taking More” sung by Macomere Fifi

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Michael Thomas (Redman)

Love and Calypso!

Nurse Karen

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Nurse's Lounge: Dr. Jay's Return Fete 2009

My lovely soca family. I ent gonna lie. When I come back from the Caribbean in the winter, the last thing I feel to do is party and celebrate. This weekend was no exception. Dr. Jay and de crew held their annual Return Fete at Kool Haus. The crowd was packed the way I like it: plenty people all over but a good amount of space to spread out and dance.


From the time I got inside, I knew it would be a great night. The crews were out in full force. The energy was high. I was armed with my recorder and some thought provoking questions for the cast. The artistes were amped for a good show. So, let the games begin.

First up was Shawn "Mastamind" Noel. For readers of this blog, you know him best as a top producer, who in just 4 years has produced 6 albums, lodging the Mastamind name firmly in the mind of soca heads like me.

He performed Rum and Roti while Patch was performing the same chune just a few blocks away at the Docks. For Shawn, it was his first time in Kool Haus since he was a part of Asylum Band. The homecoming was sweet. He was accompanied by his wife and manager Natasha, plus Toronto-based Calypsonian Naki Tuitt . (She won Peoples' Choice in 2008 at Caribana's Calypso Monarch Finals) .



Ricky T, caught his flight from St. Lucia this time. This was the make-up performance after missing Soca or Die in November. He paid his dues to the people of Toronto with an energetic show that brought out the flags and rags and powder in abundance.

Then came Zan. Most of you know him for being de dread locked dude in HD who is steady rocking capri shorts and bowties. Lemme just tell allyuh, I for one love off the fashion. More than that, I respect his skills as a very gifted songwriter.

Synergy TV's host of Soca Star, Terrin Callender aka Super Jigga TC wore red pants on Saturday *wink* *wink*. He was last in Toronto spinning tracks for Fay-Ann and Bunji back in December. It was great to see him take the stage as an artiste. New York, it's your turn next. Your favourite Bashment 103 pirate radio dj of yesteryear is returning to BK this weekend. Make sure allyuh go and check him out.

Well if we talking Bashment, you can't leave out Iwer George. De Boss closed out the performance part of the night. Long time I never heard some of those classic Iwer tunes. (Brooklyn, you know he's coming too, right?)

If you missed one of Toronto's most celebrated events on the fete callendar, yes I did grab you a couple of clips. Check them out in the EYE UNIT.

But before you go. Shout outs to a couple of hard working gents from different sides of the tracks: New York's DJ Spice (left), the reigning ISA International Soca DJ of the Year...and Penn from Studio 758 St. Lucia (right). You can hear his musical muscle flexing in all the uptempo productions out of that camp. Great seeing you boys. Keep up the good work!

Soca season 2009 is officially on. More fetes. More music. More fun. MORE SOCA!

Love as always,

(Nurse) Karen

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