- from the Jamaica Observer
THE 26th Annual International Jamaica Ocho Rios Jazz Festival is scheduled to return on May 29 through June 5 with an expanded programme, according to organisers.
“My late husband and I used to plan the event together. Unfortunately, when he passed it was a task doing it myself. Now I’m at the point where I have the confidence to return to that era,” Dr Myrna Hague-Bradshaw, festival director told the Jamaica Observer.
Hague-Bradshaw refers to her husband, bandleader and trumpeter Sonny Bradshaw, who died in 2009.
“He originally started the festival as a vehicle to promote jazz and instrument-playing artistes,” she explained.
She was speaking at the festival’s media launch held at Hotel Four Seasons in St Andrew, recently.
The expansion will see a jazz cruise from Kingston Harbour on May 29. Simultaneously, the eastern end of the island will have a taste of jazz at Rafters Rest in Portland.
“It was a dream to get a leg of the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival,” said Marcia Lawrence, operator of Banks of the Rio Grande at Rafters Rest.
Lawrence hopes to tap into the Latin market that has been surging in the area, especially given that one of the major festival acts, Filulas Juz is from Mexico.
“I thought it was a good product to take to Portland, and the venue has the ambiance for such an event,” she said.
Filulas Juz will be joined by Freddy Loco Ska Band out of Belgium and Eugene Grey from the United States. Jazz fans can also enjoy local talent in the form of Jamaica Big Band and Hague-Bradshaw’s latest discovery Koriq.
Throughout the week, there will be various events, free and paid, between Ocho Rios and Kingston, culminating in a finale at Hope Gardens on June 5 featuring all acts.
Despite the challenge in organising the event since her husband’s passing, Hague-Bradshaw continues to press on.
“We are the very last of the real jazz festivals. All the others have incorporated pop or R&B for profit,” she said.
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