• SF Giants presents Carnaval day at Pac Bell Park. Costumes, drums and more at the Tuesday May 11th game against Philadelphia. Broadcast nationally. Attend for free and partake in 15 minute performance before start of game. Email us immediately or Purhcase special discounted tickets for $13 now.
• KRON TV Channel 4 broadcasts SF carnaval live from the Mission on Sunday May 30th and rebroadcasts entire parade at 6:30 pm.

WHAT's NEW with JOUVAY.COM

Of Interest

Arturo Tappin playing with Roberta Flack at the Long Beach Jazz Festival, 2003.

Father’s Day (June 20th) Pan Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall (NY) with ADLIB Steel Orchestra, Garvin Blake, Andy Narell, Arturo Tappin and Liam Teague. Emmanuel 'Jack' Riley and Max Roach will both be honored. Riley is one of the first great improvisational pan players and soloists who impacted a generation, and he was also a Pan tuner in the early years for Desperadoes and Invaders Steel Orchestras in Trinidad. Max Roach is the greatest drummer who ever lived.

www.tropicalsensation.com or (516) 496-4670 for information.

Saxophonist Arturo Tappin blends reggae, soca and jazz and tours with soul diva Roberta Flack. Trained at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Arturo has made pan jazz with Liam Teague and more recently started working on newamusic.com (Nicholas, Eddie, Wilson and Arturo).

The vision and persistence to bring Caribbean musicians to Lincoln center came from Ralph Ramsey, a Trinidadian living in New York. Ralph, an optical engineer with his hands in many "after work" activities has spent two years to make this show happen. "The idea came from just looking around and seeing the need for something of quality across the Caribbean community," he says. His company, Abstract Entertainment, wishes to produce high end Caribbean entertainment that puts our artists on the world stage. Some of the major sponsors include Carib News, Annheuser Bush, BWIA, and Delta funding. Very popular New York jazz radio stations like 88.3 FM and CD 101.9 FM have also sponsored and embraced the event; something that has really helped it be marketed to the non Caribbean market. Tickets are quickly disappearing for the 1200 seat acoustically advanced theater so don't miss this historic event, make it a father's day to remember and buy yourself an evening of top class entertainment. Hopefully shows like this can make it to California in the future.

Calypso Dreams opened in Santa Cruz on Thursday April 21st at the historic Del Mar theater. The mayor of Santa Cruz declared the day Calypso Dreams day and the theater was filled to capacity with five hundred people who came out to support. The event was pubbed as a benefit for a health care fund for the elderly calypsonians, something that the film makers contributed to before. After the mayor opened the movie, the producers and directors each gave a speech which was well received by the crowd. They had finally brought the movie home to the familiar faces of their families, friends, colleagues and students. According to Geoffrey Dunn, the decision to go to Trinidad and start filming was made right outside the Del Mar theater when Michael Horne told him the bad news that Lord Kitchener had just died. Danielle Deane, a Trinidadian who drove the hour from San Mateo to see the film on May 1st, said that it was a blessing that the film makers got some of the artists on film just before they died. Singers like Lord Pretender, Zandolie (in the Caribbean version of the documentary), and Ras Shorty I passed away during the making of the documentary. Footage from the Mills Valley premiere with Calypso Rose and Bonnie Raitt is now included in the documentary and Geoffrey Dunn says that's the beauty about digital editing!! That might just be enough reason for you to see it at each premier.

Jamaican comedian Oliver Samuels comes to the west coast for Saturday May 15th (LA at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Tickets are $35, $40 and $45 and are available through Marcus (310) 922-4005 or any local Caribbean outlet) and Sunday May 16th (Oakand at the Scottish Rite Theater. Tickets are avaliable through the Jamaican Association of Northern California) to perform his new comedy Christopher Cum-buck us. Oliver is an internationally recognized comedian who has starred in his own sit com, and movie classics like Countryman. In this new play which was written by Patrick Brown Oliver plays Chief Running Belly, the first native that Cum-Buck-Us meets when he lands on Jamaica's shores. The show tours the Northeast as soon as it leaves California.

Karen is an HIV positive Tobagonian living in New York who works with the Caribbean Women's Health Center/Lutheran Hospital. Her job is to find people from Trinidad and Tobago who are HIV positive, undocumented in the US and think that they can't get MEDICAL CARE and let them know that they can get care without being in trouble or deported. This also applies to Trinidadians and Tobagonians who are in the states on visitor's visas. If you are or anyone you know is in this situation, please call Karen at 718-346-1989. Read Karen's interview on PHIVA.NET.

"Our embryonic music program is in search of new and used music instruments and equipment. My name is Eric Farmer, and I teach Music and English at Life Learning Academy, a charter high school on Treasure Island. Ideally, our school would receive funds for instruments from the San Francisco Unified School District; however, we have been informed there is no money for new instruments, that they only have the financial resources to repair the instruments schools already have. That presents a challenge for schools with developing music programs and few instruments. To meet that challenge, we are reaching out to Bay Area businesses and community members for contributions to the Life Learning Academy Music Program." The school's wish list includes drumkits, trumpets, coronets, guitars, cymbals, keyboards, mic stands and music stands, and guitar amps. Call 415.254.3836 or email Eric.

The Broward carnival started in 2003. The carnival had Burning Flames on the road, four steelbands including Arima All Stars from Trinidad and Bunji Garlin, Timmi, Rupee, Rikki Jai, and Denise Belfon performed at the after party. This year the Broward carnival plans to have a J’ouvert down the streets and a Panorama; two events that Miami carnival does not have. When asked about the origin of the Broward carnival and the competition with Miami carnival, Andy Ansola replied that he was a part of the Miami carnival band leaders association as the president of Sesame Flyers Miami, but decided to pull out because of differences with the carnival board. Though much smaller than the Miami carnival, Broward did pull a crowd of 70,000 people last year.

So, there you have it. Two Caribbean carnivals on October 10th, less than an hour's drive apart from each other. The publicity teams must be hard at work trying to promote each carnival as they are both in new locations and for visitors who have no clue of the carnival politics in South Florida, they'll follow what flyer they get. For sure you will find something to enjoy whether it be in Miami or Broward. It's a real heart break to know that South Florida can afford to have two carnivals simultaneously each with big bands direct from the Caribbean, when we in the San Franisco Bay area are stuggling to keep even a Caribbean presence in the San Francisco Carnaval. As usual we'll publish our Miami (now South Florida) Carnival events list with all of the information, including the parties that we recommend and the ones that we will definitely attend. As usual our best advice is to plan ahead to get cheap airfare, a hotel room and discounted tickets to events. Contact Toni-Lisa of www.fantasiapromotions.com for hotel and car rental deals.

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