When you think of music in Belize, jazz is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind. But if one legendary musician has his way, jazz will one day be as Belizean as Brukdown and Punta Rock. Janelle Chanona, Reporting On Friday night, the third annual Jazz Festival will take centre stage at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts. Gerald “Lord” Rhaburn “Man for me, it’s like a dream coming true. I noh put this for one year; this is for all the time. Whether I get transfer or not, this wah still go on. It start small dah Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica and dem place have deh own jazz festival right, Bermuda. Belize have eh own jazz festival now. This is small, but I promise you it’s going to get bigger and the reason for this, is that we have what you call international jazz star abroad right.” Both Norman Ysaguirre and John Moody found musical inspiration when the Lord Rhaburn Combo dominated the local entertainment scene. Norman Ysaguirre, Trumpet “I love to entertain people.” Janelle Chanona “How do you feel when you are playing the trumpet?” Norman Ysaguirre “At first I feel excited, but once I get on stage and start to blow, I just blow, you know, and just play.” Janelle Chanona “So you go somewhere else?” Norman Ysaguirre “Yeah, I go somewhere else and I feel it and it’s good, it’s beautiful.” Janelle Chanona “What would you like to say to people about making sure that the young people get into this?” John Moody, Soprano Saxophone “Well this is what we here for, to let them know that this music is good and it’s like—jazz, people think about jazz like it’s something that you must run away from. It’s not that, jazz is a music that’s educational, it’s something you got to study and the more you study the more you get. And the kids them, for instance in school the kids that do music or play music, they are so much brighter than the other kids. Music opens their mind, make them think, cause it’s a thinking music. You can’t just play music, you have to think to do it.” Gerald “Lord” Rhaburn “But for all the jazz fans, I want you all to turn out so we could kept this thing alive. This dah no rap, dis dah jazz.” Tickets are twenty dollars general, forty reserve. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona. The Jazz Festival starts at nine on Friday night. Other international performers are expected to arrive in Belize tomorrow and include two Japanese pianists. Other entertainers on stage during the show will include poet Angela Gegg and comedian Dillon Jones. http://www.channel5belize.com/
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Angela Gegg