Montreal Mirror : Music : Tropical Festival

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>> Montreal's Tropical Festival heats up

by ERIN MACLEOD

The 31st annual Carifiesta parade will dance down René-Levesque on July 2, but you can try more than this taste of the tropics by checking out the Montreal International Tropical Festival. The Jamaica Association, Access Barbados, Access Caribbean, Access Eastern Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago Association, who've been feting up their countries and cultures for quite some time, have come together with the City of Montreal to throw a month-long celebration of the West Indies.

It all kicks off on June 25 with the Jamaica Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Montreal locals Kulcha Connection, Jojoe and the Crowded Bus, Mikey Dangerous and Sampaloo will share the stage with Jamaica's Fab 5, Chezidek and MC Nuffy among others. And don't worry, there'll most certainly be jerk chicken and ginger beer available if you get hungry. Head back to the island the day after for Access Barbados Day with Ossie Gurley & "D" Relatives, Salah Steel, Montreal Calypso Monarch Dennis James and many more.

After the Carifiesta parade, lime your long weekend away at the Soca Festival. Over two days, a phenomenal line-up including Bunji Garlin and Asylum, Destra & Atlantik, Krosfyah and the legendary David Rudder will perform alongside Moses Revolution, Branches Steel, Heavy Steel and Haitian konpa collective Bamboche Racine. You might need to recover at the Gospel Day on Monday, July 4.

The party keeps going on Sunday, July 10, with Access Eastern Caribbean Cultural Day. Dance to seven-time Grenada Calypso Monarch titleholder Ajamu in preparation for the Trinidad and Tobago Cultural and Family Day at Parc Angrignon on July 17. The grand finale to the festival, this free bacchanal features more steel pan than you can shake a stick at as well as T&T Calypso King Mighty Chalkdust. West Indian cultural buskers will be limboing, fire-spitting and stilt-walking about.

For more info, call 872-6855 or go to www.montrealtropicalfestival.com

Trini 2 de bone

>> David Rudder pays it forward

Known as the Bob Marley of soca, David Rudder is an iconic figure in not only calypso and soca, but Caribbean music in general. Bringing folks from different nations together to celebrate the culture of the West Indies makes sense to him. "We have a very strong energy," says Rudder. "It is an African energy that is manifest in different ways because of the particular experience. Yes, Jamaican experience is different than Trinidadian experience is different than Cuban experience is different than Haitian experience and so on, so they all manifest in different ways. But basically it is the same history revealed in someone's own way, however that society has shaped that person."

For Rudder, making connections makes sense, especially today. "At the end of the day, we are still very small. We need to survive in the world, the way the world is changing, to become closer to each other."

Although Rudder recognizes that a party is a great way to do that, he's still very committed to saying something important. "Soca music has now taken on the face of pure party music. I'm making music more danceable, but still maintain the integrity of the lyric - what's happening in the village, what's happening in the town. The audience gets a whole range of different ideas coming to them - while having a good time.

"Basically, I am passing on the message to the next generation so that the tradition can continue. Some people will say, ‘I hear a little samba here, a little soul, a little bit of this and that.' Because I listen to every style, it's part of me. I cannot help but recognize it. It manifests in my music, and I think I must be doing something right."

At the Soca Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Friday and Saturday, July 2-3, noon to 11 p.m., $10
(free for children under 12)

» Erin Macleod

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