Jazz on the Grill sounds good!
There seems to be a continuous disconnect between what obtains for public relations in the real world and what passes for the marketing of Saint Lucia. Time and time again we have missed or simply chosen to ignore the star power behind the utterances of any celebrity who have visited the island. Who am I kidding; we have yet to utilize our very own Nobel laureate Derek Walcott in any meaningful way, to market Saint Lucia, the land of his birth. In fact, we continue to treat the great defender of the Pitons and one of the greatest English writers alive today with scant disregard. Which has me thinking that maybe the Ministry of Tourism and the SLTB may wait until he is dead to start a campaign “Live the legend—walk the soil where Derek once tread” or something as morbid as that.
Then who can forget as well in 2005 when Oprah Winfrey named the Pitons among her top five best places in the world to visit in one’s lifetime. Our world Heritage Site was named number one. Did we capitalize on that? No, not really and in fact most of us ignored the fact that Oprah’s reviews and utterances have helped sell TV shows, magazines, movies and books, not to mention a president called Barack Obama.
But our tourism gurus here would rather spend our taxpayers money to pay millions to foreign consultants who put a flower by our island’s name and tell us that we are “simply beautiful.” Then it was something about star-ship earth or something like that which we paid a quarter million dollars for I am told that never took off. And more recently we “rebranded” with our national colours and an impression of the Piton that pales in comparison to anything creative that could have come from a St Mary’s College art troupe.
But back to the star power issue and what they say and do here and my, oh, my, there have been many, from Paul Simon, who worked with Walcott to George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Bill Clinton, they have all sang fair Helen’s praise, yet we have not capitalized.
In 2002 singer India.Arie who performed here at Saint Lucia Jazz said in an interview that she had gone swimming in the buff at Anse Chastanet and had also done some diving which for her was the most exhilarating experience. As if to say that her comments were not just loose talk she later recorded her feelings in a song “God is real.” In the song she sang; “In Saint Lucia/I jumped in the water/For the first time I understood its power/As I swam, I was cleansed/If I had any doubts, this experience cleared them.” But that was never taken up and as far I know no deal was struck with the singer to use the song to market the island further or to form an alliance with her.
So now we are at another Jazz Festival and you have to wonder who at the SLTB is blogging and making notes of all the wonderful comments coming from the acts performing here, both on and off stage.
Take for instance Irish soul singer Laura Izibor who put on a wonderful set at the Gaiety on Wednesday night. During her set Izibor glowed when she spoke about Saint Lucian cocktails of which she had had a few since she had been here and really enjoyed.
“Those cocktails are sweet,” she said with a smile, “but they creep up on you.”
Following her performance I got a chance to speak to Izibor who told me that she was having a truly wonderful time here.
“Saint Lucia is paradise, absolutely beautiful. The weather, the people, the music, everything is just so real and wonderful,” she said.
About her set on the night which included her own original material, Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and Mary J Blige’s “Real Love,” and some island stuff; “we gotta keep it fresh when you on stage doing like the same set, we been on like five tours in a year, you wanna keep things open and fresh and challenge yourself and the band. With some Caribbean feel coming through on some of her songs. “People tell me all the time, they tease me they tell me I am an island girl but I am not. I think it just comes through in my music, but I am not sure where that comes from,” she said.
When she got the call about Saint Lucia Jazz Laura Izibor says her first reaction was “how long can I stay?” as she laughs playfully. “I came in two days before and will stay on a few days longer. I love it here so far; everyone is so laid back and chilled.”
“And any more cocktails?” I asked. She laughed and said. “they are wonderful and they just creep up on you so it is great we are having a ball.”
During the remainder of her time here the singer says she is into photography and would love to take a day to shoot some scenes and to do some swimming.
As we ended I wondered if she would take a cocktail swing at the Rehab bar named after, you know who. And whether the organizers would this time beat some local bartender to it (as opposed to when we had the Flintoff drink) and name a cocktail special after the Irish singer who seems poised for stardom.
Written By: Toni Nicholas
