Jewels of Nature – The Organic Jazz Trio

Jewels of Nature – The Organic Jazz Trio @ Jazz & Fusion Tuesdays


played on Tuesday, August 02  2011 at La Casa de Ibiza Lounge, Trinidad 
thumbed by Nigel Campbell, the Blackberry Bro and embellished by Israel


Jajah Oga Onilu and his sons Modupe Folasade Onilu and Baba Ayinde Onilu have recreated on handmade instruments the sounds and music of origin in the tropical “forests” and living communities of the New World, Brazil, the Caribbean and Africa — Northern and sub-Saharan — the sonic influences made real by these Jewels of Nature.
Jewels Of Nature is a father and son trio that brings to life nature in her harmonious forms imitating her sounds like no other.
Jahjah’s instruments, the fiddle and guitar are made of original elements, bamboo, calabash gourd and tree branch.  The iconic drummer provided music for Astor Johnson Dance Company back in the day; today, the stasis of awe is evident.  Modupe is the ‘drumcussionist‘ whose forte is a commingling of percussion instruments and the modern drum kit.
It all came together for Jewels of Nature at La Casa de Ibiza’s Jazz & Fusion Tuesdays Emancipation Celebration where the trio presented a two-part programme: “Organic Awakening” and “Organic Jazz.”
In Part 1, the audience sits mesmerized into silence by the Jewel’s original creativity.
I remember Osibisa in the 1970s –still performing today by the way.  They have an “engine room” like Jewels of Nature, which makes me wonder if a collaboration with an electric sound would not move audiences to dance.  A possibility to engage a wider audience should not be seen as a sell-out.  The pity for Jewels of Nature is the musicians are viewed as museum pieces, not as troubadours providing danceable music for the spirit.
‎”Organic Jazz,” the 2nd set theme, sees supreme Songbird Patti Rogers singing “Nature Boy” sans chordal instruments. Sublime!

As for Jahjah, a sound reminiscent of the oud put him in the realm of Hamza El Din but with the Caribbean spirit alive.
As the programme progresses, it seems that some of these instrumental pieces could very well do with a voice or some sort of vocal haze.  Shorn of the power of voice, we are not given the full potential of this performance, in my opinion anyway.
I must have commented on the lack of voice a bit too soon.  Enter Dr. Shango Alamu.  His blues for the environment is entitled “Sad fo Mother Nature.”  All Jewels of Nature follow suit chanting and making the audience sing along…and play too!  Drums are thrown into the crowd for instant rhythm lessons!
In the meantime, Modupe’s percussion rig gets bigger.  A tenor pan is added to various idiophones and ‘membranophones‘ empowering Modupe to put down a “jazzy” cymbal ride and Jahjah to throb on a single string bass made with a gourd.  Patti Rogers’ scatting cannot be subdued…Organic Jazz indeed.
New Orleans trumpet be damned, Jahjah pulls out a long horn like he going to blow down Jericho wall.  Now it’s a bamboo saxophone…Modupe on a kerosene tin pan…and JahJah’s flute, which has all the nuanced “phrasings” to stand up on a jazz stage anywhere.
Jahjah is similarly phenomenal doing Spoken Word.  His makes a whole lot more sense that these neophytes sprouting words that they have not lived as yet!  That, plus he has a rhythm section making words into music.  To be clear, Jahjah the composer is a patriarch in this nation of music that men like Lancelot Layne, Brother Resistance and Karega Mandela worked with to develop rapso.  I say so!