November is music month in Saint Lucia, with November 22 recognized as St. Cecilia’s day or feast of musicians.
As part of the observance this year, the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) will present “Mizik” a celebration of Saint Lucia’s musicians, on Saturday November 23.
This inaugural event will feature the music of one of the greatest Calypsonians Saint Lucia has witnessed, Herman Hippolyte more popularly known as “De Ashanti.”
Ashanti’s Calypso career began in 1984. He has since scored numerous hits including “Teenage Pregnancy,” “Sufferer’s Song,” (Malayway) “Empty Promises,” and “Juicy Lucy.”
He won consecutive calypso crowns in 1990 and 1991 with “Growing Population” and “Dem Alcoholics” (1990), “Jail”, and “Shanti Tell Dem” (1991).
He regained his crown in 1998 with “Prices Too High” and “They Lose.” Even after opting out of competition, he has been a mainstay at some of the major calypso events here and in the diaspora.
This Saturday’s “Mizik” will feature a number of other Calypso greats including Invader, Lady Leen, Herb Black, Menel, Q Pid, TC Brown and Alpha. The event will also feature a younger generation of artistes; Arthur Allain, Ezra, Imran Nerdy, Ti Blacks and the reigning Calypso Monarch Dezrel. Pantastic Music will be on show.
CDF’s Director of Business Development, Murchell Hippolyte, told St. Lucia Times that nurturing the growth of cultural identity is one of the mandates of the CDF. This event, he says, will seek to do just that, while paying homage to De Ashanti.
“The feast of musicians has been engrained in our culture for years and so this year we decided to focus on the weekend of St Cecilia’s to celebrate our musicians and to bring more awareness,” Hippolyte said.
“Additionally we are also big on giving people their flowers and so we figured this was a wonderful opportunity to feature the work of Ashanti. When we thought of the massive repertoire that he has and how this has inspired so many other artistes we wanted to make sure that we shined a light on this as well,” he went on to explain.
“So as to the concept for the night, we have every artiste who will be coming on stage performing an Ashanti hit and this in itself lends to the transmission of generational knowledge from the current crop down to our younger talent” Hippolyte said.
This, he believes, will serve as an inspiration for some of the younger and newer talent who will be sharing the stage with some of the legends.
By the account of organizers, the event will feature a live band with a superb cast of musicians led by Gregory Piper.
As to how De Ashanti himself will be featured on the night? “It’s a surprise,” organisers said. “I mean we can’t let everything out of the bag. But what I can say is that it will be spectacular and I want everyone to get their tickets early from the Cell and the CDF.”
According to the CDF’s Director of Business Development, a Master Class in songwriting on December 6 will serve as a follow-up to Mizik. This activity will be presided over by prolific songwriter Nahum Jn Baptiste, writer of many of De Ashanti’s hits.
However, for now, the focus is on Saturday’s Mizik, a celebration of the music of “De Ashanti” from 8:30 pm at the National Cultural Center.
