NEWS

HOLMAN TO PERFORM IN JAMAICA LATER THIS YEAR

Ray Holman spent a week in Jamaica at the end of March to promote his new CD, In Touch, and to hold talks with promoters and club owners for engagements in November. The CD has already gotten airplay on Radio Mona and in clubs such as Red Bones Blues Café. Red Bones owner Evan Williams hosted Holman and some friends at the popular Kingston jazz and blues venue and confirmed that the Trinidadian musician will perform there later this year.

While in Jamaica Holman met with promoter Ronnie Burke to discuss details of engagements. Burke is planning to schedule a concert to introduce Holman to Jamaica, to be followed by club appearances in Kingston and possibly North Coast resorts.

He held discussions with Max Earle of Frame by Frame Productions, and nightclub owner Brain Chung. Frame by Frame is the film company that produces Jazz in the Sun for BET. Earle plans to interview Holman and capture his Jamaica performances when he returns later this year. Chung, owner of Kingston’s popular nightclubs Asylum and Quad, promised to schedule Holman in the Quad’s Jazz Bar in November.

Holman also met with bandleader Bianca Welds of Panoridim, the UWI steelband, and Dr. Hillary Brown, who arranges and manages two steelbands in Kingston, Ascension Steel Orchestra and the Stella Maris Steelband.

He promised to arrange cameo tunes for the steelbands when he returns. Welds, who played with a quartet of Panoridim members in the World Steelband Festival in Trinidad four years ago, welcomed Holman and praised Holman for his compositions on In Touch.

Dr. Brown, who started playing pan with Panoridim 21 years ago, called In Touch “wicked.” “The album is warm, real, inspiring and an essential addition for pan enthusiasts everywhere,” says Dr. Brown.

In Ocho Rios, the Italian Restaurant Toscanini plays In Touch as part of its house music, and is now selling the album. Other outlets for the album in Jamaica include Mobile Music Record Store and Panoridim.