While the focus is often on the more youth oriented entertainment those looking for the sounds of yester year sung by the original artistes are advised to mark their calendar. Through a private initiative on the part of Business man Solomon and his wife Jamaican acts Ernie Smith, Winsome Benjamin, Ken Lazarus and Pluto Shervington are coming to Guyana to take some back down memory lane and some will fall in love all over again while some will fall in love for the first time.
Some lucky persons will win free tickets to the first concert billed for the 27th at the National Cultural Center by tuning into the Mondale Smith hosted Caribbean Music Box programme aired on BTV ch2 between the hrs of 4 and 6pm (16:00- 18:00hrs).
While a dinner and dance is planned for September 29 at the Plaza Roof Garden where Jamaican the acts of yesteryear will offer live entertainment in a more cozy setting compliments of the Solomon’s. The tickets for that event is going at a valued of cost $5000 each and can be bought at the Plaza Hotel.
Born Glenroy Anthony Michael Archangelo Smith, Ernie Smith is popular for songs such as ‘Pitta Patta’, a Bend Down, ‘Ride on Sammy,’ ‘One Dream,’ ‘Life Is Just For Living,’ Help Me Make It Through The Night,’ ‘Everything I Own’ and a repertoire that includes just over 21 albums.
Ken Lazarus is a Jamaican ska and reggae singer who is probably best known for his work as a lead singer in Byron Lee’s Dragonaires band. In the early 60s the band toured extensively in the Caribbean which made Ken Lazarus a popular singer on the island. He also became famous as a highly commercial cover artist. Later on he changed his style, recording roots and culture sides.
Pluto Shervington began his career in the early 1970s as a member of the show-band Tomorrow’s Children his hits include ‘Ram Goat Liver,’ ‘Dat’- about a Rastafarian with a secret liking for pork and ‘Your Honor’ which tells the story of a guilty man pleading his innocence even as he had his shirt in list left and his pants in his right’. In addition to his work as a singer, Shervington has a notable reputation as a talented bass guitarist, and as a recording engineer. He has a repertoire of 13 albums to his name done mostly in Jamaican patois (Creole). The Jamaican Gleaner reports that Pluto Shervington, also known as Pluto (born Leighton Shervington, 13 August 1950, Kingston, Jamaica), is a reggae musician, vocalist, engineer and producer. His output is mostly representative of soca -styled reggae, and over the years Shervington gained a reputation as a talented bass guitarist, as well as for his fine vocal interpretations. His output was briefly popular in the UK, despite the fact that his ‘Patois’ was largely unintelligible to most of the British population.
He is best known for his single Dat – about a Rastafarian with a secret liking for pork, contrary to his faith – which achieved considerable chart success internationally in 1976. He got into the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart again six years later, with another best selling cut, entitled Your Honour. This song dealt with a prisoner’s courtroom pleas of innocence, in the face of insurmountable evidence to the contrary. The song’s somewhat racy nature and comical styling is in the best traditions of calypso, and many elements of reggae.
In 1974, Shervington engineered Little Roy’s album, Tafari Earth Uprising. Pluto Shervington moved from his West Indian homeland in the 1980s, to Miami, Florida. Nevertheless he returns to his roots periodically to perform.
By Mondale Smith