The curtains came down on the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival in collaboration with Lincoln Centre after a week-long authentic jazz journey. Now in its 28th year, Saint Lucia Jazz is the Caribbean’s longest running music celebration.

The festival, which was held at new venues from the north to south of the island, featured the finest names in modern jazz, Caribbean Jazz musicians, Grammy Award winning performers, and the first Gospel-inspired inspirational Jazz Brunch. Ten out of the 25 performing jazz acts originated from Saint Lucia.

Prime Minister for Saint Lucia, Hon. Allen Chastanet, expressed satisfaction with the overall outcome of the new set up.

“The accolades just poured in last night, and again tonight. I’ve been going around and meeting people and everybody is just elated, and I think that if you’re a true Jazz lover you know that we’re treating it with the greatest level of respect.”

The Minister in the Ministry of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries with responsibility for Culture and Creative Industries, Fortuna Belrose, explained that the collaboration with the Jazz at Lincoln Centre enabled a reduction in the cost of artistes with additional educational benefits for music students.

The exchange of information and sharing of experiences with persons who are more experienced was valuable to the younger ones as it will enable our youngsters to see and understand that they too can be on that big stage. Our government is focused on providing more opportunities to young people in the creative industries and so training like this continues to nurture those who are keen on building an authentic jazz product here.”

On May 9, Jazz at the Marina was headlined by the Saint Lucia School of Music, with performances by 135 music students.

Richard Payne, Director of the Saint Lucia School of Music, expressed gratitude to Events Company Saint Lucia for providing the opportunity. He said the experience of performing at a show of that magnitude is one that students should regularly aspire to, as many will be the next generation of musicians. He added that the master classes hosted by the Jazz Artists-in-Residence have been invaluable.

Mineva Ross, Public Relations Officer at Events Company Saint Lucia said the company remains committed to the development of Saint Lucia’s brand.

“What we’ve done is we’ve isolated the events, so you have the Saint Lucia Summer Festival throughout the year with various courses.”

The Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Centre commenced on May 3 at Anse-La-Raye, and culminated on May 12 at Shangri La.