The long awaited documentary featuring a behind the scenes look at Machel Montano’s Madison Square Garden concert and the events leading up to the event premiered on BET Jazz yesterday. Though I missed the beginning of the documentary the first time it aired I was able to catch the repeat at 7:00PM and caught the book singing at J&R records, his interview with Wendy Williams and even his taste of “soul food”. What I liked about the documentary was that within the limited timeframe the producers were able to convey to the audience, even though they may not know who Machel is, a little of his history and his contribution to soca music in Trinidad and beyond. The best part of the whole thing for me was the fact that we got almost 30 minutes of concert footage including the opening performance, Dougie Fresh beat box session and the Jumbie finale. Believe you me I was doing the Jumbie Thriller dance!
Some scenes tried to convey a sense that you were sharing something never revealed to the public like Machel’s interaction with little Marley Montano and his mini divo tantrum when the dress rehearsal was not going as planned; I guess that was the “human touch”. My minor gripes would be that the dancers were sometimes not coordinated which was distracting and the sound quality did not capture the essence of Machel’s live concerts. Kernel Robert’s “fresh water yankee” accent when he was interviewed was both hilarious and disturbing at the same time; I don’t know why when some Trinis are thrust into the spotlight they confuse speaking proper English with speaking with a foreign accent! And Patrice Robert’s performing Band of the Year was a bit shaky, maybe it was being on the big stage at Madison Square Garden, the preppy attire SO did not go with a breakaway soca song either.
Finally, I absolutely got the irony in the fact that the obligatory Carnival clip did not feature masqueraders from Machel’s section “Sahara Jumbie” in Island People but instead they highlighted some of TRIBE’s sexiest masqueraders in Nylon Pool and Angel Fish having a great time on the Savannah stage! If you missed both shows yesterday or just want to relive the experience one more time, the following are scheduled airings of the documentary:
Some scenes tried to convey a sense that you were sharing something never revealed to the public like Machel’s interaction with little Marley Montano and his mini divo tantrum when the dress rehearsal was not going as planned; I guess that was the “human touch”. My minor gripes would be that the dancers were sometimes not coordinated which was distracting and the sound quality did not capture the essence of Machel’s live concerts. Kernel Robert’s “fresh water yankee” accent when he was interviewed was both hilarious and disturbing at the same time; I don’t know why when some Trinis are thrust into the spotlight they confuse speaking proper English with speaking with a foreign accent! And Patrice Robert’s performing Band of the Year was a bit shaky, maybe it was being on the big stage at Madison Square Garden, the preppy attire SO did not go with a breakaway soca song either.
Finally, I absolutely got the irony in the fact that the obligatory Carnival clip did not feature masqueraders from Machel’s section “Sahara Jumbie” in Island People but instead they highlighted some of TRIBE’s sexiest masqueraders in Nylon Pool and Angel Fish having a great time on the Savannah stage! If you missed both shows yesterday or just want to relive the experience one more time, the following are scheduled airings of the documentary:
BET Jazz:
Saturday, June 30 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 14 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 28 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
BET:
Wednesday, July 11 at 2 a.m.
Wednesday, August 1 at 2 a.m.
