Stevie Wonder could have been writing about the Tobago Jazz Festival when he wrote Master Blaster . And pannist Daryl Sheppard chose well when he played the song in tribute to the man who was the star attraction of the three-day festival.

Having understood from early on that “Jazz Festival” may have been a misnomer we set out to enjoy ourselves in spite of the many things that seemed to be not right. So as Darryl played we sang along:

Everyone's feeling pretty
It's hotter than July
Though the world's full of problems
They couldn't touch us even if they tried…

From the park I hear rhythms
Marley's hot on the box
Tonight there will be a party
On the corner at the end of the block

Didn't know you
Would be jammin' until the break of dawn…

They want us to join their fighting
But our answer today
Is to let all our worries
Like the breeze through our fingers slip away…

Feeling it all over

Some of us revealed our ages as we sang along, whether having paid the advertised prices, discounted ones or indeed nothing at all. Over the three days we gave away our ages again and again, either by singing along word for word with Mavis John, Natalie Cole, The O'Jays and Stevie Wonder or knowing only a little line here and there with India Arie and Baby Face, or not being able to sing/chant a word of what Shaggy and Dougie Fresh and the 20-somethings and under in the audience were singing. With Machel, Rudder, Shadow and Sparrow though, we were well covered: all age groups sang with one voice.

The Plymouth Recreational Grounds, Fort James was dubbed Festival Grounds for the weekend. The idea must have seemed idyllic on paper. Patrons would hop on to the shuttles, enter the gates, mill around, sample and buy the gourmet food on sale, buy drinks at the bar, lay back on chairs or mats on the grass and take in the music.

Well things did not quite work out like that for everyone, but having decided to enjoy the performances and share the company of friends, we made the best of it, remembering what Stevie Wonder sings in Sir Duke:

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands ...

…You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people…

Our entire weekend in Tobago was focussed on the festival. Scarborough and the route to Plymouth were like Carnival Friday in Port of Spain . Each time the Sonia or Lynx or Panorama docked the hustle intensified.

Some of this no doubt was the usual August crowd, with the festival adding to the excitement. You can feel it all over people . The proprietor at one shop told us on Sunday that newspapers and ice were sold out on the island. Our taxi driver Mr Benjamin had told us with awe “Is big stars coming. We can't let anything happen to them.”

From the time we docked at the port early on Friday morning until we left Crown Point Airport Monday mid-morning, all our time was spent on activities related to the festival: visiting the Production Room office of the Festival, organising to get to the venue and of course most of the time spent at the venue taking in the performances. There was time only for a little dip in the sea.

Initially we had feared that a carnival-big-fete atmosphere might have hijacked the festival. Sitting on our chairs (which we managed to secure each night) we, for most of the time, were head-bobbing, foot-tapping and body-swaying – enjoying the music and the lyrics, occasionally raising a hand and getting on our feet. The calypsonians yes, did get us to party carnival-big-fete style.

Music of the years gone by

Otherwise it was the romantic songs that caressed the romantic streak in us. Whether they stirred up real life memories or imagined, longed-for experiences, or whether they reminded us of a younger, care-free period in our lives when we listened to these songs on the radio or played the records, there we were singing along to live performances some of which were by the original artistes themselves.

There were the songs about love at the adulation stage like Living for the Love of You from Tobago Jazz Band, You are What Love Is from Mavis John accompanied on keyboard and vocals by Michael “Ming” Low Chew Tung, Set My Soul on Fire played on pan by Daryl Sheppard, Unforgettable sung by Natalie Cole with recordings of her father Nat King Cole, I've Got Love on My Mind and Our Love also sung by her, and Rock With You (Michael Jackson) played on pan by Ken Philmore and Robbie Greenidge.

There were also the heartbreak or what Mavis John referred to as the tabanca songs perhaps best described in the lines from Stardust which she sang: “ Love is now the stardust/Of yesterday/he music of the years/gone by ”. Similar sentiments were echoed by vocalist Petuna Thomas in the steelband Redemption Sound Setters when she sang: So I smile and say, when a love flame dies,/Smoke gets in your eyes .

The O'Jays were straightforward, singing, Use To Be My Girl . Baby Face added to the heartbreak songs with When Can I See You Again . One of our young friends remarked at this stage that he was a little too “mushy” for her liking.

Perhaps on a more realistic level “ past the infatuation phase… right in the thick of love ” was John Legend's Ordinary People . When the quarrels began the young man in the song advises: And we'll make this thing work…But I think we should take it slow.

This song was played by Michael Boothman and his band, by Ken Philmore and Robbie Greenidge and Stevie Wonder gave a hint of it when he performed My Cherie Amou r. I remembered then, Stevie Wonder joining John Legend on stage and them singing both songs together at the BET 2005 Awards.

Shadow also made his contribution, trying to prevent the young “fella” from reaching the stage of heartbreak, warning him that he was looking for “horn”. Far from being mushy Shaggy gave a more risqué version of his relationships with the ladies. The Signal Hill Alumni Choir in a medley of calypsoes painted a story of relationships between men and women through the words of various calypsonians.

The world of music can be used not only to tell of romantic love but also to spread peace and healing. India Arie says she has a mission to spread love and healing through the music. She does so through her powerful lyrics.

Saying that she had spent some time at the Nylon Pool and she was still in awe of that whole other world under the sea, she asserted that God is real. Among her positive messages was one of her new releases I Am Not My Hair.

Mavis John performs at Tobago Jazz Festival

Mavis John's performance consisted of songs that were also about blessings and healing, among them Sparrow's Education and Ras' Shorty I's Who God Bless .

When she came back on after her repertoire to sing God Bless Our Nation , asking us to join hands as we sang along with her, there may have been more than a few misty eyes and memories of learning the song some time during our school days. Then, we were really singing our praises; today it is a fervent prayer for God's mercy.

Her performance was an intimate one in which she seemed to be communicating with the audience in much the same way she did in her classroom, calling out to a friend here and there. That rapport with the audience is a gift some of our local performers seem to use very well. The disc jockeys maintained the mood after her performance by playing some Marley classics among them One Love .

Young saxophonist Mike Phillips was another of the foreign acts. He charmed the audience with his youth, his flambouyance. Perhaps his performance gave the jazz enthusiasts a morsel to chew, and his experimentations something to talk about.

He played the wind controller through a vocoder (an electronic device which produces a sound effect making a human voice sound synthetic). The robotic, metallic, monotonous voice attracted the youth who were there. Let's hope his passion for playing and composing music infects them. Stevie Wonder himself has used these sound effects in previous albums.

The presence of Terri Lyne Carrington in the band accompanying the foreign artistes may also have placated those who were disappointed in what was offered as a Jazz Festival. She is world-renowned drummer, composer and producer who has maintained her status for over 20 years. She also writes, produces and plays for various artists.

Just as much as we enjoyed the sentimental songs we enjoyed the performances of Machel, Shadow and Sparrow. Like so many of the Friday night audience we missed David Rudder's performance not believing that he would be brought on so late on Friday night. We had to be content with hearing distant strains of High Mas' floating across the bay from the Festival Grounds to our lodgings.

Stevie Wonder performed a few new songs among them Can't Imagine Love Without You. Just hearing it this once is enough encouragement to go in search of it. But this was after hearing so many of his others songs.

The audience having given him a thunderous welcome turned silent as he began his performance and as he went from one to another, showed their approval as they recognised one favourite and then another, from Ribbons in the Sky, Overjoyed, All I Do, My Cherie Amour, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours, You are the Sunshine of My Life, Superstition and more.

During our little dip in the sea, a French tourist with a small surf board in hand was overjoyed as he told us that sometimes he catches a wave that takes him all the way to the shore. “So much fun,” he said, talking as though he knew us.

Our unplanned last minute trip to this Tobago Gourmet Jazz Festival was like catching that wave that took us all the way to the shore: from being able to get bookings for the crossing to Tobago, getting good accommodation a short distance away from the festival grounds, getting lifts from kind Trinidadians after the shows, being called by BWIA after Sunday's show (1.45 a.m. Monday morning) to advise that our 7.00 a.m. flight would be leaving at noon, arriving at the airport at 9.45 a.m. to hear them inviting anyone from our 7.00 a.m. flight present to check in for the 10.00 a.m. flight which left on time. Riding a wave all the way to the shore.

The Festival was not all it promised or all it could have been. With typical Trinbagonian humour I heard a lady asking her friend: “Yuh see any gourmet boil corn selling out there?”

In his opening speech Chairman of the House of Assembly said that when little people try to do big things, they pass through three stages: skepticism, challenge and growth. Let's hope that the challenges have been overcome and the growth will come.