By Joan Rampersad Thursday, July 30 2009

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Nigel Rojas of Orange Sky centre stage....

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The 3Canal “Freedom Now” show, featuring Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts and Stanton Kewely on Tuesday night at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s was perhaps one of the best concerts in Port-of-Spain in recent years.

During the entire show emotions ranged from celebration of Emancipation, happiness to be alive and well, to doom and gloom from current injustices, to rage with the powers that be not listening to the people, to love when all else fails and lastly to hope for a better life in this country.

Every Emancipation 3Canal hosts two concerts with the first being a benefit. This year the benefit was for actress Cecilia Salazar.

Four months ago she suffered Peripartum Dilated Cardiomyopathy – an enlarged, stressed and weakened heart. It meant she was in the early stages of heart failure in both the left and right chambers of her heart. Roberts explained: “Its about celebrating Emancipation but this year we decided to look at Emancipation as not dressing up in pretty clothes but what freedom really means to us and how we plan to make a difference with it.”

He added that with freedom as the breath of life, deceased producer Shelshok who was one of the celebrated persons of the event produced 90 percent of their music. And using another quote “Freedom lies in being bold,” he cited Salazar who he said took a bold choice years ago to become an actress despite the odds and a lot of her energy was poured into their work on the night.

That, coupled with 3Canal deliberately bringing the band Cut + Clear to the forefront and closer to the audience, it was easier to communicate with the audience and it worked. With all instruments clearly heard, the band fired on all cylinders and their music was felt throughout the hall.

The night began with oral tradition artistes Mohammed Muwakil doing a freedom piece followed by The Griots – Tonya Evans, Mandissa Granderson and Isoke Edwards doing likewise.

3Canal then made their entrance on stage with “Happy Song” followed by “Rise,” “Now Is The Time” and “Freedom Jam.” During this song a total jam session followed with the introduction of Sheldon Holder and his guitarist Johnny Hosein Darius Balgobin and Nickolai Salcedo.

The Griots went into another interlude before 3Canal returned on stage to deliver “Millions.” During numbers, Manwarren blasted politicians for not hearing the plight of the people and even sarcastically joked on the PM and his “so-called” death threat then went on to sing “Watch Them.” By this time the audience fully got into their act as they sang with conviction, “Salt” and “Talk Yuh Talk.”

The music was pulled down a bit for Manwarren to tell a true story of a 14-year-old being gunned down the night before he’d arranged with his cousin Ataklan to work with him. Manwarren then sang “A Song For Billy” after which he stated “The killings have to stop.”

Ataklan was then introduced and he delivered “Shadow In The Dark” after which he stated, “Emancipation (slavery) hasn’t been abolished, it’s only been redesigned” but he changed the mood of the audience with his next song “Tomorrow Today” during which he asked everyone in the audience to touch someone next to them whether they knew them or not and tell the person “I Love You.” This action prompted Manwarren to declare: “Pastor Ataklan.” 3Canal then surprised the audience when they next introduced Nigel Rojas of Orange Sky. He was greatly applauded as he got into “Love Each Other,” followed by a song that he stated helped saved his marriage, “The Rent.”

After the intermission the oral traditionists returned to begin the second half of the programme followed by the return of 3Canal with “Illuminata,” “Slaves,” “Where Do We Go From Here,” “Giants,” “Boom Up History” and “Islands.”

At this point Salazar, who was in the audience with her baby Stella was asked to stand in the audience and the spotlight soon fell on her. She courageously and bravely did so and swayed a bit to the music, acknowledging the outpouring of love and support from members of her family and well-wishers who were out in their numbers. 3Canal then closed with “Good Morning” and “Never Give Up”. That latter song got Salazar visibly emotional given her medical condition.