By DENISE BALGOBIN Friday, September 14 2007

The Arima Velodrome is set to come alive tomorrow from 4 pm with the staging of the Favor Benefit Concert, featuring some of this country’s newest and popular Gospel artistes.

This event was organised by the God’s Word Outreach Centre in collaboration with JH Records.

Some of the artistes scheduled to perform include Nehilet and the All Girl Band, Koen Duncan, Kristine Alicia, Mr E, Antus Keith, Mission Epistle, One Voice, Ordinary, Lyndon Lai Tan, Anointed Ones, Gitta Dan, Elisha, Shiselon, Djs Inside Out, Wade and Wutic, as well as the dance group, Children of the Word. There will also be a special appearance by Isaac Blackman, who only confirmed his attendance a few days ago.

This concert will be the second live performance for Nehilet and the All Girl Band, who only came together a few months ago.

During an interview with Newsday, Nehilet (Blackman, Isaac’s sister) explained that she still remains a member of her family group, Love Circle, and some of the girls in her band also play back-up for them.

“It was always a dream of mine to have an all-girl band and the idea started to take form back in 2003 through encouragement from a long-time friend Ceon Dindial, whose musically-inclined family also lives in Piparo and plays Jamoo music,” she revealed. “He is also the worship leader for our church.”

Two of his sisters are members of All Girl, namely Lizzie on guitars and Edie one of the back-up singers.

Other members of the ten-girl band are lead vocalist/drummer Nehilet, drummer Crystal Bascombe (who used to play for Sean Daniel), bassist Ayanta Hicks (who also plays with a Christian group of UWI students), back-ups Carol and (another Crystal), keyboardist Alisha Bascombe, lead singer and guitarist Marge Bernice Blackman Mohammed (Nehilet’s sister), and 14-year-old Nihilette (Abby’s daughter) on conga drums. Violinist Ena was being auditioned this week and another bassist/lead singer Corinne, is currently taking a short break.

Also performing at Favor will be Koen Duncan, who began his musical journey at the age of 12, when his father introduced him to the saxophone. He then started playing in his church’s band which gave him the necessary experience he needed to represent his school (Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive) in San Fest, where he received the Best Performer Award.

As Koen continued to develop his talents, he became the youngest member of Broadway Boys International (BBI), playing the saxophone and singing lead vocal on such popular tunes as “Whole Armour”.

With BBI, Koen was given the opportunity to put two of his original compositions on the group’s debut album, and the privilege to minister (playing both saxophone and singing) in Grenada, Barbados and Tobago.

He also had other opportunities at the Trinidad vs Mexico football match, Pilgrimage (one of the biggest gospel concerts in Trinidad), sharing the stage with the likes of Fred Hammond, Stitchie and Chervelle Franklin.

After being with BBI for five years, Koen launched out on his own. He was told that if he wanted to improve his song writing, he should learn a string instrument so he learned to play the guitar.

This move inspired songs like “Bring Down”, “Count It All Joy” and “Sin No More”. He then joined Flow Masters Records and began working on his first solo project, forming the band Birthright.

In 2005, Koen’s first album Bring Down was completed. He received four United Gospel International Awards in 2006: Album of the year, Dancehall Album of the year, Song of the year (“Bring Down”) and Best New Artiste.

As a solo artiste, Koen has performed in Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, St Kitts, St Vincent, and all over TT. Koen has now started his own studio and is vastly becoming a known producer.