The Keesing Live shows may be the best live concert series you haven't heard of.
That's no fault of the organizers Alternative Music (singer-producer-whatever's required Charmaine Limonious and engineer-producer Bobby Stewart). They frenetically promote and work the shows before and after each date amid their already crammed professional and personal schedules.
And amid a live scene that's still partly on life support (with corporate funding going more to parties and hit parade overseas act showcases) its a bona fide miracle: the show starts on time - always, artists are accommodated decently and professionally and, a one might expect, lighting, staging and audio are always spot-on (maybe a few minor glitches but nothing to mar the production.
And so it was at the most recent Keesing outing, with visiting Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan in the audience, there were commendable deliveries from Kelissa (with of-the-moment reggae hero Chronixx unobtrusively providing background vocals off stage), the live return of history-making Rising Stars winners One Third (first group to win the competition) and the blind - but certainly not disabled - singer, Kandi, who admirably raised the curtain.
other duties prevented this writer from catching the curtain-closers, legendary Jamaican pop storytellers Ernie Smith ("Duppy or Gunman") and Pluto Shervington "Your Honour", "Sweet Jamaica") who jokingly remarked in the pre-stage lounge that there's "too much blood in my rum stream"
if quality musicianship and a tight production ship are your style of live entertainment, then you owe it to yourself to help make Keesing Live a less-kept secret.
A few days after, over at the Countryside Club (fast returning to its previous stature as a live venue of note) the singing Morgans, aka Morgan Heritage, held court, speaking to media - well, primarily to IRIE-FM and TVJ, but with others of us "let in" on it; they addressed a wide range of topics, from the ravages of Chik-V to the ravaged state of Jamaican music.
Again, time and other logistical pressures kept from getting the "Full Morgan" but they have been touring behind their most recent album, "Here Come the Kings" as well as pursuing their respective individual projects
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