Christopher's last night

Last night we went to Christopher's, the 1st floor of the Quad club. We got in about 10PM or so and immediately regretted not coming earlier. Mary Isaacs was singing (Thursday night is singers' night). Mary fit into the cabaret/club singer scene perfectly. She is a middle-aged woman with a really good repertoire. Her voice is perfect, though it was sometimes disappearing into the band. She sang a couple of sets while we were there, having started at 7PM or so.

There was a lot of audience participation; people were singing along, dancing, and cutting up. One older guy came up to her while she was singing with a bottle of hot sauce, which she pretended to drink. Later on he took a cherry from his drink and sucked it into his mouth while she sang. Even later on he danced with her while she sang. Then he proceeded to dance with a good-looking young woman who came with the band.

Toward the end of her sets an older gentleman took her up on her request to have people dancing. He looked like Ossie Davis to me, with a nice gray suit and matching gray hair. He danced up a storm all by himself. It really looked like he was a dancer by profession or had some time in show business himself.

We met up with Monte a bit later, when Paul showed up. It was nice to see him again. His son owns the club, and Monte works there much of the time. He is a real gentleman, and fun to watch. He gets along with the young women very well!

For me, the band, Dreamscape, was a lot of fun. This is a small combo, a bass, a drummer, and a pianist. Each of them was extraordinarily good in his own right. But the fun came when you watched them. They were all enjoying themselves a lot! They had big smiles, and cut up with each other all night long. The pianist was really amazing. He had total command of the piano and he did everything to it. He pounded it, he improvised, he did glissandos, he vamped for the crowd. But the whole time he watched the other guys and each of them queued each other for riffs. They really set the tone for the singer nicely. There is nothing like live music! I love being able to go up to people and tell them how good they are. This is possibly the most fun I have here in Jamaica.