City Week to begin with calypso concert

In­nis Fran­cis

in­nis_fran­cis@ya­hoo.com

David Michael Rud­der is set to kick off a month of cel­e­bra­tion with Ca­lyp­so for San Fer­nan­do City Week in No­vem­ber.

Rud­der was en­list­ed as the city’s hon­orary cit­i­zen in 2018 and he would head­line a con­cert at SAPA along­side oth­er artists Mar­sha “La­dy Adan­na” Charles, Steve “Ras Kom­man­da” Pas­call, and Joshua Re­grel­lo.

The for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch said he felt ho­n­oured to be head­ing the cast and had a few sur­pris­es but did not want to “let the cat out of the bag.”

Rud­der, orig­i­nal­ly from Bel­mont, de­liv­ered clas­sics like The Ham­mer and Bahia Girl and said he is al­so mak­ing new mu­sic which would be out soon.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said this was his last term as may­or and it was his way of ex­it to host a grand cel­e­bra­tion.

Marsha “Lady Adanna” Charles carded to perform at the start of San Fernando City Week celebrations to begin in November.

Re­grel­lo said the coun­cil’s de­ci­sion to head­line Rud­der at the sec­ond city’s cel­e­bra­tion dubbed Let the Cel­e­bra­tions Be­gin was sig­nif­i­cant to Rud­der’s phe­nom­e­nal ap­peal to a cross-sec­tion of peo­ple.

He said: “David isn’t just an artiste he has an at­trac­tive­ness that every­body ap­pre­ci­ates and loves. What bet­ter way to open the cel­e­bra­tions with David when you con­sid­er we have been sup­pressed for events of this mag­ni­tude and this qual­i­ty and there is no bet­ter way to start it than with David! He is sup­port­ed by La­dy Adan­na, Ras Kom­man­da, and Joshua so there are south­ern­ers to back up the cast and strength­en and cre­ate that im­pact.”

Re­grel­lo con­tin­ued: “With Stal­in’s un­for­tu­nate re­tire­ment we don’t have a promi­nent San Fer­nan­doian at that lev­el to push where we are so…we have oth­er San Fer­nan­do artists who are on an in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el and very dif­fi­cult to book, but his (Rud­der) work goes be­yond Trinidad.

“It is not too heavy. It’s ca­lyp­so in its truest form and for re­al­ists and those who be­lieve in tra­di­tion­al Ca­lyp­so David rep­re­sents that.”

Steve “Ras Kommanda” Pascall will also be in at the show performing.

As founder of the Caribbean Skif­fle Pan Or­ches­tra, Re­grel­lo said, the arts had al­ways been dear to him and it was on­ly, “fit­ting to end with a strong list of cul­tur­al events in­clud­ing the an­tic­i­pat­ed J’Ou­vert and pan on the street, and a mil­i­tary pa­rade.

“I re­al­ly would have liked to see the trans­for­ma­tion of the li­brary in­to some­thing mean­ing­ful but that is be­yond me, that is up to Nalis. The wa­ter­front project, the re­turn of Har­ris Prom­e­nade to be used by the peo­ple and not those who it wasn’t de­signed for, the traf­fic con­ges­tion is eased some­what. Lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form we re­tooled the next coun­cil and next may­or and grow in­to more re­sources and more con­trol of man­age­ment so they can do a whole lot more.

Oth­er events on the cal­en­dar for City Week in­clude a 10K run, civic re­cep­tion, and awards cer­e­mo­ny, Ter­ri Lyons con­cert, the may­or’s ball, car show and a char­i­ty pan, parang and so­ca lime host­ed by the Tor­rance Mo­hammed Cul­ture and Arts Foun­da­tion un­der Sim­pli Smooth Pro­duc­tions.