Legendary Guyanese composer and performer Dave Martins has produced a new album of original music, recorded principally in Guyana, and featuring nine local musicians. It is his first new album release in six years, and features 12 songs.
Martins, who moved back to Guyana in 2009, said, “The album is important for a number of reasons. The main one is that it is an evolution of me as a song-writer in that I am doing some new things rhythmically in the arrangements as well as conceptually in the lyrics. Also, the songs deal more specifically with who we are as a people, and they extol Caribbean culture.” Sponsored by the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T), the album was recorded over several weeks at the Kross Kolor Studio in Georgetown, and was engineered and mixed by Burchmore Simon. Of the songs, 11 are original, with the final “Bonus Track” being one that Martins says will be a surprise treat.
GT&T’s CEO, Major General (Ret’d) Joe Singh said, “GT&T and Dave Martins have long shared that commitment to country, that loyalty to Guyana which ‘is we own’. While we use different vehicles, the destination is the same: cultivating links, making connection, leading to a more developed Guyanese society.” The established Tradewinds musicians (Clive Rosteing, Jeff Japal, Harry Cupid and Richard Terry who still live in the Cayman Islands) appear on 2 songs, with the other 10 tracks being the work of local musicians Oliver Basdeo, Travis Griffith, Burchmore Simon, “Jai” Sookram, Remo Bowen, “Spida” Hopkinson, Sherwin Foo, Rosemary Noble, Roger Dyal, and Trevor John.
In addition to the conventional drums, keyboard and bass, the “At Home” album accompaniment features trumpet, cello, tabla, sax, and cuatro, as well as extensive acoustic guitar work. Martins said the album confirms that good recordings can be produced here and that abundant local talent exists to play on any genre of music.
The album, entitled “At Home”, will be available initially at Matt’s Record Bar in Georgetown, and at Mike Charles’ shop at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya Manickchand has blasted columnist and University of Guyana lecturer Frederick Kissoon who in an article (March 29), written by him, erroneously attributed comments to her during the recent debate on the Court of Appeal (Amendment) Bill.
Kissoon in his article had suggested that Manickchand had made comments on the bill as it relates to the Director of Public Prosecutions and a quest for more power.
Manickchand supplied this newspaper with the Hansard (verbatim record) of her presentation which makes no reference to what Freddie Kissoon made mention of.
In fact, it was another member of the Government benches who made mention of the fact that the DPP had appeared before the select committee and made a presentation.
When confronted with the evidence by this newspaper, Kissoon accepted that he had made a mistake and sincerely sought to have an apology publicly issued to the Minister.
Kissoon insists no harm was intended by the statements he made and attributed to the Minister.
