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2002 was the ninth year that David and Joyce on sailing yacht Mood Indigo organized a holiday concert for cruisers.  David and Joyce have their own jazz band comprised of David on trumpet, Joyce on vocal, and three Trinis on stringed instruments.   David and Joyce welcome cruisers and locals from the community to participate.  This year's concert held at Crew's Inn was the best of our three years in Trinidad and, from all reports, the best ever.   

Don of sailing yacht Passion borrowed a trombone from a local school to play in the concert.  In his previous life, he had played with Lawrence Welk and worked at Disneyland. 

Five Trini singers from the community joined in, among them the country's foremost female jazz singer and a ten year old girl who had a phenomenal voice. 

Michael Boothman, the guitarist from Jazz in d'Yard, below, played in the Christmas concert as did a 76 year old Trini on saxophone.  This magnificent array of talent presented three solid hours of traditional Christmas songs and jazz numbers going back to the early 1900's.  Joyce sang some old Billie Holliday tunes and, recently when I heard Billie's recordings, I decided Joyce did the songs better than Billie did!

Michael Boothman is an outstanding guitarist.  On the carport/patio of his home, his family serves dinner and, with a second guitarist and pan player, he performs.  A group of about twenty cruisers signed up to be fed and entertained.  For the first session, Michael had a "band in d'box" to accompany him.  It was loud and drowned him out.  At the break, we explained that we preferred hearing him without the acoustical accompaniment.  He said that was a big difference between cruisers and Trinis.  The Trinis liked a lot of volume whereas the cruisers preferred the pure sound of the instrument.  For the second set, a second guitarist and pan player joined Michael.  Each one was an outstanding musician in his own right and together they were a delightful ensemble.