Songbird Myrna Hague sparkles at Comets Awards Ceremony

WESTERN BUREAU:

In a short-but-classy display, veteran jazz star Myrna Hague dazzled the audience at Montego Bay Comets Athletics Club’s 45th Anniversary Reunion and Awards Ceremony on Saturday night, in the western city, with a performance rich in clean vocals backed up by elegant dance steps, which had the audience glued to her performance.

In the aftermath of the award segments, which saw persons and organisations who played an integral part in the growth and development of the club being showered with accolades for their contribution, the woman dubbed ‘Jamaica’s First Lady of Jazz’, who came to the fore in the 1960s, showed that time and age has not diminished her capacity to please an audience.

Like she did over many years, first as a solo performer and then later as a part of the famed Sonny Bradshaw jazz outfit, the Silver Musgrave Medal awardee owned the Meet Conference Centre on Jimmy Cliff Boulevard as, with pianist Amardo Blake providing her with stellar support, she opened with the song, Here’s to Life, and never looked back, albeit she had to ‘pull up’ the song half-way through, to accommodate the screams of the appreciative audience.

Her second song, What Colour is Love, took on a soothing flavour as, with her eyes closed at times, she caressed each note with tender, loving care, which drew comments such as, “what a woman can sing, man,” as her outfit gave her a royal look, despite the absence of stage lights normally used to create a backdrop at major events.

With the audience all but eating out of her hands, the veteran who regularly thrilled audiences in London, England, in the 1960s, went into overdrive with the song, Love Set You Free, and danced away from the stage to mix and mingle with the audience as her velvet voice both soothed and sizzled.

She took a short break to congratulate all those who contribute to building the Comets brand for their hard work, and the dedication that has kept them a viable organisation for their over four decades of service to track and field, first in western Jamaica, then in the wider Jamaica and the United States of America.

“Like Comets, which has been around for 45 years, you must not give up on your dreams. Keep on working and striving for better,” said Hague. “When I started singing, my mother did not approve of me singing. But she grew to appreciate what I was doing as time went by.”

Satisfied that she had made her mark, Hague closed her planned set with a beautiful rendition of the song, I Hope You Dance, which had the members of the audience, who knew the song, singing along, while the others clapped and stamped their feet to the pulsating beat. When she blew kisses to the audience and began leaving the stage, shouts of “we want more” erupted.

This time, with saxophonist Leroy Graham joining pianist Blake, Hague delivered a beautiful encore, rocking the audience with the much-covered Jamaican classic, If You Knew How Much I Love You, which had some members jumping up out of their seats and dancing. When she ended the song, the satisfied audience allowed her to exit graciously.

Prior to Hague’s performance, Graham, who is based in New York, gave a cameo, showing off his mastery over the saxophone, reeling off some of the hits of the Skatalites while taking time out to inform the audience that Lester Sterling, the last surviving member of the legendary group, had recently died.

As a tribute to Sterling and his musical legacy, Graham blew a touching rendition of the song, Coming Home, which was well received, as he gave it his all.