SINGER Winsome Benjamin and veteran deejay U-Roy are from different eras of Jamaican music. But that did not stop them from clicking on ‘A Night of Splendour’ at Redbones Blues Café in Kingston recently.
The show was part of the promotion for Benjamin’s album, Where Birds Can’t Fly. She took flight from the opening bars of the title track and kept soaring with Candi Staton’s disco hit, Young Hearts Run Free, the Bee Gee’s pop standard How Deep Is Your Love, and Gladys Knight and the Pips’ soul classic, Neither One of Us.
Benjamin then did the original Will There Ever Be a Time For Me, before closing the first segment of her set with George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord and True Love, another original from the album.
In the second half, Benjamin reached even higher heights with another Gladys Knight and The Pips gem, Midnight Train To Georgia, followed by Billy Paul’s Bring the Family Back and I Believe, at which time U-Roy, the godfather of deejays, made his entrance.
“Daddy U-Roy is like a father to me. I’ve been touring with him since 2010,” Benjamin told the audience.
U-Roy had the Redbones crowd dancing to his hits, which included Soul Rebel and the signature Wear You to The Ball. He teamed with Benjamin on Just Call My Name, taken from his latest album, Pray For The People, which was released this year in Europe.
Drummer Desi Jones’ band backed the artists.
— By Basil Walters
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