Through its Art of Music Campaign, the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival has given a platform and space for young talent to perform at the world renowned Festival on it’s now famous ‘Talent Stage’. A chance to perform on the stage is a dream come true for many, and it’s nothing to take lightly… what with popular musicians such as Tessanne Chin and Rootz Underground getting the kickstart to their lucrative careers from performances on that stage and all.
But for 2010, Festival organizers are certainly kicking it up a notch, with the introduction of the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Band Quest competition.
“It was the next logical step for us and developing our Art of Music idea,” says Walter Elmore, head of TurnKey Productions who are the producers of the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival.
Now, persons all over the world will have a chance to showcase their talent at the Festival, thanks to the new internet-based competition. Talented amateurs wishing to enter will have to visit the Festival’s savvy website (www.jamaicajazzandblues.com), and become a member of the JJ&B Fan Zone. With that membership, persons will be able to upload their music and performance clips.
According to Marcia McDonnough, marketing manager for the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival, “there are a plethora of activities that persons can do in the JJ&B Fan Zone to get points, and the Band Quest entrants might very well attract new fans, who have the power to vote for them and that also brings entrants closer to performing on the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Stage.
She continued that the entrants with the highest number of points will be invited to audition live in one of three cities in the USA —New York, Ft Lauderdale, and Atlanta— as well as in Jamaica, and that entries open on Sunday November 8. These sessions will be adjudicated by a selection of qualified persons, selected by the Festival.
But if you can’t make it to one of the live auditions, then don’t fret, as persons who fit this bill will be entered into a second online competition, from which one act will be chosen to perform at the Festival based on their point acquisition and voting.
McDonnough said that the auditions of all the winning entrants will be recorded and subsequently uploaded to the Festival website, and the winners will be added to the Festival line-up. Interviews from the judges and the winning entrants will also be uploaded to the website, which she says “will give the public a chance to get to know the acts before their performance at the Festival”.
But in the end, there can only be one winner. The bands that make it to the Festival stage will be put through the ultimate test… the judgment of a Jamaican audience.
Patrons of the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival will be given numbers to text and indicate who their favourite act is, and their performances at the Festival will be uploaded to the Festival website for another internet vote. The band with the most points at the end of the voting period will be champion of the 2010 JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Band Quest, and will take home a flurry of prizes including a guaranteed booking to perform on the main stage at the JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival in 2011.
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