Headlining this year's edition of the two-year-old Plymouth Jazz Festival is British ska / rock/world beat artiste Sting, who, during the late 1970's into the mid 1980's, stood at the top of the world ska arena as the frontman for the band known as The Police.
When The Police broke up, Sting went on to establish himself as a chart-topping solo act in the rock music arena and eventually became known as one of the world's most versatile musicians through his experimental music in which he blended various indigenous music forms from around the world with contemporary rock and pop.
Sting is scheduled to close the festival on Sunday (23 Apr 2006) when he performs at the show, which is carded to begin at 4 p.m.
The action gets on the way from 7 p.m. tonight with performances by American hip-hop act Doug-E-Fresh, who is hailed as the world's most successful human beat box, that is one who creates musical sounds and rhythms using only one's vocal chords and jaws.
Doug-E-Fresh is no stranger to Trinidad and Tobago, having performed here at a back-in-times party back in 2004 and from there returning several times to record and perform alongside Machel Montano.
Hosting the festival is another hip-hop mogul, Diddy (Sean "Puff Daddy" Coombs), another artiste accustomed to being here.
Diddy's career as a producer spring-boarded after he worked with several artistes at the Caribbean Sound Basin Studios in Maraval back in 1995.
Also performing tonight are Shurwayne Winchester, Roy Cape All Stars and Calypso Rose.
Saturday (22 Apr 2006) sees the likes of iconic soul singer Patti La Belle headlining alongside fellow American Natalie Cole, daughter of the legendary Nat King Cole.
La Belle has recently released a new CD collection entitled, Classic Moments, which features the singer exploring several oldies. The collection includes duets with Mary J Blige and Elton John. La Belle is expected to perform several of her evergreen love songs as well as a few of her gospel selections. Natalie Cole too will be doing some gospel as well as several of the ballads and dance songs such as "This Will Be" and "I've Got Love On My Mind," "that made her a superstar in her own right.
Another woman taking the stage on Saturday is Toni Braxton who burst on the scene in 1993 with the smash hit "Breathe Again." The smooth vocalist went on from there to score other hits with a long list of songs including "Another Sad Love Song," "Always" and "A Better Man."
Sharing the stage with these special women of song is Trinidad and Tobago's own soca diva, Destra Garcia, who promises to deliver a fiery performance that will see her holding her own alongside La Belle, Cole and Braxton.
The lone man on Saturday's stage is Johnny Gill who is regarded as one of the sexiest voices in the R&B arena. Breaking through at the end of the 1970's, Gill after establishing himself as a successful solo act teamed up with the group New Edition in the early 1980's as a replacement for Bobby Brown and went on to make musical history with that quintet. His biggest hit here is "My My My."
Sharing the stage with Sting for Sunday's closing show is Vanessa Williams, who after being unfairly stripped of her Miss America title back in the 1980's, went on to establish a music and film career that far surpassed anything the beauty pageant title could have done for her.
Her ballad, "Save The Best For Last", is among the most popular wedding songs here and she also enjoyed sitting at the top of the charts with songs such as "Dreaming," "The Right Stuff" and "Running Back To You."
Also performing on Sunday is Jazz wind instrumentalist Najee as well as Machel Montano and H2O PHLO.
