The profusion of litter across the green after it had all ended spoke volumes: a whole lot of people had a whole lot of fun on Friday night into Saturday morning as the Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival closed its second night at Rose Hall’s Cinnamon Hill resort.

Their enjoyment could be chalked up largely to two performers – soul sultan Bobby Womack and the silver-haired, golden-voiced Kenny Rogers – who made converts out of the doubters, fans out of the curious and mush of the faithful.

With at least double the numbers from the previous night, the seemingly capacious field became noticeably compressed as fans of both legends streamed in, overcoming the traffic snarl and shrugging off the light shower that sprinkled the venue.

Womack was the first of the two to take the stage.

Looking fit beyond his 60 years and with the support of a full band, he took command of the stage and demonstrated that current recordings are totally unnecessary, irrelevant even, with the right artiste.

He sang, wailed, danced and conversed his way through classics like I Can’t Understand It, Harry Hippie and the show-stopper, If You Think You’re Lonely Now [Wait Until Tonight]. He closed by taking the audience back some four decades to his initial recording, the bouncy Lookin’ For Love and at that point looked every inch the artiste of the night.

That was before the “Silver Fox” came on and turned the entire park into a country and western sing-along.

Sweeping onto the stage without any introduction, he too tapped his virtually boundless catalogue, eliciting screams of delight from the ladies. The men, too, sang and clapped in tune, the majority of the songs so familiar as to provoke involuntary enthusiasm. Ruben James, Ruby and Coward Of The County (which Rogers jokingly referred to as his dysfunctional family’s suite) preceded a video-accompanied rendition of The Gambler with an on-screen montage of the five (yes, five) movies inspired by the hit song, as well as a bluegrass exposition that allowed his excellent band to shine.

Rogers also thrilled the audience with an announcement. Bringing his new wife Wanda onstage, he informed them that the couple were expecting twins, which set off wild cheers and comparisons to another recent senior parent. That done, he tossed some Frisbees and tambourines into an appreciative audience and launched into the one song capable of sending the women over the top: the Lionel Ritchie-penned, Lady.

Rogers’ appearance had followed the heavily-billed tribute to Johnny Cash (whose Jamaican home overlooks the course), which in turn had followed onstage presentations and addresses from both Prime Minister P J Patterson and Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba. The musical tribute, which featured family and friends of the country and western legend, should arguably have been shortened.

Country and western music is the “underground mainstream” of Jamaica, but most of the local audience clearly felt an overdose of twang and were anxious to welcome the more palatable crossover stylings that Rogers brought.

The night’s musical train actually got off to a good start, compliments of Cuban Elito Reve and his aggregation (billed as Su Charangon). Undaunted by the light rain, the language barrier or by the fact that the first main wave of guests was only just coming in as they commenced, they delivered an energetic set that signalled they may have a place on other local bills in the future.

Suzanne Couch, backed by a stellar combo of vocalists and players, steadily built up an appreciable vibe, performing selections from her upcoming album. Wonderful and a soaring mid-tempo track entitled Free As A Bird? (is it impossible for the artistes’ repertoires to be made available to the press?) were the standouts.

The good performances overshadowed an unfortunate increase in the glitch factor. While the sound quality was noticeably better in comparison to Thursday night, the set changes seemed inordinately long, and beyond the stage, power outages hindered – if only for short periods – the operations of the VIP tents and the concession area.

Still, Friday was undoubtedly a terrific night of performances and all who left the venue at around 3:30 am were pleased, even the groundskeepers with the unenviable but appreciated task of cleaning up the litter.