Karen Smith continues to make a statement with each appearance on stage. She is more then a cabaret performer, she is the diva of the local stage, whatever genre she is performing — whether it is jazz or pop.

Within a week, this gifted, effervescent songbird seduced audiences in two different idioms. First it was the vintage music show, Stars R Us at the Mas Camp, then on Sunday, at Jazz in Jamaica Pegasus Hotel ballroom — early afternoon showers put an end to any thought of staging the August version of the bi-monthly Jazz in the Gardens in its usual location.

The open-air ambience apart, musically speaking nothing was missing. It was another golden opportunity for music aficionados to witness a sterling performance by Lloyd Parks, Boris Gardner, Benjy Myaz, Desi Jones, Dale Haslam among the new kids on the block Dwayne Livingstone and Michael Kennedy.

Exuding her trademark persona, Karen Smith had the rapt attention of the large audience from the moment she took to the stage.

She began smoothly in jazz with On A Clear Day followed by The Look of Love, then made a dynamic transition into the popular musical vein. Karen Smith, in keeping with the theme of Bass in Konversation, she artistically represented her husband.

The ever-chirpy songstress laughed heartily as she quipped, “My husband is a bass man. His name is Jackie Jackson.” Having made the audience laugh uncontrollably from her amusing anecdote of how she met him, she then proceeded to rock the ballroom with some vintage rocksteady/Reggae numbers for which her husband rated as the King of rocksteady-bass.

With two toddlers (brothers Daniel and Janiel,) whom she took on as her backup dancers after spotted them dancing up a storm in the company of their parents, Karen Smith was her usual self gliding effortlessly from song to conversation.

The songs on which she brought back memories of her husband’s bass ‘konversation’ included the Melodians’ By The Rivers of Babylon, You Have Caught Me Baby, Sweet Sensation; Hopeton Lewis’ Take It Easy; Toots and the Maytals’ Pomps and Pride and Desmond Dekker and the Aces’ 007 (Shanty Town).

Adding to the evening’s fare also was long-standing bassist Lloyd Parks who stepped out from his customarily role as bandleader to join the innovative musical konversation with bass and vocals exciting the highly appreciative audience with Members Only and his signature tune Officially.

Another vintage performance came from Boris Gardner whose contribution to the konversation on bass was like a history lesson in Jamaican music. In his amazing stint, the veteran bassist/vocalist set the record straight as to who played on a number of Reggae’s timeless gems.

Coming out of his konversation which began with his vocal rendition of By The Time I Get to Phoenix, Love Been Good to Me, supported by Chris McDonald on keyboard/vocals, Gardner while switching to the bass, asserted bragging rights for Heptones’ classics Partytime, Why Do You Leave Me to Cry; Pat Kelly’s You Don’t Care For Me; Larry and Alvin’s What Sweet Nany Goat, Derrick Harriot’s I was Born A Loser and Junior Murvin’s Police and Thief. He earned an encore which he honoured with his smooth velvet voice, the Johnny Ace’s evergreen hit, Forever My Darling.

Living up to the title of his latest single, Hooked on You which is number one on the US east coast, Benjy Myaz had patrons hooked throughout his allotted time on stage.

The accomplished singer/musician straddling the fine line that separates those who play music to live and those who live to play music, demonstrated that he is among the latter. This he did with his adventurous wanderlust musical expression on bass and vocal scathing on some tunes that blend jazz, world beat and contemporary pop with seductive reggae music.

The Bass in Konversation musical dialogue ended cu featuring Dennis Brown’s Should I, Love Has Found Its Way and It’s So Nice to Be With You.