TWO weeks ago the local music fraternity came together for a concert in tribute to legendary Jamaican singer and songwriter Bob Andy.

The event, Bob Andy Unplugged, sought to recognise the work and worth of the veteran whose pen and voice have graced some of the most significant works in the history of Jamaican music.

In their wisdom, the producers of the event brought together an eclectic mix of Bob Andy’s contemporaries, but most importantly, they also included a raft of young artistes, many of whom were not even born when Bob Andy released the majority of his music which have gone on to become true reggae classics.

The line-up of young ones included Cezar, Chevaughn Clayton, former Rising Stars finalist Natel, Denyque, Protojé, Nadine Sutherland, music teacher and artiste Michael Sean Harris, keyboardist Dr Kathy Brown, the quartet Soul for Soul and trumpeter/vocalist Dwight Richards.

All these acts truly did justice to the work of the guest of honour with tracks such as Life, Sun Shines for Me, Feel the Feeling, Desperate Lover, My Time, Love This Life and Too Experienced.

For Chevaughn Clayton, the young, talented singer whose voice gave melody to last summer’s hit track Holiday with Ding Dong, words cannot express how he felt performing Fire Burning for Bob Andy. “It was a well of emotion as I stood on stage watching him sit there with his eyes closed listening to me sing his music,” he recalls. Clayton says just prior to taking to the stage at the tribute concert, fellow performer Tony Rebel gave him the history behind the song. “Everything I had just learned from Tony reached a climax when I stepped on the stage to perform… there were tears in my eyes.”

Interestingly, Fire Burning was not the track originally selected for Clayton to perform. He had been asked to sing Let Them Say, but it was musical director Dean Fraser who chose Fire Burning for Clayton noting that it was better suited for the young singer.

Unlike Clayton who had met Bob Andy a few years ago, cultivated a relationship with the veteran and was fully aware of his vast catalogue, local musical ingénue Denyque, confesses that she did not know any Bob Andy tunes prior to the tribute, but adds that the entire experience was nothing short of amazing. For the 22-year-old, once she began to learn just how great the Bob Andy legacy is, she felt honoured to pay tribute to the great singer and songwriter.

Denyque delivered a mature rendition of the Bob Andy love song Desperate Lover, and according to her this song just stood out. “It is so melodious, it just drew me in, the lyrics are so simple yet absolutely effective,” she gushes.

Denyque, in reflection, says she has grown so much, but realises that there is more to learn and thanks Bob Andy for paving the way for her generation.

Reggae singer Protojé says he truly felt like a fan at the concert as he was sharing the stage with some of Jamaica’s great artistes. “It was such a humbling experience performing with artistes of that calibre — sharing the stage with legends, honouring a legend.”

Protojé had known of Bob Andy through his mother, singer Lorna Bennett, but says they really connected at the launch event for the concert and had some great ‘reasonings’ in the run-up to the concert. His Bob Andy track for the night was the popular Too Experienced.

Protojé was familiar with the song, as he uses it as the bridge during performances of his own song Argument, but to sing it for Bob Andy was indeed daunting for the 30-year-old. “I was concerned how it would come across for him, knowing that he is a much better singer than I am, but I was pleased with the outcome. At the end of the performance I could not hold back, I just had to jump from the stage and embrace the man who has shown me that if you compose and sing music from the right place, it will never die… it will live on from generation to generation.”

The task of opening the show in terms of vocal presentations fell in the lap of singer Cezar. He sees Bob Andy as one of the underrated, under-appreciated and overlooked giants of Jamaican music, therefore he was more than excited to be part of the tribute.

Cezar chose Bob Andy’s Life as his tribute, noting that it not being hugely popular was part of the pull. “It’s great to have the audience rocking and singing along to a well-known track, but if you can win them over with a not-so-popular song, then you have done well,” he tells us.

The young singer notes that following his performance he received, what he describes as a touching telephone call from Bob Andy, commending him for his contribution to the concert and suggesting that they work together in the future, “I am very excited about these prospects,” he adds.

For these four artistes their lives have been more the richer for performing for this icon of the local music industry. But in one word how would they describe Bob Andy? For Chevaughn Clayton that word is “genius”. Cezar says to him Bob Andy is “priceless”. Denyque chose “awe-inspiring” to describe Bob Andy, while for Protojé, Bob Andy is “priceless”.