MULTI-AWARDING-WINNING operatist, Rock-blooded Raehann Bryce-Davis had a veritable homegoing from the opera stages of North America and Europe to the Vera Moody Concert Hall on the first day of February.

The internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano’s voice filled the space, reverberating across the campus of Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) as the nation welcomed the celebration of Reggae Month.

Who would have thunk it? The syncopation of reggae underpinning the melismas of musical stylings associated with classical scores of a culture and time far away and long gone.

The brainchild of Music Unites Jamaica Foundation — helmed by Rosina Moder, executive director, and Janine “Jkuhl” Coombs, her deputy — the staging of ‘A Moment of Music…’ was the culmination of vision and will meeting successful action.

The evening’s patron was Ambassador Audrey Marks, Member of Parliament for Manchester North Eastern and minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for efficiency, innovation, and digital transformation.

Compère duties were handled masterfully by storyteller Amina Blackwood Meeks, who spilled gems with each appearance at intervals. Supplementing programme notes, she shared tidbits of the back story to the pieces and performers; each gem endearing the onstage talent to the grateful audience.

The show began with Bryce-Davis reaching for the classics from her repertoire. She opened with Giuseppe Verdi’s O Don Fatale, an aria from Act IV of the opera Don Carlos. Believed to be a tour de force for mezzos, the evening’s star commanded the stage and had the audience transfixed.

Her full tone and display of her tessitura spoke to her calling to the stage. And while the text was not English, the emotion pouring out of Bryce-Davis told a story of the vicissitudes of love.

She followed up with Seguidilla from Act I of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, and then the more popular Habanera of the same work. The audience could be seen almost floating along with the ebb and flow of the sound.

Accompanying these pieces most ably on piano was dean of EMCVPA’s School of Music Dr Roger N Williams. He would serve in almost all of the 18-item programme.

The storyteller beckoned, “Allow the music to meet you where you are…”

Bryce-Davis then introduced work from her début album Evolution, the hallmark of which serves up a fusion of classical treatments recondition with mod overtones.

The Beauty In My Blackness, written by Jamaican Canadian composer Maria Thompson Corley, was the foremost number. With change to English language, the pronunciation and enunciation was crisp though not overly deliberate, matched by the meandering colour of Bryce-Davis’s voice.

Williams was joined by cellist Emily Elliott and Jovani Williams on violin.

She then started Stand the Storm, arranged by Tim Amukele also from Evolution, without accompaniment putting the grandness of her operatic tone on uncovered show, ending with gentlest softness.

Here began a run of Jamaican traditional pieces, beginning with Noel Dexter’s On That Great Day. The audience rushed with rousing response to the familiarity. Peter Ashbourne’s Fi Mi Love Have Lion Heart was next — Ashbourne on hand to hear it.

Blackwood Meeks would chime in, “Church is in session!” going on to describe the pieces as the quintessential display of “vocal lineage and authenticity”.

Bryce-Davis then invited her mom, Hortensia Bryce, on stage, who reached into her own Jamaican catalogue to present an a cappella Run Mongoose, which incorporated audience participation in the traditional folk tune. She followed up with Peter Ashbourne’s arrangement of the popular Liza.

The mom-and-daughter duo closed the first half of the show with the fresh execution of Nobody’s Business (Ashbourne). Truly entertaining. The audience was effusive in its applause.

The second half of the show was a kaleidoscope of sound, imagery and dance.

It opened with Bryce-Davis calling on BEAM Dancers to join her for Praise the Dance, from her album. The live performance was supported by a band of Jeremy Ashbourne (drums), Andre Dennis (keyboard), Salim Browne (bass), and Joseph Wilson on guitar. A true fusion of classical and modern, it showed of the versatility of Evolution.

Next was Serenade — attributed to a base work of Franz Schubert and Karl Wine — supported by the energy of the BEAM Dancers.

Bryce-Davis then drew in the audience with her voice on We Wear The Mask (B E Boykin) and the jazzy
Unspoken (Jake Landau) — a masterful use of her lower register.

This Is My Word, from Jamaican composer Andrew Marshall, gave the artiste an opportunity to thrill with the Jamaican Patois.

She then rounded out with the popular You’ll Never Walk Alone from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel — and popularised by fans of Liverpool Football Club.

The show climaxed with a chamber orchestra joining Bryce-Davis for the rhythmic Black Riders Freedom Song. Aforementioned musicians were joined by Gabriel Walters (violin), Reuben Betty (drums), and Peter Ashbourne (violin). The message was in the music.

As a seeming brawta, the show closed in full dancehall fusion with Timmoya Lowe (in DJ mode) duetting with Bryce-Davis for End of Days (Thompson Corley). Here was the audible inclusion of Afrobeats, dancehall, house music, and of course operatic tones.

The versatile and commanding talent that is Bryce-Davis brought home all her influences for the presentation of a smorgasbord of sights and sounds to an audience well treated to magical moments in music.

Brava, Diva!

Music Unites Jamaica Foundation Executive Director Rosina Moder (left) and her deputy Janine “Jkuhl” Coombs (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Raehann Bryce-Davis is backed by a chamber orchestra. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Dressed in the second design by her Jamaican husband, Alan Virgo, Raehann Bryce-Davis acknowledges the applause. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Among the distiguished attendees was musicologist Marjorie Whylie. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Raehann Bryce-Davis (left) and mom Hortensia Bryce close the first half of the show. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Competent host Amina Blackwood Meeks (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Bryce-Davis (left) with Emily Elliott on cello and Jovani Williams (violin). (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Timmoya Lowe (left) joins Raehann Bryce-Davis for End of Days to close the show. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)