Mothers got the red carpet treatment at ‘To Mom With Love’, which took place at AC Hotel Kingston’s ballroom in Kingston last Sunday.

Third World and Marcia Griffiths were outstanding, having fans dancing and screaming throughout their performances.

The Mother’s Day events had two shows. Turnout for the opener was below expectations, but the evening gig drew a full house for the line-up that included Robert Minott, Nestor, Glenn Jones, Kumar (who performed with Third World), and The Super Band, led by Grub Cooper.

Griffiths was in fine form. The hits flowed — Dreamland, I Shall Sing, Fire Burning, Land of Love, renditions of Cilla Black’s Conversation; Dionne Warwick’s Don’t Make Me Over; and Young, Gifted And Black, her 1970 cover (with Bob Andy) of the Nina Simone classic.

Feel Like Jumping, one of her hits from the 1960s, led into Electric Boogie, which has become Griffiths’s foot-stomping closer. Patrons even joined her on-stage.

At the end of her 45-minute set, Griffiths was presented with an award by organisers in recognition for her enduring career which started in the early 1960s.

Third World closed the show, following a workmanlike show from Jones, who performed hits such as We’ve Only Just Begun and Show Me on tracks. Their hour-long set was replete with classics such as Now That We Found Love, Reggae Ambassador, Sense of Purpose, 96 Degrees in The Shade, and Always Around, on which lead singer A J Brown was joined by his wife Tamara.

Brown went solo on Time to Say Goodbye, the opera standard by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. His soaring vocals drew a standing ovation and proved an appropriate segue for Try Jah Love and Jimmy Cliff’s
We All Are One, which closed an enjoyable evening.

— Howard Campbell

Third World on To Mom With Love.