Anguillian jazz vocalist, Jaine Rogers, will now be having her first album on the market and the seeds are being sown for one or more young great drummers to emerge from the school system into the community and the musical world.

Michael Carvin and Davon Carty

It is all coming through the efforts and commitment of Anguilla Music Production and Publishing, a company whose President is Davon Carty, long known for his musical love. “My passion is moving music and Anguilla forward as an option,” he told The Anguillian this week. He has involved in the company some of the best internationally known personalities in the music industry who are assisting him in realising his dream.

“We have completed two albums and have networked ourselves up in the upper echelons of the international music industry. All our associates and experienced people are on board and we are going through the latter stages of setting up for business in Anguilla,” Carty stated.

One of the associates or experienced persons is Michael Carvin, whom Carty described as “one of the most formidable Drum Instructors, Master Drummers and Musicians” he has known. He went on: “Carvin took on the job of putting Jaine on the world stage and he has the credentials to do that. He has worked with all the great musicians in North America for the past fifty-six years.”

Carvin, who described Davon as “a visionary person,” was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He started playing drums when he was six years, no doubt benefiting from the experience of his father who worked with the drum band of famed entertainer, Louis Armstrong. His long career included being a television drummer in various parts of the United States including Los Angeles and New York and he has a lot of marching band experience.

It is interesting that Carvin, a Vietnam War veteran, has become so intimately involved in AMPP and its work in Anguilla. “When I met Davon and we got into talking, I said I have never heard about Anguilla,” he stated. After listening to him I said ‘man we need to do something to put Anguilla on the map and the quickest way to do so is through music because music is a universal language.’

“I told Davon: ‘Let’s find an Anguillian artiste so he said ‘I got one – Jaine Rogers’. So I met Jaine and we talked and she sent me some of her poems. Next time I told him: “Let’s do something with Jaine Rogers and I will dedicate myself not only to get her started but to put her in a proper place so that Anguilla will be known forever through an artiste like her. This week we came up with a beautiful phrase saying ‘from now on Jaine Rogers will be known as Jaine Rogers the first Anguillian lady of jazz.’”

According to Davon, people would consider Jaine “to be a jazz artiste but at the end of the day she is Anguillian and her Musical Director, Michael Carvin, has played everything to jazz and he knows all the formats of music. When you listen to Jaine’s album, you are going to hear everything – Caribbean influence, Latin influence and European and African influence.

AMPP has thus far produced two albums one for Stephen Core, Group Leader of Third World in Jamaica, who considers himself to be a reggae artist and the other is for Jaine Rogers who now has her own band. Both albums are now being marketed by the AMPP which is also involved in contractual arrangements and has linkages with a number of distribution agents. “We have links with some of the best people in the music industry to put tours together to send Jaine out on the road,” Carty said. “Mr. Michael Carvin, her Musical Director, is also going to be responsible for that stage in her singing career.”

Both Davon Carty and Michael Carvin spoke about another project in which they and AMPP are involved. “We are here educating the children. This trip is just for me to teach them because what we want to give to Anguilla is a great drummer,” said Carvin. “Anguilla needs a great drummer… and we are lucky because we have five now in training. All we wanted was one. They are around the ages of ten, eleven and twelve years. I make a promise that in five years Anguilla is going to have a young great drummer…who works with great people. Once that great drummer gets enough experience…he will become a Master Drummer, one who teachers young men how to become great drummers.

Carty explained that the children were recommended by Lennox Vanterpool and Daphne Jacobs, teachers in the Music Department at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. The five have been selected from among some thirty students over several days of tutoring. Mr. Carvin left Anguilla on Tuesday this week to return to the United States but he will be setting the home work for the trainee drummers once a month.

Carty and Carvin have expressed thanks to the following for the assistance they have received: American Airlines, Social Security, the Department of Youth and Culture, the Anguilla Government, National Bank of Anguilla, the Link Ferry, Heartbeat Radio, Radio Anguilla, Temenos Golf Club, Mr. and Mrs. Leon Roydon, The Anguilla Great House, Hertz Car Rental and The Anguillian.

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