Jewel Paradise Cove
A goal or dream for many years became reality when I was finally able to make it to Jamaica for the 14th anniversary of this great event. As denoted in the materials our Feat Fan package the year 2016 included 3 Little Feat shows and multiple moe. and Medeski Martin & Wood performances. I thought the addition of MMW to the lineup made this an especially interesting and appealing line-up to see. I had already seen moe. and Little Feat together in Lake Placid several years earlier.
David Bowie died during this weekend and MMW covered some Bowie material.
We met all of the members of Little Feat, and I even shared some pool time with Bill Payne, a longtime keyboard uber-hero of mine. On the last day, I had a chance to chat with Bill who mentioned his website and upcoming gig in the Hudson valley. I later noticed on his website a piece he wrote about Richard Manual's piano - a piano that was purchased by some of my other all-time heros of music at the same music store in Poughkeepsie where I had recently brought my own Roland piano to be restored - an interesting coincidence.
I took advantage of the day trip to Nine Miles, the childhood home and final resting place of Bob Marley.
When I spoke to Paul Barrere I mentioned that I remember him wearing a Graig Nettles NY Yankees jersey at the Little Feat show I attended in 1978 during one of its most classic tours, at Ithaca College, and he recalled how his brother got those Yankee jerseys.
The whole experience was wonderful, and featured an especially great lineup of music, played each night for members of the excursion staying at the resort (there was no admittance to anyone not staying at the resort) so it was uncrowded and completely relaxed each night. After the shows there was a bonfire and bar-b-q on the beach where members of the bands could hang out and party with the campers.
On the last day we went to the poster signing by Little Feat; a copy of mine signed by all members of the band is here. I took extensive photos of all the bands at the shows and have posted slideshows. Nice videos of the shows were posted online by the Feat team.
