“It’s all over but the crying”
The 18th annual Barbados Jazz Festival has been canceled, but no one told the Barbados Tourism Authority. The story is breaking over at Barbados Today.
“No comment. I will be issuing a press release shortly and that will speak for itself.”
…Gilbert Rowe of GMR International Travel Inc., sponsors of the festival, said tersely on Friday afternoon.
“My relationship with the producer of the festival is such that I would think he would let me know,”
… President and CEO of the Barbados Tourism Authority David Rice.
The website of the Barbados Jazz Festival is still up and making promises, but according to Barbados Today, it’s all over after 17 years…
Barbados Today: Singing the blues
Barbados Free Press 
Let me be the first say that while the Barbados Jazz Festival is a very professional production, I can’t believe the BTA has been sponsoring this show to the tune of BDS$600,000.00 per year.
Gilbert Rowe or Gilly as he is known to his friends is a nice enough fella but BDS$600K is alot of blasted money plus FCIB us-ed to give he BDS$250K a year for sponsorship but then Oliver Jordan left and the gravy trail come to a halt.
Gilly just trying to put some heat on BTA to keep forking out the money, word is they BTA or certain politicians have decided to take him off of the trough, after all he been drinking there for near 20 years.
He used to get money from the TDC also. All in all I am sure he was getting over a million a year. I think we need to still do a show but make it with more high profile talent… ones that really draw the big crowd. Lets look at the Tobago festival as a guide.. big name / talent – lots of people… you cant find space on the island around that time. Also the big show was normally at the gymnasium which is a dead place to have an event… We are in the Caribbean for god sake. Lets use this time to look at it and put on a real “music festival” that will really attract tourist.
I think it’s sad – I saw Al Jarreau & the Late Great Ray Charles thanks to Gilbert, he’s brash but he gets results!
@ Sillime – While I understand your desire (Sting was in Tobago in 2006 but I joined SSA in late 2005 so no Vac for me, man I wanted to BAWL), we have to consider a number of things…
TT is only caribbean territory I am aware of that offers a loan for a Carnival costume, drinks at fetes and whatever other revelry come each Feb/March; I mention it as TT is Culture Conscious 24/7!
Also – Barbados was Sugar & Tourism, now Tourism only (why Sugar gone is for another story) but TT has Petrol & Tourism with a two-pronged economy which aggressively seeks to expand in other islands and a Culturally active financial community you have better chances at pulling Sting, Kanye West & Rod Stewart than a one horse town who grabs and gets lucky with a twilighted Dionne Warwick, Alicia Keyes now starting her career & a then mid-stride Luther Vandross?
Verily I say unto you …
Were Gilbert Rowe’s shows not too expensive for most people …?
Did Tobago not offer much more bang for the buck..?
How about having a Jazz festival that actually has “jazz” artists? Now that would be something.
Dem wait very late to give out this news. and here I Was two weeks ago telling a workmate looking for a Caribbean vacation spot in january to go down for the Jazz festival. chupse!
About time people wise up about this excuse for a Jazz Festival. Go to St. Lucia, St. Maarten or any of the others and see what a jazz festival can bring.
Tourists? Yuh mekking sport!!…the only tourists I eva see about Farley Hill are jounalists that the BTA bring in for free.
That Half Cuban Joker Rowe can’t even keep a sponsor for more than a few years….throw out Dorcey Boyce for his son’s poor excuse and tek all the money once again….he laughing at the BTA and Barbados all the way to the bank…the more the monkey climb lol!
There is a new kid on the block .Maybe his connections are better!!
Jazz Festival????What Jazz Festival??????
What used to happen here in Barbados was nothing more than a get together of a few musicians who passed through for a few seconds to Blitz Farley Hill(Slap Bam Thank u Mam) and then leave the poor park BREK UP!And all of dem so called Jazz Enthusiast would get together and nod their heads and clap out of time and pretend they know everyting bout Jazz and say out loud “Real Cool Eh man” he is boss but i en know who he is…..Yaaahhhh Jazz,,,wunnah barely got a clue…Ya bunch of @*^44%%? nufferneerians!!!!!
What Jazz festival!? This sad excuse for a festival needed putting out of its’ misery years ago!
http://sflcn.com/story.php?id=9588
“Exhilarating Performers Set For 6th Annual “Jazz In The Gardens” Music Festival”
Except for Al Jarreau what JAZZ is there in this Jamaican version? How superior is the Overseas Market to Barbados’ product? The only 2 genuine Jazz Fests are Montreal and Newark (IMHO), and they are on mainland North America with closer ties for garnering better acts to pump their concerts – so while GMR may have his idiosyncrasies, he was doing well for Bim regardless.
Ian – Google “jazz festivals” and see what you find. There are a lot more then you think. This link comes up on top…..
http://www.netunes.com/jazz-festivals.htm
Now while many of these might not be true Jazz festivals, many of them are.
Funny that the Barbados Jazz festival comes up second on the google list. At least they knew about SEO!
My point is that if we are going to call it a Jazz Festival, then the acts should in fact be Jazz artists. If you want to have a bunch of pop, rock, hip hop or r&b artists then call it the Barbados Music Festival. Nothing wrong with at least being accurate in promoting the event. Just because Jamaica (or anyplace else) does the same thing does not make it right.
Gilbert is one arrogant person. He treated sponosrs with scant respect. One year he was against offering passes to those who were involved in the marketing of the event for the BTA. I heard him say he was not offering media passes in exchange for coverage as he didn’t need any promotion from the press. Last year he didn’t even reply to request from the media for press passes. I could go on and on, it was only a matter of time before he shot himself in the foot.
This whole matter could organize with the Barbados tourist board and the local hotels with a different gig every two nites plus a finale at the oval , we have good ties with cuba get some of the good cuban boys down on the rock they is no need to give the purse strings to one person , dont forget this is what the tourist industry needs unite and make it wright .
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t Jazz on the Hill the biggest money earner in the Barbados Jazz Festival? If so, with Farley Hill out of commission owing to Hurricane Tomas maybe that was behind the decision to cancel the 2011 event.
dear gilbert need to get the jazz festival back in barbados ,or some form of jazz it is very essential spoke to some of the goverment official,s in barbados already.yes i,m the one that plays at ronnie scotts on wednsday upstAIRS i.m thinking of forming a school in barbados teaching jazz blues funk rock cuban brazilian music in barbados as well as the local music it is very important in barbados….mr cumberbatch
daer gilbert i have a load of british musicians that would love to play in barbados just let me know and i will bring some killer musician down to the island spoke tpo richard bailey last week last week in ronnie,s
ps iv,e read most of the comment ,what one has to get to grips with is that at the end of the day one has to show a profit .and this is why certain act,s must be there,otherwise the act,s that we like could not perform there ,as most young people want to see these act,s…period
if the festival is not in barbados soon i will start it up,as i am moving over there .
I was there the last year of Barbados Jazz Concert, I came with a plan to partner with him for the follow year, But was blown off so cruelly that I didn’t want anything to do with your Island. But I’ve met some one else that keep telling me that it can be done. So I’m going to try and reach out to BTA one more time, But they don’t care to respond to emails or phone calls, So maybe they don’t want to have a concert there either? Plus it not cheap those act cost money plus flying there? Please Look at what all involve? question What do you think a fair price is for a show with 4 to 5 groups performing?
i have sopken to gilbert rowe and the sax player mr toppin,about bringing back the jazz festival to the island,but they didn,t seem to be interested so i never bothered…most jazz muscians know me as i am also jazz drummer from ronnie scotts in london night club so i have sat down with the who who in the jazz world and talked about bring it back dee dee bridgewater,roy ayres,wayne hederson herbbie hancock ect.i,ve even talk to the the british jazz muscians about doing shows in barbados and iv,e mentioned it to my brother in barbados..bernard cumberbatch who is head of engineering for shell oil. iv,e been told to just notify certain individauls on the island and it will become a reality ps i have all the contacts,i know most of these muscian personally i also know what acts to bring over there to make it a tremendious success…fitzalan cumberbatch.
If anyone is interested in keeping up to date with the Barbados Jazz Festival, I recently did a post about it on Festival Archive here: http://www.festivalarchive.com/event/barbados-jazz-festival-2014/ I’m constantly hunting down news on all festivals and if I find any I’ll bang it on the page. I hope it does come back because I’ve heard some good things about it. No matter what people say, no matter how small a music gathering is, it’s still good to have. Better than not having one in my opinion…