A propos de Cadet Barbara
Clearly, Barbara Cadet has launched into a deeper conversation in her 2010 CD Define This! - Coming from a full decade of paying back dues, arranging intricate musicals, birthing or nurturing new talent and contributing to the documentation of music from St. Lucia’s folk theatre archive, Define This! Is strictly Barbara about her own business. Jazz rich, lyrically explosive and singularly authentic, the 13 track Collection gives a powerful testimony of her stylistic diversity.
If, against the varied backdrops of her professional career – Jazz festivals, Hotel gigs, Musicals for stage, Folk-Jazz Artist and even music lecturer, her signature may have appeared murky to the inattentive– [Jazz? Soul? Classical? Pianist? Saxophonist? Singer? ] - Define This! is tongue in cheek, for clearly, the artist is multi-dimensional, and potent as her own muse. This new conversation draws deeply on pure, undiluted Jazz rhythms. Steeped however, in her effortless poetic lyricism, raw emotion and a voice that seduces like the slow spreading heat of Tequila; this new compilation is hardly provincial. It’s for the universal stage that has known the smoky, expansive signature of a Cassandra Wilson, or the vulnerable, but sophisticated styling of Jill Scott. In between the crisp, impatient The Definitive title track “Define This! “and the languid tribute [to her grandfather] “That’s All”, there is a delightful unveiling of the accomplished arranger, the avant garde musician / songstress and the definitive Barbara Cadet.
A former head of the Woodwind Department at the St. Lucia School of Music, Barbara studied music in England where she was born and lived for some time. With her roots in Saint Lucia, and clearly destined to music, Barbara is an undisputed heavyweight in the industry in the Caribbean.
She has lectured on Caribbean music at the University of Miami and her musical collaborations and experimentations are several and legendary. She has performed throughout the Caribbean Jazz circuit - Martinique, Trinidad & Tobago, Aruba, Grenada, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Cayenne and Jamaica, and has opened for Tanya Maria, Patti La Belle, Anita Baker and Spyro Gyra, among several others over the 20 year span of Saint Lucia Jazz.
Her unique vocal attributes have impressed no less than Ellis Marsalis, and she has had the honour of exchanging notes with the likes of McCoy Tyner and the legendary Denis Chambers.
Back at home base, Barbara creates music in her own recording studio by day and performs with her contemporary Jazz Quintet by night.
In February 2004, Barbara was awarded the St. Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold) for her long and meritorious service in the field of music. Her solo saxophone album “THE ROMANCE” was released in 2006. A year later she released “INDIGINOUSLY YOUR’S” a tribute to the folk music of St. Lucia with a contemporary twist.
Her third full length commercial CD, Define This! is one for genuine aficionados and collectors of the genre, more so as the work of one of the Caribbean’s few successful and recognized Female Jazz Apostles.