MARISA LINDSAY

EDDIE BULLEN

ERNESTO VEGA

NIQUET GOLDSON

MIKHAIL SALCEDO

Holistic Music School Big Band
Holistic Music School Band started in borrowed space at Queen's Royal College in 2004. On Saturday mornings Dr. Pat (director of Holistic Music School) would pack all the school's instruments into the trunk of her car and meet students and teaching assistants at QRC for a two to three hour rehearsal. Back then, the instrumentation included keyboard, recorders, cuatros and steel pans.

The Band's musicianship has been established through performances at Reading in Key Concerts, collaborations with Sonja Dumas on "Circles - HIV/AIDS DVD 2004", "Once Upon a Caribbean Time 2005" and "Beethoven to Boogsie—2007", Lynette Comissiong, "Mind Me Good Now - 2006" Certificates of Distinction and Merit from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Awards at the Trinidad & Tobago Music Festival from 2004 to 2010.

At the 2010 Music Festival, Holistic Music School Band won the Junior Instrumental Ensemble Championship, seven members of the band won eight individual championship awards and eleven members received twelve first place certificates. After hearing a performance of "A Night in Tunisia" from the Holistic Music School Band at Music Festival 2010, Dr. John Paul Johnson said that "Jazz is alive and well on the island."" Holistic also has the unique ability to play and sing a variety of musical genres from calypso, rapso, folk, reggae, latin, jazz to classical music and has performed over the years with Len 'Boogsie' Sharpe, Phase II Pan Groove, Brother Resistance, Clive Zanda, Dawud Orr and Jerome Din Chong and Jesse Ryan.

Marisa Lindsay

http://www.marisalindsay.com/

Barbados born Marisa Lindsay's vocal talent reflects her naturally charismatic personality while drawing the audience in, to reveal a deep, soulful, sensual woman. Influenced by Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday, Marisa's performances take you through the turns and twists of her musical journey with heartfelt emotion.

Marisa released her second CD, Deeper Love in early 2009. This ground breaking album is a collection of original material highlighting Marisa's jazz/neo-soul sensibilities. Her first CD, Submit2love was launched during Marisa's return to her hometown at the Barbados Jazz Festival in 2007. Her performances and the CD have received rave reviews at home and abroad.

Eddie Bullen, Thunder Dome Sounds' Executive Producer of Missing You and Submit2love describes Marisa's style as truly classic. "Her vocal prowess captivates, and offers the audience a blend of traditional jazz and soul in an eclectic variety of song selections."

Marisa has toured the world as a proud representative of Barbados on numerous tours to the UK and US. She has twice performed on the prestigious Barbados Jazz Festival stage. Marisa has opened for many international acts like Air Supply, Brian Mcknight, Peabo Bryson. Prior to starting her recording career, she was quietly honing her skills, taking time out to study music and receiving vocal training in Cuba. It is this culturally rich island that she credits for opening up a world of music and vocal expression to be explored, enjoyed and shared.

Eddie Bullen

http://www.eddiebullen.com/

Performer, songwriter, arranger and producer Eddie Bullen is, in every way, a standout amongst the latest generation of that seemingly endless string of very capable Carribean-born jazz musicians. Eddie's lengthy career, which started in 1971, has yielded an abundance of awards and recognition for his outstanding talents. From his first album, 'Nocturnal Affair' to his most recent 'Havana Nights', a collaboration with Cuban percussionist, Joaquin Nunez Hidalgo, Eddie gives his audience a taste of contemporary jazz, flavoured with Caribbean and Latin rhythms."

As a teenager growing up in Grenada, Eddie Bullen was heavily influenced by the beautiful music emanating from his father, Ralph Bullen's music store. It was mostly the music of Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Smith, Kingsley Etienne, and his father's own band, the Harmony Kings. A little later he also came under the spell of Joe Sample of the Crusaders, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. However he still fondly remembers the personal touch of , his Dad, who was adept not only on the saxophone but playing piano and guitar. He vividly remembers the many jam sessions by several Caribbean musicians , especially Kingsley Etienne, in the store. Although Bullen now plays the piano he started with the organ. This change could be attributed to the impression that Clive Zanda left on him starting around 1977. He says that Clive Zanda was one of the first persons to put out an innovative calypso jazz album that he liked immensely. Bullen also likes the Latin and Caribbean musical twists that Chick Corea reveals in his rhythms. But it wasn't until 1996 that Bullen really started his career in jazz.

Since his move to Toronto in 1980 from Grenada, Eddie has worked with major Canadian artists like jazz singer Liberty Silver and pop artist Dan Hill. He also composes and arranges for television. The creative force behind Thunder Dome Sounds Studio in Toronto, Eddie has collaborated with dozens of successful artists.

Ernesto Camilo Vega

www.myspace.com/ernestovegacuba

With a penchant for the jazz and fusion genres, Cuban clarinetist Ernesto Camilo Vega, was born in the city of Holguín in 1981. From very young he was influenced by classical music and, thanks to his father, had been exposed to the stylings of the clarinetists Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, who have been his biggest influences. Ernesto studied the clarinet under the guidance of the sister of the famous Cuban jazz musician, Ramón Valle.

In his youth, he attended jazz festivals in Havana and Varadero, and in that way began to have contact with artistes at those events. At a concert when he was only 16 years old, he had his first musical experience with the pianist Frank Emilio

After completing his basic studies in Holguín, Ernesto moved to Havana in 2000, where he began to study music and clarinet at the Instituto Superior de Arte, and there met his teacher Vicente Monterrey, who trains students in concert music and contemporary instruments.

Parallel to his artistic studies, Ernesto has collaborated with important musicians like Chucho Valdés, Hugh Fraser and John Eaton, to record his songs. He twice, in 2002 and 2003, received awards at the prestigious Cuban National Jo-Jazz Competition.

Ernesto's discography includes an album, Venir al Mundo that features eleven songs that were all written by him, and which involved traditional songs of Cuba fused with songs from Spain, Brazil and Africa and a few airs of Bach's fugu. Apart from playing his clarinet on this album, he also played four of its eleven tracks with a soprano sax.

Niquet Goldson

The captivating smile along with the warm and inviting personality of Niquet Goldson is only but a precursor to the experience of this emerging starlet performing centre stage. The pretty, petit Jamaican born singer who wears a beautiful crown of dreadlocks has been singing for the greater part of her life. Now at the age of 24, she has successfully made the seamless transition from background harmony vocalist to become a sensational solo singer in her own right. Her musical inspirations include Beres Hammond, Ella Fitzgerald, Queen Ifrika, Whitney Houston, India Arie, and Taurus Riley.

Highlights of Niquet's career include singing on the internationally acclaimed Reggae Sumfest stage with some of the previously mentioned artists, as well singing with artists in Trinidad and Tobago whilst attending to her tertiary education studies in Trinidad and Tobago. A 2010 graduate of the UWI, Mount Hope, with her degree in Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Goldson returned to her native Jamaica to pursue both her academic profession and her first love, music. She is currently working on original music and performs both as a solo singer and a harmony vocalist. You can be sure to expect phenomenal things from this package of voice, beauty, intelligence and charming personality

Mikhail Salcedo

http://www.reverbnation.com/mikhailsalcedo

From his early years Mikhail Salcedo has been exposed to various genres of music. He grew up listening to the music of The Manhattan Transfer, Frank Sinatra and Sergio Mendes by way of his father, and steeldrum bands with his uncle.

While in secondary school he was called upon to go on tour with FLABEJ, a steeldrum ensemble, to attend an international music and dance festival in Branson, Missouri. From then on Mikhail's desire to perform for diverse audiences began to grow.

Over the past ten years Mikhail has performed in France, USA, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and various islands in the Caribbean and is also a member of the National Steel Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in mutlinational government conferences, jazz festivals, cruise ships and is well known on the Trinidad jazz circuit performing with well known local artists such as Theron Shaw, Clive Zanda, Elan Parle and Sean Thomas.