The Honey Jam 2012 season was so successful that founder Ebonnie Rowe has decided to bring another sweet addition to the portfolio. Tuesday, at the Frank Collymore Hall, she launched Honey Jazz. The event is an offshoot of Honey Jam and will take place at the Hall on Saturday, January 12.
Rowe explained that she was introducing the Honey Jazz concert with a view that it would act as an fund-raiser for the Honey Jam developmental initiative.
“This last Honey Jam will be the last one if I am not able to secure adequate funding to continue the developmental initiative,” she lamented.
She stated that exorbitant venue costs made it difficult to break even and hoped that sponsors who fund events that bring in foreign acts would give more support in the future to developing local acts.
Wonder and Purity, longtime sponsor of Honey Jam, are on board for this new initiative. Representative Jennifer Floro said the company “wanted to stay involved to help support the great opportunities for young local artistes”.
Honey Jazz is also being supported by United Insurance and representative Sharron Alleyne Elcock said she was happy to come on board as a first-time sponsor at the beginning of a new event and that United believed in supporting local talent and the development of young women.
Artistes Mia Cumberbatch and Rhesa Garnes, both of whom performed at the November Honey Jam and will be featured at January’s Honey Jazz, spoke about what the Honey Jam experience meant to them in terms of growth as artistes. Both are looking forward to performing at the jazz show. They had the audience’s rapt attention as they performed three songs a cappella – Nina Simone’s Feeling Good and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood as well as Etta James’ At Last. (NS/PR)
