Music and laughs

Leadpipe & Saddis not only served up a mesmerising musical menu at Mahalia’s Corner on Sunday at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, but the duo’s entire set was laced with comedy as well.

The pair was the featured act at the second edition of this year’s Mahalia’s Corner which is celebrating its tenth year. The show was just over two hours but given the quality and quantity of entertainment, it felt like four hours.

It was a belly full of laughs for the audience as Leadpipe was seen and heard telling jokes, dancing and gyrating for fun, playing the drums, impersonating Billy Ocean, sitting on the floor, joking with members of 2 Mile Hill and the audience, intermittently sipping rum and coke and just being his goofy self as he entertained the sold-out audience.

Given the frequent loud rounds of applause and sometimes screams and bursts of laughter, those in the lounge area, as well as those in the general section, appreciated both the singing and comedy.

The two were in fine form and sounded better than ever backed by 2 Mile Hill. They hit the stage to the sounds of their 2019 hit Mas. From the reaction, it was pretty clear the crowd came to see the duo.

Other hits belted out were: Blaze It Up, Dreams, Blessed, Soca Format, Carnival Addiction, Take Away Me Stress, Done Wid Dat, Ah Feeling Ah Feeling and of course, 2019 Tune of the Crop, Sometime.

But when you thought it was over, they started to sing a bashment medley of old hits which took patrons back to the days of Porgie & Muddah. The duo sang their first soca hit together Condense, then Rabbit, Ben Up, Shackle Out, Move, Wuk It Good and Bashment Jungle. The duet ended with the 2015 hit, Ah Feeling Ah Feeling.

But the fully loaded show was not about L&S alone.

Earlier in the night, 2 Mile Hill lead vocalist Mahalia set the tone for what fine talent was to come. It was a set of international hits along with some 2 Mile Hill originals. Her first song was Erykah Badu’s Tyrone followed by Tweet’s Oops (Oh My), Rihanna’s Diamonds, Maroon 5’s Harder to Breathe, Tanya Stephens’ These Streets and Barrington Levy’s Be Strong. Keyboardist Andre Clarke showed off some serious skills during the band’s performance of Be Strong. They also sang their own Queen and Le Te Te.

Spotlight artist Theres Lambert sang two songs: Khalid’s Location and Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Why. The NIFCA finalist and former student of Frederick Smith Secondary, who also played the keyboard, was flawless in both renditions.

But that was not all.

The Open Mic artists were simply superb. The unrehearsed four sang like professionals. Jonathan Jeffrey sang Ordinary People (John Legend), Dakarai Life did Lioness on the Rise (Queen Ifrica) Makonem performed Hills and Valleys (Buju Banton) while Donn Warde sang Killing Me Softly (Lauryn Hill/Refugees). (IMC)