After three hectic months in Seattle, Washington Ray Holman is back in Port of Spain to promote his new CD, In Touch. Although the CD won’t be in the stores until January, it’s raising a buzz in Trinidad, in Jamaica, New York and Miami, where pre-leased versions are being played on radio stations, and in some instances, in the clubs.
The popular composer and arranger produced his first solo CD, featuring an assortment of rhythms, but most with his calypso jazz signature. Two of the strongest pieces “Livin on a Dream” and “Memories of your smile” may be destined for heavy radio play, according to some critics and fans who have heard the album.
In Touch has been long in the making. Holman says he has been meaning to play some of his own compositions for many years. “But other commitments had gotten in the way and I kept putting off,” he says.
Most painful of all, says Holman, is that he had to miss a tribute in his honour put on by Pan Trinbago. But the demands of writing, arranging and producing the album meant he was forced to stay in Seattle to be able to complete the project. The show went on without him, but his fans enjoyed his compositions played by several bands at the event.
Holman is now aggressively promoting In Touch, making the rounds of radio stations and the print media in Trinidad. He has also done an interview with Knolly Moses for Pan On The Net, a Brooklyn-based foundation that features everything about the steelband and its players in the United States. The foundation has a web site (www.panonthenet.com) that also showcases steel band related events from around the world, and is perhaps the best database about pan.