Benjai coming with all-woman band
By JANELLE DE SOUZA Monday, February 15 2010
After placing third in the Groovy Soca Monarch competition last year, Benjai (Rodney Le Blanc) opted out of the competition at this year’s semi-final round, disappointing many of his fans. However, it was for his fans that he made the difficult decision not to perform at the Groovy semis.
Benjai explained that on the day of his rehearsal, the band did not know his music and it would have been unfair to his fans to perform at a level which was not his best. “My client was faced with a difficult position, when he turned up for rehearsals only to realise that the band did not know his music,” stated Benji’s manager, Brenn Mohammed.
“Without discrediting the credibility of the band, we found it impossible and unprofessional to have one band backing over 80 artistes. It is impossible to have a band learn the music of over 80 artistes in five days.”
Instead of playing a mediocre set, Benjai decided to withdraw from the competition completely.
Despite this unforeseen occurrence, Benjai was very visible . . . and audible for the 2010 Carnival season. He performed his 2010 contributions “My God, Woman and I”; “Last Jam”; “All Woman” and his other hits at Dawn on Carnival Saturday and was also due to be in action today at J’ouvert in south Trinidad and Undercover Promotions and their presentation Fun Time.
“Last Jam” was produced by Kareem Simpson and written by Benjai. In fact, all three songs were written by Benjai to honour women and uplift them, giving them the recognition he believes they deserve. “My God, Woman and I” was produced by Shawn Mitchell (Mr Roots).
“It speaks about my woman standing by my side so that it’s God, my woman and I going through what we are going through — the good the bad and the indifferent,” he explained.
“All Woman” was produced by Kernel “Kitchy” Roberts and Garett.
“The song is about me forming my all-female band. I only want women musicians and I’ll be the first Soca artiste to do something like this. I basically want to show that women can do the job just as good, and in some cases, even better than men. So as musicians, give them their respect because they can represent.” The band’s name is The Swanks and, even though they are still working on some logistics, they are planning a launch this year.
According to Benjai, the decision to have his own band stemmed from the fact that, when hired to perform he either sings on tracks — which doesn’t give him the opportunity to be very spontaneous and show his versatility as an artiste — or he tries to ‘borrow’ a band with which to rehearse.
“It becomes very difficult having to pull rehearsals with other bands who already have their own sets and it becomes a tedious process of trying to get them to learn their stuff and yours... case in point this year,” he stated.
“But with my own band, I can do a variety of different styles of music, not just my own. I often refer to myself as an entertainer not as an artiste and that’s what the people are going to be, entertained, every time Benjai and The Swanks step out on stage.”
