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Third World Forever at Zen, Trinidad

Of the several concerts featured at the Zen Nightclub, Keate Street, Port of Spain since its opening last December, none have been as refreshingly alive and awe inspiring as Wednesday's show featuring legendary reggae band Third World from Jamaica.

Although the audience at this concert was miniscule compared to those of the Beenie Man, Buju Banton and David Rudder shows, the Third World fans proved the most vibrant of the lot, whooping, singing, cheering and jumping up with nearly every antic of the Third World musicians who seemed to be having a thoroughly good time on the Zen stage.

The band took the stage at 11:57 pm with an intro of "Love Will Always Be There," sung by guitarist, Cat Coore and keyboard player, Herbie Harris. Then from backstage the voice of Bunny Rugs burst through the speakers and the crowd cheered as he finally appeared just as the band struck up the music for "Reggae Ambassadors."

Of course, Coore, who is regarded as one of the greatest reggae guitarists ever just had to put down a mean solo on his Fender axe, sending folks wild as the band switched into the music of "Forbidden Love." There were even more wicked guitar licks on "Sense Of Purpose," another classic Third World piece that took it to the upper echelons of the Billboard Charts during the 1980's.

As the band performed "Try Jah Love," a Stevie Wonder composition, its bassist, Richard Daly threw down some intricate chords that lifted the audience even higher that the people had already been taken by the irie music of the veteran musicians of the longest surviving reggae band in the history of the genre.

Coore again executed an exciting solo that featured hints of blues and African riffs as the band launched into "Satta Massagana," on which drummer, Tony Williams played Afro rhythms on his rig, which featured along with the traps, a pair of timbales, bongos and a D'jembe drum. Coore then took up a white acoustic-electric guitar and played some stage-coach styled riffs to introduce the evergreen Third World hit, "1865 (96 Degrees In The Shade)," which had everyone singing along.

The band then went into dubwise session during which Williams came forward and played a series of solos on the D'jembe as Bunny Rugs took over on the drum kit.

The people cheered as Williams executed a series of fast-paced African rhythms on the D'jembe and later on his timbales. The patrons screamed loudly as he turned to Coore and began to beat out a rhythm on the fret-board of the guitar, while Coore strummed chords on the upper part of the board.

Coore then took up a Zeta Electronic Cello, telling the audience that he was going to do a tribute to Bob Marley. He then proceeded to perform "Natural Mystic," doing vocals as he played the cello, an instrument he later explained had been taught to him by his mother who is Trinidadian. Another drum solo from Williams as the band kicked off the music of "Now That We Found Love," which featured another fabulous solo by bassman Daly as the people sang along.

As they played "Lagos Jump," Coore transposed the song right there on stage and they eventually flowed right into "Tell Somebody."

After telling the audience that they all enjoyed being in Trinidad and that he really enjoyed eating fish broth at the Breakfast Shed, Bunny Rugs said farewell and exited the stage at 1:10 am, but the people demanded more from the band.

Coore again took up the electronic cello and performed a soulful solo of "Rivers Of Babylon."

The band then struck up the music for "Committed" and at 1:20 again prepared to leave the stage, but the people wanted even more and Coore shouted, "One More" and the band set it off with "Rhythm Of Life," in which they spliced in snippets of "Murderer" and "Buddy Bye," with keyboard players Harris, Gershie as well as Daly doing vocals.

The band finally left the stage with no return at 1:35 am, but the party continued until past 3 am as the Third World members hung around to mingle with their fans.