Two Nights of Barefoot Izaline at Caribbean Sea Jazz Festival

Izaline Calister’s `Speransa’ Premiers on Aruba During Jazz Festival

Two consecutive performances by Curaçao’s Izaline Calister are among the many highlights at the upcoming Caribbean Sea Jazz Festival, which is held on September 4 and 5. The singer has been gaining a great reputation in the past few years, culminating in the CD `Speransa’. The Aruban première of this critically acclaimed CD takes place on Friday, September 4 on the stage of Cas di Cultura. “Get a seat and hold on to it,” is festival organizer Erik Jan Eman’s advice. “There are only 550 seats in the house.”

`Speransa’ means hope; it is also the name of one of the 13 songs that Isaline composed for this CD. With it, she begins a new era in her music, letting herself roam freely through the wonders of the music of the Caribbean. Before, Isaline kept to the strict confines of Antillian rhythms and songs, but not any longer. Standing ovations have been her reward.

The word `positive’ features in a top position in Isaline Callister’s look on life. “Nobody has ever gained anything by being negative,” is her down-to-earth reasoning. Her music, now rife with Afro-Caribbean influences and Brazilian rhythms, is positive: intriguing, warm and exciting.

Callister has been a revelation in Holland for quite some time already. She recently got rave reviews for her performance at the North Sea Jazz Festival, but she is also making a name abroad. She has a steady band, but adds fabulous guests like Ruud Breuls on flügelhorn and Pernell Saturnino on percussion. Expect to see Isaline perform barefoot: “I can’t sing with shoes on,” she says.

For information about the upcoming Caribbean Sea Jazz Festival and its line-up, please surf to www.caribbeanseajazz.com.