“I hope they come away from the show having experienced something visceral.” Wendell Manwarren of 3Canal expressed this following the Backyard Jam where the group’s new music for 2016 was launched, along with this year’s J’Ouvert concept, Black Jab Nation. This year the show will be held at the Big Black Box on Murray Street, Woodbrook, from January 29–February 6.
Manwarren said the theme of the show, Outta de Box, describes the crew and its attitude. He said having the space has helped them to build a company where they can work consistently and take the work to another level.
“We are still the engine but there are so many people who help fuel what we do and we want to recognise that this time around in 2016. We’ve invested in human development, working with young fledgling producers for the first time and with dancers to turn them into singers, just creating a show that feels like everyone is a part of making and contributing to it.”
The group—Manwarren, Roger Roberts and Stanton Kewley—had the audience screaming and singing along from early in their set at the January 15 launch at the Big Black Box. During the show the group welcomed three new acts to the stage, Mogabe, duo Cyn-X and the dancers of the Black Box Crew, who sang They Not Ready for This on the Black Box Rhythm. 3Canal then performed four of their new songs for 2016: Spirits on the Rise (again on the Black Box Rhythm), J'Ouvert Morning Come, Pressure (which used a SuperBlue sample), and Try Your Best.
Manwarren said the decision to focus on the black jab for J’Ouvert was made because “it's the first historically recorded mas, that character that was nearly naked, covered from head to foot in soot or molasses. Legend has it that the more difficult slaves were thrown into the vats of boiling molasses while still alive and they returned as jab molassie on J'Ouvert morning for retribution and to claim their space.”
He said the theme plays on the idea that they are coming out of the box to claim the Carnival space.
“One of the things we want to deal with in the Carnival is what we call ‘Spirit.’ Growing up in Belmont I used to hear about ‘the spirit of Carnival’ and I don’t really hear that too much now. A lot of the official elements of Carnival are very badly organised and I question what we’re spending those hundreds of millions of dollars on.
“We’re evolving in terms of consumption but we’re devolving in terms of our thinking and what’s important and valuable to us. Within a generation or so, if we don’t pay attention to certain things we'll lose them. I want to get back to the sense that there’s a Carnival imagination that we have to employ to make Carnival what it should be. So if we find something is missing, we have to fill it up and we’ve been exploring that.
“We’re not averse to the commercial aspect because people have a right to earn income but it is important to build a base of love and solidarity and believe in something and that's what we're trying to do here at the Black Box.”
Manwarren said having the show at Big Black Box will make it more real for the audience “as opposed to in Queen’s Hall where you have to create more of a sense of spectacle. Here it’s real, the audience gets wet, we feel the heat from the audience and people are standing as opposed to sitting.”
Manwarren, an actor, director and mas man as well as rapso artist, said, “We come from the street experience of J’Ouvert as well as mas camp and theatre, and the vibration from the street and the yard is really so crucial and the backyard affords that kind of energy exchange. People could participate, shout, wine and dance and that feeds back into us too.
“I think painting up in a performance is going to make it something different and we don’t have to worry about dirtying up someone else’s space.”
Manwarren said instead of having the customary pre-show, this year’s 3Canal Show will have music playing after the show and at some point there will be a post-show with new artists singing their songs. “It’s a big show, we have a big cast: 26 dancers, a full band, a few guest artistes as well. It’s rough and real and it’s immediate.”
Tickets cost $300 and showtime is 8.30 pm nightly.