About Blue Culture

The Blue Culture Arts Group was established with the main aim of being dedicated to the proliferation of Trinidad and Tobago's indigenous artforms.

Blue Culture, a local jazz and calypso band, was formed in December 2002. The band has since developed into an internet-based group and has grown in membership, from five to one hundred and forty. With all of this energy and new ideas being shared, it was thought that an appropriate medium be developed to showcase the talent of the group’s members. The arts group was established with the main aim of being dedicated to the proliferation of Trinidad and Tobago’s indigenous artforms.


See the MSN Group Site:
http://groups.msn.com/blueculture

Blue Culture’s mandate may be regarded as a manifold of aims:

• To identify the talented youth of the Nation (and by extension the Caribbean Region), and bringing to their attention the possibilities and benefits of showcasing one’s talents.
• To identify and record the artforms and the impact of the artforms on society, along with the societal linkages between them.
• To strengthen the financing mechanisms of the performing arts sector in Trinidad and Tobago while focusing on the involvement of the youth in order to ensure the longevity of the arts.
• To maintain the integrity of the artforms present in Trinidad and Tobago.
• To create an attitude and a lifestyle in which supporting the concept of “youth in art” is integral for the development and survival of the arts in Trinidad and Tobago.

Blue Culture’s means and methodology are perpetuated by its core members’ heartfelt involvement in the community’s various activities through the performing and visual arts, while providing an alternative to crime and other obstructions to the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s youth.


These activities include:

Concerts and Artistic Showcases
Creative Workshops
Forums for Idea Exchange
Documentaries and Journal writing.


Blue Culture - The Band

"The Band gives us an opportunity to not only express our feelings, but to also demonstrate or explain to others, our ideas and methods of approach toward music, in rhythm, melody and lyrics."

Blue Culture was formed in December 2002, as a local jazz and calypso band, featuring five young musicians from Trinidad – Anthony Woodroffe Jr. on Saxophone and Flute, Candace Moore on Piano, Derron Ellies on Steelpan, Shem Brewster on Bass Guitar and Band Leader, Karl Doyle on Drums.

The band met regularly and worked on original compositions as well as developed arrangements for both local and international pop-covers and jazz standards including, André Tanker's Sayamanda, Lord Kitchener's Pan in A-Minor, Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good. Mas Que Nada by Sérgio Mendes with Brasil '66, and George Gershwin's Summertime were also part of the repertoire.

S.T. Jazz Inc.'s, Sean Thomas, approached Doyle to invite the band to perform at S.T. Jazz Inc.'s Jazz On the Avenue, Friday 9th May, 2003 at the Veni Mangé Restaurant. The band, featuring Trinidadian-born singer, Corinne Gray, played to a packed house and recieved thunderous applause and a request for an encore after playing their first original composition, "My Wakeup Call". Although words of encouragement came from the band members' respective families as well as from jazz enthusiasts present at the show, as quickly as June 2003 approached, commitments to school and work came in the way of the band, causing rehearsals to cease, almost making the Blue Culture, defunct.

Doyle and Ellies began reading in September of that year, for the Bachelor in Visual Arts -Special, and the Certificate in Music respectively at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine. While at the UWI Centre for Creative and Festival Arts (CCFA), they met regularly at the CCFA's music room and continued their work and exchange of ideas. Moore (Psychology), and Brewster (Music), already heavily engrossed in their second year of study at the same university, were regrettably unable to continue with the band. Woodroffe, a Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival Hall of Fame inductee, at the time of pursuing Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualifications, continued working with various otherl musical groups including The Brass Institute of Trinidad & Tobago, The National Youth Orchestra, Venezuelan-Trinidadian Latin Band Fuego Latino, and Sheldon Blackman and the Musical Warriors. At this time, Ellies regularly performed with the very popular local Parang group, Los Tocadores and a number of local, medium and small pan groups including the St. James Tripolians and the Curepe Moods Steel Orchestra. Doyle, while reading for his BA in Visual Arts - Special, was the drummer for local steelpan composer and arranger, Ray Holman in his band, Ray Holman and Friends, The Brass Institute of Trinidad & Tobago, Fuego Latino, Sheldon Blackman and the Musical Warriors, and The Kwame Lewis Senior Band.

In 2005, Doyle, Ellies and Woodroffe met as a send-off for Woodroffe who was bound for Leeds, UK, to begin reading for his Bachelor's in Music. The celebration was marked with a small concert featuring friends and family of Blue Culture:

Reynold Woodroffe, Bass Guitar (older brother of Anthony Woodroffe Jr.),
Johanna Chuckaree, Keyboard
David Bertrand, Flute and Bass Guitar
Kevin Juman, Guitar
Astar Bishop, Steelpan and Drums
Enrico Camejo, Guitar
Sean Thomas, Steelpan and Drums
Sheldon Blackman, Guitar and Djembe Drum
Shabaka Kambon, Djembe Drum and Poetry
The event was well attended.
In 2007, the third incarnation of the band featured new yet familiar members; Reynold Woodroffe, Astar Bishop, and Venezuelan-born Pianist/Keyboardist, Simon Mendoza. The three joined Doyle, Ellies and Woodroffe in a 'makeshift-studio' session, recorded by Cuatro-player and Electronic Music Sequencing DJ, Robert Persaud.

Doyle testifies that, "The Band gives us an opportunity to not only express our feelings, but to also demonstrate or explain to others, our ideas and methods of approach to music, in rhythm, melody and lyrics."