The island has come to Tiny Desk. “Representing for soca music, glad music, love music,” chief Kees “Kes” Dieffenthaller tells us, KestheBand opens with “Hi there,” a heat, Caribbean welcome.
Based in Trinidad and Tobago, KestheBand is must-play-music in soca DJ units and a staple at worldwide carnival celebrations. These are the form of songs that encourage you to whisper their double entendres to your sweetheart and shout them raucously on the street, grabbing onto the evening (or a waist) with each fingers. Whereas “Rum & Coca-Cola” (co-written by Michael “Tano” Montano), “Jolene,” and “Cocoa Tea” (bakes not included) belong to the primary class, “Fallin’ ” and the band’s breakout track, “Wotless,” exemplify the latter. It is clear from the grins, waving flags and whining within the workplace that enjoyable is the order of the day.
KestheBand concludes its efficiency with “Savannah Grass,” a nod to the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago’s capital. Previously a sugar cane plantation, it is develop into a vibrant middle for tradition and celebration for Trinibagoans. The track additionally holds particular significance for Dieffenthaller and his brother, Jon, the band’s guitarist. In performing it, they honor the reminiscence of their father, George “Bunny” Dieffenthaller, credited as a co-writer, and their late sister, Danielle, a filmmaker whose footage may be seen on the Desk. Soca’s distinctive reward is its skill to concurrently maintain house for the bitter and the candy, for ache and keenness — a gorgeous reminder that pleasure has season tickets to the Tiny Desk.
In that spirit, I dedicate this one to my beloved grandmother, the late Mrs. Cecilia Nicholas, aka Ma Cécile, a Saint Lucian who liked KestheBand’s music a lot that, even nicely into her 90s, she’d seize a maintain of a chair and educate us a factor or two about whining.
SET LIST
- “Hi there”
- “Fallin’ “
- “Rum & Coca-Cola”
- “Jolene”
- “Cocoa Tea”
- “Wotless”
- “Savannah Grass”
MUSICIANS
- Kees Dieffenthaller: vocals
- Jon Dieffenthaller: guitar
- Riad Boochoon: bass
- Mario Callender: keys
- Geiron Mang: keys
- Dean James: drums
- Denilson Gulston: percussion
- Robert “Robby Kinds” Persaud: quattro, percussion
- Dane Gulston: steelpan
- Terri Lyons: background vocals
- Teddyson John: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producers: Suraya Mohamed, Nikki Birch
- Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
- Audio Engineer/Combine: Josephine Nyounai
- Host/Collection Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Body, Maia Stern, Mitra I. Arthur
- Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
- Tiny Desk Staff: Josh Newell, Felix Contreras
- Collection Editor: Lars Gotrich
- Government Director: Sonali Mehta
- Collection Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton
