CAROL JACOBS
NOT JUST ANOTHER
PRETTY FACE
By Terry Joseph
Sunday Express
Section 2
January 9, 2000
Page 27
Her
searching brown eyes and dimpled smile conspire to soften the
story, but Carol Jacobs has been spared none of eh travails common to local
entertainers bent on success.
Now
a grandmother, but still working under the bright lights, Carol just does not
look as if the "Pressure" she sang about more than ten years ago has
had any residual effect. Last month
she released Family, a new CD that does more than offer aural
excitement.
Speaking
to the Sunday Express, she explains: "More than any other single
thing, it is my family that has always kept me going and that makes this CD
special."
And
she has a whole lot of family. The
first of 17 children of Sylvira McDavid and Andrew Skeete, Carol grew up with
her grandparents in Belmont. She
married Carl Jacobs at age 22 on December 31, 1977. The couple produced three children: Carla, 26, Caryl, 22 and
Kyle, 18. Their first grandchild,
Jeahni, is now 18 months old.
"In
the family, the music came from all sides and it continues down the line,"
she mused. "I am pretty certain
that my father had the largest jazz collection in Trinidad and being an
electrical engineer, he also built stereo systems, so there was always music in
that house."
Of
her children, Carla and Caryl also perform with Island Jam, one of two bands
that the Jacobs put together in their adopted home of Miami, Florida.
Although
Carol had been singing since her primary school days at Belmont RC, her very
entry into the world of music was traumatic.
Hear
her: "The first time I got up to sing, my voice cracked so badly that
everyone laughed and I thought I would never even attempt to sing in front of
people again."
But
thanks to the confidence and guidance from Mrs. Simmonds, a lady who lived just
down the street from her grandparents' Garnett Lane home, Carol picked up the
pieces of that cracked voice and stuck with it, forging a successful career as
a singer.
"By
the time I graduated to Providence High School, I was taking part in the music
festivals, which gave me the opportunity to continue my voice-training."
Carol
first saw Carl when he performed at a Queen's Hall concert. "We soon started going out, then
singing together. And since Carl worked
with David (Rudder) at the Public Transport Service Corporation, we started
putting our three voices together. We
got gigs doing background vocals for calypso albums and at Kitchener's Calypso
Revue during the Carnival season.
"In
between, we were scraping along with no regular work and by then, a baby to
care for. We got an apartment in the
government buildings on St Francois Valley Road and had to make do on whatever
work we got, until 1979, when the first real break came."
For
five years thereafter, Carol and Carl were the lead singers with the super
successful band Shandileer. Carol tells
of having to go back on stage within a month of the birth of her third child.
She
also remembers the rigours of having to take the babies to their grandparents
when the band had to work, and then go pick them up after the fete, all without
the convenience of a car.
"Carl
would be holding the two girls and I would have Kyle and the bags, looking for
a taxi at 4 a.m. to get home," she said.
"But it was an exciting time all the same. We were building a family, working day and
night, having to spend time with the children, get them to school and back and
meet a schedule that was sometimes impossible."
But
those sacrifices paid off. The band's
debut album, Disco Queen got good reviews. Then there was "Luv Up", two old-time calypso medleys
and a string of hits. But Shandileer
broke up in 1984 and the family had to think once again about how it was going
to survive.
"It
was a big decision to go it alone in 1985.
We had a stint with Eddy Grant, where we did 'Jump' and recorded an
album for the mas band 'Savage' (now split into Barbarossa, Poison and
Legends). Then there were hits like 'We
Wanna Live' and 'Scandal'."
"In
1987, we did the Jumbie Bead concert with David Rudder and Carl hit with 'Robot
Jam' and 'Bend Down and Rock'. We
followed up with the High on Love album, which included 'We Time'
and 'Doh Leave Mih', a song that may not be politically correct at this time,
but was a hit then. There was also
'Cipango' for Barbarossa, 'Nobody Like You', 'Start to Wine', 'Freedom' and
'Limbo'."
Carol's
two solo songs ("Pressure" and "Fix it Up") were also
Caribbean-wide hits.
In
1988, after winning the prize for Best Playing Band on the Road that Carnival,
performing with Minshall's Santimanitay, Carol and Carl were devastated
by a newspaper article that accused them of miming. "It was the last straw," she said.
"We
were working hard, perhaps harder than most other performers, because of our
family responsibilities. So after
taking the hot sun and dust all day, to have someone write a story like that,
it really hurt.
"We
packed up and left for Miami. I have
matured past that now and bear no animosity, but at the time it was more than I
could take."
In
Miami, Carol has stayed with the music and the family has grown even
stronger. Such was the demand for their
performances that a second band was formed, featuring Carla and Caryl.
They
have worked continuously during the past 11 years there, with lucrative
long-term contracts at popular tourist attractions.
Carol,
meanwhile, went back to school, completing an intensive programme in music industry
management, which included courses in copyright, TV production, artist
management and contracts.
Back
home since last year, working on a delicate family matter, Carol sums it up
this way:
"It
has not been easy, but when the family gets together and we look back over
life, we somehow always end up laughing.
"In
fact, we even laugh at those things that nearly brought us to tears when they
first happened."
Carol's
Family CD, produced by Rudder, is currently available at all music
stores.