For most of her life, Kyesha Jones has been singing parang, and the joy it gives her is beyond compare.
She was part of her primary school’s parang band and has been in bands ever since. At age 27, she is now the bandleader of Los Sonidos, a band made up of past students of Bishop Anstey High School East and Trinity College East.
She explained that the secondary schools' parang band took part in National Junior Parang competitions and, since most of the members left school in 2012, they decided to form their own band, which became Los Sonidos in 2016.
“I grew up around parang. My grandfather and uncles on my mother’s side of the family play. And every year on Boxing Day, we would have a big family lime and there would constantly be parang playing. Because I grew up around it, was hearing it right through, I’ve always had a love for it.”
Her mother also loves parang and can sing really well, but, according to Jones, she does not have the voice for parang. Her sister, who now lives in Canada, recently joined a band there and, like their mother, the girls also sang solo as well as in church and school choirs.
Jones told WMN she sings at weddings and other events, and even headlined her own show in 2018 as part of the Underground Artistry concert series. She has also sung several original songs, including collaborations with other artists.
One of her favourites is Fuego, a collaboration with Anthony “BreezyDozIt” Joseph, and Eko, the sister duo of Sonja and Suraya Chase.
“I’m not a songwriter. But I would take any song you write for me and I’ll sing it to my best.”
Even with a promising solo career, she prefers to be on stage performing with her parang band.
“Parang literally brings a different type of joy. I don’t even understand it. No matter the size of a crowd, it could be for the President of the US, I don’t feel any anxiety compared to having to sing by myself. Then I’ll be anxious.
“Because I have so much passion for it, it just makes me happy. It’s a joyful kind of music that could always put a smile on my face.”
Los Sonidos mostly performs covers of songs, including nacimientos, aguinaldos, soca parang, and Latin-fusion music. But over the past year, band member Joseph Bertrand wrote three original songs, one of which the band debuted at a competition earlier this year.
The members planned to work on and expand their original music and, in a few years, release an album. The hope is that people get to know their name, and know it for their own work.
Jones said she did not study Spanish in school but the band was very careful about pronunciation. She explained that at Bishop Anstey and Trinity College East the Spanish teachers would help them with pronunciation and they retained that training.
“With Spanish, if you pronounce something wrong, the word could mean something totally different. Parang is mostly about the birth of Christ so we can’t make a mistake and pronounce something wrong and throw off the whole story of the song.”
She added that, while most of the members cannot translate the Spanish lyrics, they know the message or story of each song. Still, as a band, they intend to learn more Spanish.
“There are times we perform at a gig and someone who speaks Spanish would come up to us and we have to tell them, ‘No comprende. No habla español.’ It’s a little embarrassing because we just sang a whole set of Spanish on stage,” she laughed.
Born and raised in Sangre Grande, Jones currently lives in St Helena, near Piarco.
After graduating from Bishop Anstey, she attended UTT to study for a diploma in navigation because she thought it sounded interesting. She now works at a bank and is the mother to her two-year-old daughter, Yara Celese.
She admitted it could be difficult balancing all the parts of her life but she was determined to keep going.
“Honestly, it’s a lot. Especially this season, I’m tired all the time. But I have great support from my family, her (Yara’s) dad and his family. Most of the times she comes to practise with me. She comes and dances with us and she would count us into songs.”
She said with parang being played at all family events, it will always be a big part of her family’s life and would continue to be passed down through the generations. She believes the younger family members will eventually enjoy and appreciate parang as much as the older members do, especially her daughter...or else.