Jeff Japal has a lot of good qualities. First of all he’s just an all around nice guy and business man, but when he gets behind a keyboard he is simply ‘wicket’.
His magic fingers have mastered everything from a harmonically simple two chord reggae to a rhythmically complex compilation of jazz. Jeff however is best known as the keyboard man behind the arrangements of such famous Tradewind songs as Tropicana Man , Pirates Party and my old time favourite, Copycats.
As a young lad Jeff started off as an organist in his home island of Grenada, later in the 70s he moved to Canada where he played the Top 40 circuit and R&B shows for several Toronto based bands.
Though heavily influenced by reggae, Latin, R&B and jazz he shines his best at calypso. This led to a partnership with Dave Martins and the Tradewinds. The band’s popularity and string of hits became Jeff’s passport to world travel and eventually landed him on the shores of Grand Cayman where the Tradewinds took the Island by a storm in the early 80s.
Nowadays Jeff performs regularly with a number of local bands such as Local Motion, Heat, Hi-Tide, Love Culture and In-Transit. He is still a member of the Tradewinds and that band’s status as calypso’s finest has him off Island for regular jaunts in the eastern Caribbean.
Anyone that knows Jeff would agree; the only thing about him that outshines his talent is his easy going, positive manner. Jeff says he would like to see Caribbean musical traditions kept alive and families sticking together through ‘thick & thin’.