Versatile. It is one of the most abused words when used in the musical sense and is often locally ascribed to people whose boast is that they can sing with more than one emotion or ride more than one type of riddim. But what then do you say about a guy who covers songs in multiple genres during almost all of his performances without skipping a beat?

Or attempts to infuse soft rock and alternative pop standards into soca music on the sly like he thinks nobody notices? Yeah we notice; it’s just that it sounds so good and mixes so smoothly we can’t help but bubble right down to the ground to it. And thankfully, although Kees Dieffenthaller, or more commonly, Kees (why is Kees pronounced like ‘Kess’ again?), suffers from the ‘Brad Pitt effect’ where he is unfairly more renowned and celebrated for his looks than his talent, he continues to take greater risks with his music which seems to be made of the stuff that can make the world pay attention.

Ever since Kess’ first major soca hit “Push” back when he was still a part of Imij & Co. during the 2003 carnival season, it wasn’t hard to tell the ‘vibes’ he was on. He certainly wasn’t the first to ask a girl in song to ‘push back her bumper’ but was probably the first to request a wine with a level of emoting usual reserved for RnB singing and he definitely had the voice to match.

That voice, rife with formal training with its perfect diction and clear hitting of notes brought a freshness and international appeal to the soca game revealing a signature style designed to soothe the mind. Fast forward through all of his hits throughout his tenure with Imij and Co. up to his present exploits with his band Kees the Band and one can observe that his signature style has not changed but rather has seen him become more deliberate in his crossover aspirations.

Whereas before we would have gotten “One Day”, an uplifting pop song disguised as a soca hit, now we get “Lion” which is basically an unhinged pop rock song that has managed to garner critical acclaim from even the most unlikely of sources. It’s almost like this is what he always wanted to do but had to ease us into it first.

So what now? Where does Kees and his music go from here? Well, now that “Lion” has happened and everyone from local rock fans to soca heads has accepted it then I guess there is nothing to keep him in the crossover ‘closet’ anymore.

A quick visit to his myspace page pretty much says it all; you still get to hear soca hits such as “Right Dey” but now he presents “Come a little closer” and “Bigger brighter day”. “Come a little closer” definitely has that rock appeal but you would be deaf not to hear the reggae whispering in the beat and no one could have ever accused Kees of not having that ear for a big ole sing-a-long hook.

“Bigger brighter day” on the other hand is almost totally reggae and features yet another catchy hook with Kees’ wailingly delivering his stump speech of inspiration and not letting anyone hold you back. After hearing those two songs I would say that Kees can pretty much do whatever he wants to do for all I care. There is no doubt that he still loves soca (heard Remedy yet?) and I guess that marriage is rock solid but maybe she will have to look the other way a few times during their remaining years together. Only this time he knows we won’t judge him.

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