" data-original-title="" title="">Dion Parson and his 21 Century Band at Dizzy's in New York City.

Such a plethora of jazz-inspired international music has descended on Gotham this season that it is often impossible to catch all or even most of it; in other words, I was frustrated at not being able to catch the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, whose music I had briefly recently heard. Faced with this daunting situation, I chose to view Parson's group because it has presented more Central American and Caribbean forms than any I knew of including: calypso, soca, reggae, mento, quelbe ( the official music of the Virgin Islands), rara, ska, zouk, steel pan, bouyon, gombay, salsa, chutney, compas, tambu, spouge and merengue. These musics come from Haiti, Dominica, Trinidad, Aruba, and Senegal, as well as the more well-known (to Americans) centers in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

As the group performed at Dizzy's , I was taken on a unique tour of more Caribbean forms than I imagined ever existed—and one was more intriguing than the next . Parson is a Virgin island native with a music degree from Rutgers and so has had a unique opportunity to introduce the aforementioned forms to American audiences. In addition, it seems that the Virgin Islands have been the principal funnel through which these traditions have reached our shores.

The 21 Century Band was well-equipped to handle the multi-musical challenge it set for itself at Dizzy's. Initially, the band members were introduced as their Senegalese percussionist