By Howard Campbell–  Chilean-born Maria Cecilia Toledo and guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith. WITH rolling Nyahbinghi drums as the perfect backdrop to her Latin guitar licks, Maria Cecilia Toledo was in fine voice as she led a spirited rendition of Guantanamera, the Cuban patriotic standard. An opera singer of international repute, the Chilean-born Toledo is not into labels. “I’m a musician and I love music, it’s my passion,” she said during a break from rehearsals at guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith’s St Andrew home. Toledo, wife of Joachim Schmillen, the German ambassador to Jamaica, will perform with Smith’s Bingestra group at a June 28 show at The Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston. Dubbed ‘Opera Meets Nyahbinghi’, it is the closing event on this year’s Kingston On The Edge (KOTE) arts series, a fund-raiser to help revive the … Read entire article »