Granada is a Caribbean nation 100 miles off the coast of Venezuela with a population about that of Dayton’s. If Americans have heard of Grenada at all it’s probably in connection with Ronald Reagan’s Cold War saber-rattling invasion of the island in 1983.

That might change Sunday when Cleveland saxophonist Ronell Regis presents a world premiere performance of “Grenada to the World: The Suite” at Cleveland’s Bop Stop.

Regis has deep roots in the island and its music. “My dad is a musician. My grandparents and my great grandparents, they were all great musicians,” Regis says on a video call earlier this month. “This music is inspired by different events and my parents’ upbringing, starting from 1974. My main purpose is to tell the story in many different ways through my parents’ and through Grenada’s history.”

Some sections of the six-part work are drawn from historical events, such as “1974, The Celebration,” which honors the nation’s independence from Great Britain. Others celebrate cultural touchstones, such as the reggae- and soca-flavored “Jab Jab,” a French Creole word for the demonic figure of the island’s Carnival tradition. The most personal of the suite’s compositions might be “We Shall Tread.” The title was taken from the hymn “When We All Get To Heaven,” and sets to music, Regis says, “my belief in how we will meet up with the people that we lost along the way.” “Scattered, The Trilogy,” is a tribute to the West Indian diaspora in North America, and, Regis says, “an ode to the culture that is being continued through my generation and through the generations before me of people who leave their respective islands and settle in another place.”

For Regis, that place was Brooklyn, where he was born and lived until age three. His Grenadian-born parents moved to Atlanta where Ronnell started playing the saxophone at 12. “I went to a performing arts high school in Atlanta, and I started playing jazz when I was 16,” he says.

Though his original plans aimed toward a career in corporate finance or as a pediatrician, Regis couldn’t escape the call of music. “I didn’t make my mind up to major in music until my last my last semester of senior year. I was with our college and career advisor at my high school, and it just hit me. I had to find the school that was taking auditions later in the year past the usual deadline. And man, thank God Kent State had auditions going into maybe July or August,” he says.

Regis was offered a full scholarship, but what clinched the deal was a video of a faculty recital.  “I wasn’t too knowledgeable of the Cleveland/Akron scene. But I looked at the video and I see Chris Coles, Bobby Selvaggio, Aidan Plank, Dustin May–and they sound so good! I’m like, wow, this is beautiful. Let me just see how it goes,” he says. “To this day it is the best decision that I’ve made because I met lifelong friends here.”

Some of them are in his band.  Guitarist Jonah Ferguson is a classmate from Kent. Drummer Gabe Jones,“ Regis says, “pushes me every time and it’s just beautiful.” The saxophonist met bassist Jordan McBride through an Akron jam session run by Theron Brown. “He has a tone and he fits so well with so many bands,” Regis says, adding,  “The bass is my favorite instrument personally.” Regis also met pianist Josh Stone at those jam sessions. “When I first heard him play, he took my soul, man.  He was just amazing and then from that day, I was like, yeah, I have to play with this brother more.”

Regis graduated from Kent State just last spring. “It’s all moving kind of fast for me,” he concedes. “But I’m so grateful. I can’t put into words how grateful I am for that faculty and meeting people here that influenced me [to] continue to get better and better and ingrain myself in the scene as a new guy from the South, trying to make things happen.

Ronell Regis Presents Grenada to the World: The Suite Sunday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m. at Bop Stop, 2920 Detroit Ave, Cleveland. $20, available here.

Trading Fours

There’s never a bad time to get out and commune in the same room with creative musicians. Below are four musical events of interest in the coming week that you might want to check out.