Right before the pandemic began, I had planned on producing and hosting a podcast. It would trace the origins of musical genres as far back as possible. I spent over a month researching, writing, and recording the first episode on Calypso music. As lockdown became a reality, the realm of podcasting became overly saturated.
In addition to the vast number of new podcasts, I realized that the show I wanted to make would consume all of my time. I wouldn’t be able to support myself financially for a long time, maybe never. I also wanted to include examples of songs on the show. Music usage could be argued as Fair Use, but it would be my legal obligation to defend that usage if brought to court. That fact also was unappealing to me. Lastly, I didn’t think I was a very good host. I understood that it would take time to develop a confidence while speaking, but given the other hurdles I was up against, I decided to back out.
The show was recorded in a closet on Diamond Street in Philadelphia. I had to wait for breaks in traffic to record. This is to say that the audio quality could be better. Regardless, it is probably better than many podcasts.
I don’t have any plans to produce any further episodes of the show. At least not any time in the near future. I had started researching an episode about the music, instruments, and tunings of Harry Partch. The man is a genre unto himself. Perhaps I will finish that episode if I can find any free time.
It seemed like a waste to harbor all the knowledge from Episode 1. So, I just made a Soundcloud account and posted the episode.
It is available here.
The Following is the Complete Transcript minus the intro and outro. I've also included photos and sources:
This is the story of Calypso:
This story begins with the expansion of the Spanish Empire in the 15th century. In 1498, the Italian-born explorer Columbus set out on his third voyage sailing for the Spanish Crown. He and his crew landed on an island that they christened “Trinidad.” The name, inspired by the Christian Trinity, (Phillips, 26) came to replace the indigenous name for the island; “The Land of the Hummingbird.”
Today the islands of both Trindad and Tobago are one nation. Calypso has its roots on both islands, but “Trinidad” will be used as a blanket term for the remainder of the episode.
It probably comes with little surprise that Columbus and the Spanish Crown treated the indigenous people of Trinidad, the Arawaks, and Caribs, without consideration for their humanity (“Trinidad and Tobago”). Their arrival marked an almost three hundred year reign on the island (Phillips, 26). The Arawaks and Caribs suffered horrendous abuse and displacement during this time. Their populations on the island were halved by the end of the 16th century due to enslavement and deportation to more established Spanish settlements (Bereton, 4-5). When the calypsonian Black Stalin released “Burn Dem” in 1987, a song in which he imagines himself seated next to St. Peter at the Gates of Heaven, he reserves a special place in hell for Columbus.
Columbus’ legacy of genocide and enslavement has not been forgotten. The musical influence of the indigenous people on Calypso is limited or at least not well documented. Their mass forced deportation is most likely to blame here. At least one calypsonian does have indigenous roots. The singer who is known simply as “Crazy,” who reached the height of his popularity in the 1980s, went by the early moniker “The Mighty Arawak” in reference to his partial Amerindian heritage (Guilbault, 120).
In 1776 and again in 1783, Charles II of Spain issued a decree calling for migration to the island. Many French Creoles and Afro Creoles living in Grenada, Martinique, and present-day Haiti responded to the call(Fergus, 2).
A quick aside about concerning the term Creole:
This is a diverse ethnic group that can mean a lot of different things depending on the time period and context in which it is being discussed. The two distinctions I just made, French Creole and Afro-Creole are probably the most important to understanding the development of Calypso. French Creole at this time would have meant someone with European ancestry, usually French, who was born outside of Europe. While Afro-Creole refers to a person of mixed European and African ancestry who was born outside of Africa or Europe.
The decree specified one parcel of land for each enslaved person, so the enslavers forced as many as possible onto the island (Guilbault, 24)(Bereton 14). This led to the vast majority of new arrivals on the island being enslaved people from West Africa.
Prior to this migration and 200 km north of Trinidad in Carriacou, Grenada, enslaved people from many African nations combined their individual musical traditions into a single ritual known as the Big Drum Dance. A 1750 census of Carriacou lists seven separate African nations as being on the island. The Big Drum Dance probably came into being around the same time as this census. When the British Empire took control of Carriacou in 1783, another nation of enslaved people from present-day Ghana was forced onto the island. Their cultural inputs were appended to the tradition.
The main purpose of the Big Drum Dance was, and still is, to please and connect with ancestral spirits, providing a connection between the living and the spirit world. Unlike Haiti and Jamaica where possession is common, there is little evidence of that here. Though not considered a religious act by participants, the opening of the veil between the two worlds makes a good argument for the Dance having a vestigial religious structure.
The nations involved in the Big Drum Dance often performed in front of their enslavers. Due to this intrusion, it is likely that the participants presented a disguised or coded version of the dance to avoid persecution and preserve its more sacred characteristics, though it is also likely the reason for the Dance losing some of its religious intentions over time (Hill [Donald], 186). To the enslavers it was more than likely viewed as a kind of competition between nations or simply as a curiosity, in either case, they saw it as a form of entertainment and in most cases allowed it to continue in the open.
The main instruments used in the Big Drum Dance are a cot or cutter drum, which plays the lead rhythms, and two boula drums that play the basic beats. The cot has a string of pins stretched over the head to give it a “raspy” sound. It may also include the chac-chac or maracas which are filled with corn. If a beg-pardon, a forgiveness, is asked from the ancestral spirits, an Oldoe, which is a garden hoe struck with a piece of iron, may also be used (Hill [Donald], 187). In addition to this, a group of four to eight singers provides accompaniment (“The Big Drum & other Ritual & Social Music of Carriacou [Donald R. Hill]”,6) The following is from the liner notes by a collection of Big Drum music assembled by the late ethnomusicologist Donald R. Hill:
He writes:
“Typically, a big drum is begun by the lead singer, followed by a chorus, cha-chacs, bulas, and finally, the cot. The lead singer directs the other singers, and the drummers and dancers, by exchanging visual or verbal cues with the appropriate part. Often one of the lead singers or a chantwell jumps into the ring to start the dancing. Others join in, although there are rarely more than three dancers in the ring at any one time...The oldoe is beaten, asking the ancestors to join the dance. The arrival of the ancestors is signaled by a quickening of the beat of the cot drum or by dogs entering the ring. No one is allowed to dance while the spirits are in the ring (“The Big Drum & Other Ritual & Social Music of Carriacou [Donald R. Hill]”, 6)
The unification of different Nations under the Big Drum tradition gave the participants a clear identity as united Africans, one to erase the false classification given to them by their enslavers while still maintaining their individual Nation identities (Hill [Donald], 188). There is an excellent example of a Cromanti Nation, Beg Pardon being performed in the early 1970s, but I am not going to play it here. It specifically references two ancestral spirits from their nation and it felt intrusive to play it on a podcast. Donald R. Hill who we just heard quoted was the recordist on these sessions and it seems, from his account, that the performers were well aware that they were being recorded (“The Big Drum & other Ritual & Social Music of Carriacou [Donald R. Hill],” 7), but it just seems in bad taste. Since a beg pardon is the only place that you will hear the sound of an oldoe in context, I will provide a link to where you can buy that recording in the blog post that accompanies this episode. Out of context, it is just the sound of metal on a hoe.
The example I have chosen is from the Arada Nation which was actually recorded earlier in 1956. Despite all of these songs being a celebration of ancestors in some form, from what I can tell from the liner notes, this song is a nation identification song. In this case, an identification with the Kingdom of Arada on the West Coast of Africa— what is today part of Southern Benin(“ The Big Drum Dance of Carriacou [Andrew C. Pearse],” 2-3). It has been playing in the background of this description, here it is in the foreground.
When the French Creole and Afro-Creole responded to the decree of Charles II, the enslaved people of the African Nations living on Carriacou were subject to a second forced migration. This is how the Big Drum tradition, seen by some as the rhythmic seed of calypso music, made it to the island of Trinidad.
Once there, Kalinda Singers or Chantwells, both female and male, also of African or Afro-Creole heritage reshaped the music of the Big Drum Ceremony by adding lyrics that were meant to encourage stick fighters (Fergus,3). In other instances the fighter, himself, would serve as the Chantwell, boasting of his own abilities, in an extemporaneous style with the people of the tenements singing the choruses. I imagine it as a much more gripping, and real, version of West Side Story. Many consider these Chantwells to be the first real calypsonians. The Kalinda, it should be further explained is, in addition to a song form, also a form of stick fighting popular to the island, the aim of which is to hit the opponent anywhere above the waist with enough force to knock them to the ground. This was not play fighting either. Skull injuries were common and even, on occasion, death. While the singers offered support in song, the drummers would often be versed in drum codes that would give each fighter signals used to anticipate the next move of their opponent (Elder, 195-196). By the end of the 19th century Kalinda song forms had morphed into Trinidad Calypso (Fergus, 4). Many calypso melodies have been found to have complete or partial melodic lines taken directly from Kalinda songs (Elder, 200).
Following the abolishment of slavery in all British colonies in 1834 (Phillips, 30), formerly enslaved people took to the street to participate in Canboulay, a celebration on the night before Carnival, in case you don’t know, is a tradition born out of Catholicism that encourages feasting before the fasting of Lent begins. The emancipated mocked the British elite and their former enslavers. Canboulay bands came to rehearse in the barrack yards that housed the laboring classes. Looking down on by the ruling classes, they took joy in tearing them apart. Canboulay became a celebration of freedom in which participants dressed in elaborate garb that ridiculed and caricatured the ruling classes (Guzda, 1, Elder 193) This displays the bold gestures of defiance and parody, ideas that would develop into some of the defining characteristics of calypso. By the 1850’s Carnival, itself was transforming. What had been a celebration helping to reinforce the shared religious values of the French and British was beginning to resemble Canboulay. The ruling classes were no longer seen in the streets. And while they probably wanted to ban the festivities altogether, they feared the consequences of doing so (Guilbault, 28, 40-41). Repressive measures were taken though. Kalinda fighting and the use of skinned drums were banned beginning in 1881 (Elder, 200). This ban was likely spurred into effect by the Canboulay Riot, in which the Inspector Commandant of the British Empire, Arthur Baker, organized a mob of 150 men to clash with festival attendees. It led to the deaths of four policemen and scores of injuries on both sides (Guzda, 5).
The banning of traditional drums led to the development of tamboo-bamboo or orchestras of bamboo-stamping tubes (Elder, 196). The bamboo tubes were cut at different lengths which, when struck, gave them each a particular tone and when played together they were capable of producing a musical scale (Fergus, 163). The following clip is of “we’re Going to Cut Wood” released on Cook Records in 1956 by anonymous musicians.
By 1934 Tamboo Bamboo was also banned when rival gangs began sharpening them into points and using them as weapons (Savage. This was, at least, the official reason, though I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was also just a good opening to impose another form of cultural suppression. Rhythmic accompaniment which had been a major piece of the musical progression on the island since the introduction of the Big Drum was not about to die out. Musicians began to look for a creative alternative. They found an answer in garbage cans, brake drums, and other pieces of found metal, perhaps in some ways a nod to the Oldoe. It was soon discovered that a convex dent in the metal would produce a musical pitch (Seeger, 52). The pan drum, now synonymous with the island, was born. Here are the Highlanders, one of the champion steel bands of Trinidad, playing “Cumpanchero.” This record was released in 1957, also on Cook Records.
The discovery of crude oil occurred on the island in the early 1920s (Phillips, 32). Along with the development of the industry came a surplus of oil barrels. This became the most common medium for crafting these instruments (Seeger, 52). But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself as Steel bands would only reach the height of their popularity in the 1920s and 30s when they evolved a symbiotic relationship with the Road Marches of Carnival (Hill [Donald R.], 191).
Despite the suppression of the Kalinda tradition, a number of songs remained from this time period from which early calypsonians borrowed. These songs featured a strong 4/4 Rhythm, leader-chorus cooperation, syncopation, and minor modes. All are characteristics of the early calypso form (Elder, 200).
As lines began to fade, many of the Kalinda singers began to double as Calypsonians. They would sing their Kalindas in the calypso performance areas, known as tents, with band accompaniment instead of the traditional drums. Direct lines from Kalinda songs that emphasized the abilities and confidence of the fighters, such as:
“I am a young Creole so brave and bold” and “I am the Duke of Iron, defying all pretenders” carried over into early calypsos. The famous Calypsonian, Lord Beginner even began his career as a chantwell and stick fighter (“The Big Drum & other Ritual & Social Music of Carriacou,”10).
On the album Calypso in New York, recorded in 1946, Lord Invader sings an interpretation of a Kalenda song titled “Ten Thousand to Bar Me One.” In his original version, reported on in the Port of Spain Gazette two years earlier, Invader referenced specific stick fighters. In this version, he is presenting a challenge to other New York-based calypsonian transplants. Among them Cecil Anderson, known as “The Duke of Iron,” whose moniker, itself has a deep connection to the Kalenda song tradition. Just as Kalinda Fighting Kings used to travel to different barrack yards to challenge other fighters, Invader continued that tradition by traveling to New York City to challenge The Duke of Iron and Houdini (“Lord Invader,” 7-9).
In “Ten Thousand to Bar me One” the lyrical connection from Kalinda to Calypso is clear:
The competitive spirit of Kalinda is still present in this song. The physical violence, while alluded to, is now metaphorical. Live versions of these early Calypsos were created in an extemporaneous style. Performed in what was known as the Picong style, the calypsos served as provocations through humor and ridicule (Guilbault, 69).
Here is Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody squaring off in 1957,
The freestyle rap battles of the Old School Hip-Hop scene could be noted as a modern equivalent.
The chosen names of calypsonians of this early period also maintained the spirit of battle with names like Growling Tiger, Spitfire, Viking, Terror, Roaring Lion, Lord Executor, Attila the Hun. Even names that referenced famous British military commanders such as Lord Kitchener.
“The song Iron Duke in the Land” was the first Calypso to be recorded in Trinidad in 1914. It is a self-boasting tune in which the singer, Julian Whiterose, details his rise to the top position in his Carnival Marching Brigade - that of The Iron Duke (Cowley,194-195). The reappearance of the term Iron Duke as a carnival term shows the close connection between the festival, Kalinda, and calypso.
The use of instruments in calypso evolved began to evolve in the mid 19th century. In addition to African instruments like drums and banjos, usage of European instruments - guitar, flute, violin, and cornet began to appear (Guilbault, 31). In the 1890’s the usage of the string band became popular. An import from Venezuelan immigrants, it added guitar, a kind of four-stringed guitar known as a cuatro and mandolin to the mix (Guilbault, 32). The Lovey’s String Band version of “Mango Vert,” recorded in the United States in 1912, five years before the first jazz recording and two years before Julian Whiterose’s recording in Trinidad, is considered to be the first sound recording of a calypso (“Timeline,” “100 years”).
Like Mango Vert, most calypso recordings, at least until 1927, remained instrumentals, possibly due to the fact that prior to this time, most compositions were sung mostly in a mix of French Creole and English (Guilbault, 34). The introduction of the English language into calypso was partly due to an attempt to anglicize the island through education. Competitions were held by the ruling class to promote English as the primary language. This resulted in a form of calypso known as sans humanite. This is the form being used in the Julien Whiterose recording that we heard earlier.
The last line of each stanza ends with the phrase sans humanite, a French Creole phrase, while the majority of these songs are sung in English. Roaring Lion recalls going to the library in order to incorporate English words into his compositions (Guilbault, 30-31).
The sans humanite form had eight lines in each stanza instead of the four that were typical of the earlier Kalinda-influenced style. A competition announcement in 1914 states that the “meaningless sans humanite must not be included.” The intention in this announcement is clearly to rid the genre of its lingering creole lyrical influence. I have to agree that it is a strange and mysterious characteristic of this period of calypso. I think some of its value comes from the opportunity for the audience to participate, by singing the familiar phrase regardless of whether they had actually heard the composition before. The origin of the phrase itself is incredibly cryptic. The only somewhat plausible conjecture I could locate was that it is a French creole translation of a word in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria, specifically Kaito or Kaicho. The word is an exclamation, meaning something like “Bravo”. When translated (or perhaps mistranslated?) into French Creole it became Sans Humanite which further translated into English means “without pity.” within the Hausa language, the word can be used to express triumph or regret. Kaito may have experienced a transformation into the word “Kaiso” when it was exported to Trinidad. Eventually, Kaiso probably mutated further to become the word calypso. Kaiso is a word still used today to describe what traditionalists would call a pure calypso.
As a side note: The name Calypso appears directly in Homer’s Odyssey. Calypso, an island Queen, attempts to keep Odysseus as her husband. It is not widely believed, however, that the epic has any connection to the namesake of the genre, though, some upper-class Trinidadians were trained abroad in the classics. Successful parties and dances are still referred to as Bacchanals on the island without much local knowledge as to that term’s origin. So, it is possible to follow the same logic with The Odyssey’s Calypso. Still, the evolution of the word Kaiso is where most scholars believe the name to be derived (Crowley, 60).
Kaiso as an exclamation was also originally shouted out during performances as a gesture indicating at different times and circumstances, either approval or disapproval. Eventually, the audience would come to exclaim it only in instances of approval. It makes sense that Sans Humanite, with its intertwined history with the word Kaiso, would be used for similar purposes, but there is no definitive answer to the prominence of the phrase. Nonetheless, it persisted for decades. Its usage began to decline in the 1920s and then it disappeared completely (Hill, Errol 359- 365, Crowley, 59).
The 1920s saw the solidification of Calypso music as a popular form of entertainment. The Calypso tents, originally made of bamboo and coconut palm roofs, became more established both in a literal, structural sense and also culturally. The calypsonians began charging admission to the tents to watch their rehearsals (Guilbault, 69). Litany, or the use of a few repeated lines, was still present during this time period, but narrative songs were gaining in popularity. The first true commercial recordings of calypso music came in the 1920s and ’30s. Its growing popularity, however, did not make it any less controversial. The music served as a voice for the people and for many islanders their primary source of news coverage (Ramm). Later, when Gypsy Sang the line in 1988, “I could write a song to make the government strong, I could write a song to bring the government down (From Respect the Calypsonian),” there is part of me that believes him.
Calypso Rose has said that calypsonians are “reporters in song” (Rosenberg) and the Mighty Duke has described calypso as “an editorial in song of “The Life We Undergo” (From “What is Calypso,” 1968). An early example of this coverage in song is Attila the Hun’s “Commissioner’s Report” released in 1938 which criticizes the island’s colonial power, the British.
Growling Tiger sings of corruption in “Money is King.” Released in 1935.
Other songs such as King Radio’s “Sedition Law”, not released until 1940, shed light on the erosion of free speech. All are examples of banned calypsos from this early era. The creative and cultural suppression led Attila the Hun to pen the 1938 song “The Banning of Records” which, you guessed it, was also banned.” (Ramm).
The 1930s commonly referred to as the “Golden Era” of Calypso saw rampant state deculturalization. A “Prohibition Ordinance” Criminalized the Shouter Baptist and Shango religions, which, with its African roots, had close ties to calypso music. Later, censorship legislation was passed in an attempt to shut down calypso as a political bullhorn and a source of African Pride. Take Cobra’s song “Shango” from 1937 which was banned for its subject matter: Shango: the Yoruba Tribe of Africa’s God of War.
In true calypso form, open defiance to the ordinance was commonplace, with artists like Lord Executor, singing in 1937’s “Three Friends Advice,” I think I’m going to learn to Dance the Shango.”
It should be mentioned that the Christians on the island mostly viewed calypso as the music of the devil. Negative ideas about sorcery and witchcraft were commonplace (Fergus, 11). Many of these fears are mocked in the humorous lines of calypsos (Toussaint, 141). At other times calypsonians themselves were critical of Shangoist and Obeah (pr O-Bee-Ah) ideas. Lord Caresser sang, “I don’t know why some black people so, indulge in nothing but evil, plunging themselves below the level, boasting they could invoke the devil.” Ogun was one of the Shangoists’ most celebrated deities, but in calypso, he is sometimes insulted as master jumbie (or zombie)(Fergus, 18). This gives songs like “Zombie Jamboree” a whole new lens through which they can be viewed.
Calypsonians in general, though, were not critical of Shangoism. Cultural censorship led many calypsonians to adopt double entendre as a means of escaping censorship while still delivering their message (Fergus, 11).
With Labour union strikes and hunger and poverty a common sight, the second half of the 1930s provided plenty of subject matter for the calypsonian of the time (Guilbault, 58). The Great Depression inspired the songs “Worker’s Appeal” by Growling Tiger and “I Don’t Know How the Young Men Living” By Lord Executor. The winning songs in the first year of the Calypso King competition, which began in 1939, demonstrate the political conditions of the time. The song titles are as follows: “Trade Union”, “Rise and Fall of the British Empire”, “Adolf Hitler” and “Daily Mail Report” (Ramm). The Calypso King competition was initially sponsored by an organization called the “Improvement Committee” an organization comprised of the mayor, city counselors, and a representative from the police force. Lyrics had to be submitted beforehand and in many ways this is just another way of exhibiting control and censorship of the more controversial lyrics found in many calypsos (Guilbault, 69-70). Here is Executor with 1937’s “I Don’t Know How the Young Men Living.”
The 1940s saw a further evolution of the calypso form. Most of the melodies were now performed in major keys and featured more complex song structures, frequently with multiple movements, the repeated refrains of earlier calypso forms were now considered optional (Elder, 201). The most famous calypso song of this decade is undoubted “Rum and Coca-Cola.” Its lyrics were composed by Lord Invader in 1943, and it was covered by the Andrews Sisters, to great success, in 1944 (Noblett). The melody itself is based on a composition by Lionel Belasco that dates back to 1906 (Curtis). By the way, Lord Invader later composed a song entitled “Pepsi Cola,” so I guess the debate on which product is better has been going on for a while.
“Rum and Coca-Cola” details the consequences that came along with the newly established American military bases which had been constructed on the island at the start of World War II. The island had a population of close to 400,000 at this time. The bases added an additional 130,000 Americans (Curtis). The Americans were seen by many as a nuisance in the social and economic life of the island. Many women during this time became sex workers (Phillips, 33). I don’t know how many of these women chose that life vs. the percentage that was more or less forced into it, but it is clear that the social dynamics of the island were being upturned. The Lord Invader version of Rum and Coca Cola is cynical of the changes he has seen since the arrival of the G.I.’s. The Andrews Sisters version, on the other hand, has more of a summer romance vibe.
Following the war, sailors returning from the island’s naval bases brought the music back to the United States (Honingman). The Mighty Sparrow’s song “Jean and Dinah” speaks to life in Trinidad following the closure of the bases. The song has some regrettable misogynistic lyrics that in this case aren’t the consequence of satire. If it wasn’t for the line “Sparrow take over now,” I could see the song as more of a tragic description. Sex workers had lost a large part of their customer base with the departure of the Americans and Sparrow is describing a situation in which he is more or less bargain shopping at the expense of someone else’s despair. The reason I am playing it is that it serves as a sequel to “Rum and Coca-Cola.”
Calypso reached its pinnacle of popularity, not just on Trinidad, but throughout the world, in the same year as “Jean and Dinah” with the release of Harry Belafonte’s album simply titled “Calypso” in 1956. This recording, alongside “Under the Sea” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is what most Americans probably think of when we think of calypso. I love Belafonte’s record, but it is not a great representation of the genre. Belafonte, born in Harlem to Jamaican parents, has said in his own words, “ As a matter of fact, my two big records right now aren’t calypso at all, even though everybody seems to have hung that tag on them. One, Jamaica Farewell is a West Indian Folk Ballad. The Other Day-O is a West Indian folk song” (Phillips, 12).
Here is Day-O, also known as the Banana Boat Song.
That is not to say that Belafonte didn’t perform any calypsos. The song “Jump in the Line” from Belafonte’s 1961 release, probably his second most well-known song, is a calypso credited to Lord Kitchener, and “Zombie Jamboree,” which we heard earlier, is a calypso credited to Lord Intruder.
The subtleties were lost on the listening public. The album went on to become the first LP to sell over a million copies (Ramm). During the height of the calypso craze, it accounted for one-fourth of popular record sales (Crowley, 57). Even the actor Robert Mitchum, best known now for his role in the original Cape Fear put out a calypso record where he makes use of an often cringe-worthy Trinidadian inflection (Honingman). By the way, he opens the record with his version of “Jean and Dinah.”
In the same year as Belafonte’s Calypso record, in Trinidad, Lord Melody and The Mighty Sparrow, who were going head to head for the title of Calypso King, boycotted the final phase of the competition, leaving the title in limbo. They were protesting the abysmal payout given to the winner. In 1955, the King received a silver cup and $50. Compare that to the Carnival Queen, a beauty contest, which had a payout of $7,500 (by the way, the Carnival Queen was not awarded to a black woman until 1971, a testament to the legacy of colonialism on the island). The protest worked (Guilbault, 83). 1956 also saw the election of the first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago in Dr. Eric Williams. After almost two hundred years, the descendants of the African forced diaspora finally gained their own representation in Trinidad and Tobago. The Mighty Sparrow’s song “William the Conqueror” is written in reference to the victory of The William’s Campaign for the People’s National Movement, usually abbreviated to the PNM (Regis). In August of 1962 Trinidad and Tobago gained their full independence from Britain. The Union Jack flag lowered from the flagpoles. Two weeks prior, independence had been celebrated on the stage at the Calypso King competitions (Regis). The calypsonian, without a doubt, played an integral role in independence. Here is “William the Conqueror.”
In the years following, the revolutionary in the spirit of The Black Power movement would find a fitting partner in calypso. In fact, both the term Black Power and the emblematic Clenched Fist are credited to Trinidad-born Stokely Carmichael. The Mighty Duke’s “Black is Beautiful” released in 1968 became an anthem for the movement (Fergus, 20).
Stylistically, Soca music, a portmanteau of the words soul and calypso, and other subgenres began to take over in popularity starting in the 1970s. The soca beat, with its faster tempo and party themes, is often looked down upon by Calypso traditionalists (Guilbault, 35, 172)
The traditionally male-dominated medium became more diverse with the arrival of artists like Denyse Plummer, Singing Sandra, and Calypso Rose, who is perhaps, at the time of this recording, the most famous living calypsonian. Carnival organizers were forced to change the name of calypso’s most coveted prize, the Calypso King when she won the title in 1978. Singers now compete for the more accurate title of Calypso Monarch. Rose’s 2016 song “Leave Me Alone” was adopted by the country as an anthem of awareness in regard to sexual violence against women, adjacent to the #Me Too movement. It represents a long journey from the lyrical misogyny of “Jean and Dinah” and the continuing legacy of the calypsonian as a defender, a fighter, for what they see as injustice and corruption. Here is “Leave Me Alone.”
Epilogue
As you can probably imagine, there are plenty of other opinions on the origins, influences, and influencers of Calypso. I think these are worth noting:
One is that calypso evolved from the griots or traveling, West African storytellers who maintained the oral history of their people and served as satirists. When enslaved people arrived from Africa they would listen to the griot, who told stories from the community and mocked the enslaver. Many of these enslavers were French which is one reason for the French patois found in the earliest calypsos (Phillips, 14-15). The Bamboula, another drum dance coupled with singing, with possible similarities to the Big Drum Dance, may be another source, but very little is known about it. The Belair, described by one source as a song of praise or satire, often melodious and melancholic, was also a likely antecedent, but again almost nothing is available in the form of documented examples. The album cover notes from a collection of songs released in 1956 on Cook Records, “Bamboo Tamboo: Bongo and the Belair” describes the Belair as a Pre-Carnival dance performed in costume dress by the older women. They sing with accompaniment by male drummers. And an article in the Port of Spain Gazette from early 1950 referred to calypso as a “disgustingly debased form of the very old and very pretty bel air.” It is also possible that this was just another term used by the upper class to describe what others have come to call early calypso (Hill, [Errol]. 365). After a good deal of digging around, I am still completely confused as to what exactly a Belair is. Roaring Lion in his book “Calypso From France to Trinidad- 800 Years of History” controversially concludes that calypso is a derivative of the French poetic ‘Ballade’ form. In his opinion, “There is no evidence to support the claim that it is either a variant of African folk songs or that it was invented by African slaves in Trinidad. This belief is purely speculative.” Lion’s opinion is that it was only with the Black Power movement in the 1970s that the need to emphasize African roots became a priority (Fergus, 14). The repeating of common phrases has led some to believe that the litanies of the Catholic Church may have informed its structure (Guilbault, 31). Later African American influence is even a possible influence as touring groups such as the Tennessee Jubilee Singers visited the country. On their second tour of Trinidad in 1891, they stayed for over a month and a half (Guilbault, 32). I think that it is possible that an amalgam of some or all of these influences shaped what we have come to know as the calypso form.
I think Hollis Liverpool, a scholar, and calypsonian also known as The Mighty Chalkdust, is probably correct in saying that “calypso was not the descendent of any one form of song but owed its origin to the numerous songs, rhythms, and dance traditions present in Trinidad during the time of African enslavement” (Guilbault, 30).
Lastly, I wanted to touch on East Indian and Chinese influence on the music of Trinidad. Their cultural inputs were left out of the main thread of the episode. Immigrants from both China and India arrived on the island following the abolishment of slavery, most arriving as indentured servants. Both were marginalized and for the most part continued the development of their musical culture independent of calypso, which is my reason for leaving them out of the storyline. I am aware that some early calypso string bands did feature Chinese musicians (Guilbault 32) and there are examples of individual Chinese Calypsonians, but their performances were often done in a comic style that separated them from what was considered authentic calypso (Guilbault 27, 120). The East Indians brought with them their own drumming traditions and would later come to fuse Indian Folk music with Soca to form a genre of music known as Chutney Soca. Hopefully, I can present a whole episode on these ideas at some point in the future.
Bibliography:
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Making. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.
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Fergus, Claudius. “FROM SLAVERY TO BLACK POWER: THE ENIGMA OF AFRICA IN
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Rosenberg, Dan. Afropop Worldwide Closeup. Tobago’s #MeToo Trailblazer: Calypso Rose. Apple Podcasts. 21 May 2018. https://afropop.org/articles/afropop-closeup-season-3.
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Further Reading/Viewing:
Inward Hunger: the Story of Eric Williams
History provides the Blue Print: Eric Williams [Free on Vimeo]
Lioness of the Jungle: Calypso Rose Documentary.
Hollis Liverpool (Chalkdust): From the Horse’s Mouth. Stories of the History and development of the Calypso.
Raymond Quevedo (Atilla The Hun) Rafael de Leon (Roaring Lion) have also contributed to scholarship on the subject).
Noted academic contributions have been provided by Errol Hill, J.D. Elder, Donald Hill, Gordon Rohlehr, and Louis Regis
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