Welcome And Why Calypso Matters

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts. Visit StrictlyFactsPod.com for more information on each episode. You can find all of our social media platforms there to stay connected. Well, I'm Strictly Facts Pam, and thank you for tuning in to another episode. Our listeners know very well here at Strictly Facts that I am not shy about my love for music, especially the countless ways music is reflective of our oral historical culture. We've named countless songs already throughout our episodes for this particular genre, and I felt it was finally time to discuss the long history of a genre of cultural and political evolution. From Laura Kitchener to Mikey Spiral, Sing Sandra to Calypso Rose, today we are talking about one of the central genres that helped birth and influence popular music today, like SOCA. Today we are discussing Calypso's origins and impact on Caribbean history. Joining me for this discussion today is music sociologist and author, Dr. Megan Sylvester. Dr. Sylvester, thank you so much for joining us today. Please tell us a bit about yourself, where in the Caribbean is near and dear to you, and what led you to becoming a music sociologist.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Okay, so thank you very much, Alexandria. I really appreciate this opportunity. And I want to start off by saying thank you so much for having me on to discuss this topic. Specifically, I am from the Twin Island economy of Trinidad and State, and I have a passion for both music and sociology. I have been formerly trained as a sociologist, and so I bring to this discussion an understanding of issues related to identity and race and class and culture, colorism, and ways in which the society is stratified. And upon that, I'm adding the whole focus of music. But because I come from the Twin Island economy of Trend Island Tobago, the music in focus is going to be calypso, which we consider to be mother music, and by extension, the derivatives that come out of this tree of calypso, the branches, where we would have socker, we would have elements of chutney soca, we would have ragassoker, we would have Ruby soccer and parang soca actually, just to add that in because that's part of the Christmas music. So it becomes important to understand that calypso music is seen as

Calypso Roots In Slavery

SPEAKER_01 2:30

mother music. So we're gonna start by having this discussion about what is calypso, where calypso has come from, and why it is important to the Caribbean and to spaces, in fact, where you would have had that slave experiment, you know, involved with the Europeans, because that is really the genesis of an understanding of what calypso is. Because if we start by understanding what is calypso, we start by understanding that it is this music that was a direct response by the slaves in terms of treating with or dealing with the slavery reality. And so we have different types of calypsos that we see today. But then when we think about what went into that, we think about the slave masters and the overseas in terms of looking at the ways in which they would have been ruling, they would have been the directorate at the time of the plantation and the way in which they would have been ruling the plantation. The slaves, of course, would have come having a view of life, having a view of um management styles, because we must understand that slaves are not to be seen as um uneducated individuals, all right? Those snatched and grabbed, they were individuals who were quite educated. And so we need to understand that. And when we talk about education, we mean for their time, and then we look at the whole concept of the social commentary. Where does that come from? Slaves also took the opportunity to make fun of the slave masters and the overseers, and so we get that social comment also. Part of that social commentary within the calypso is about the life and times of the plantation, what was actually taking place. So slaves are also using this original calypso art form to put fun at other slaves to speak to that issue of life on the plantation. We also speak about humor coming out in the calypso art form, and we know that this is another way in which we see the genesis where there are some slaves who are given to having that type of approach to dealing with the stress and the strain and the tension of being on the plantation. And so they were the ones who would have had that kind of false affair and kind of perspective about how we deal with what's happening. So you had the concept of people who you had the concept of individuals who would poke fun and use their body, use themselves, use their voice, use their facial expression, the intonation to get that message across. And so just to you know give a sense of that, you would have had the origin of the political calypso, the social calypso, and the humours.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Thank you so much for starting there. I think you've answered quite a few of my questions already. I

Trinidad Hub Migration And Recordings

SPEAKER_02 5:12

think what I really want to center on is the fact of this historical connection to the importance of this commentary. And I think we even see that, you know, if we fast forward a few centuries into more contemporary music, I especially think of there's this period of censorship within Trinidad in terms of Calypso. And so, could you talk more just a bit about you know Calypso's ability primarily in the 20th century and going forward to also provide that same social and political commentary through culture and maybe even the role, the important role that the Calypsonian takes up in society?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Okay, and so one of the things we are to really focus on calypso, because I would have been speaking before about plantation generally and the slave experiment generally. I want to make a point before getting to Trinidad and Tobago. It is important, I think, for the audience to be aware of the fact that calypso, strictly speaking, does not necessarily belong to Trinidad and Tobago. Because if we say that it is an expression coming out of the slave experiment or the slave reality, then we recognize that there were many spaces where there would have been slavery. And so we talk about the southern United States, we talk about various different spaces within the Caribbean, that is, the French Caribbean, the Spanish Caribbean, the English-speaking Caribbean, the Dutch-speaking and the Danish-speaking Caribbean. So we need to understand that. That is what we understand as this music that emerged, right, by the enslaved persons to speak to their reality. When we look at Trinidad and Tobago, we understand that. So we're speeding up a few years, we would have had now Calypso come into its fullest fruition in Trinidad and Tobago. So it became sort of like the center of that expression for persons within the Caribbean. So you would have had, for example, a lot of migration taking place of Calypsoans or would-be Calypsoans who wanted to be part of the art form, leaving their home and coming to Trinidad. For example, we think of the mighty sparrow who would have come, you know, from uh Grenada. We think about Valentino, who would have come from Grenada, we think about the mighty bomber, who would have come from Grenada. And there's so many more that would have come from various islands. And it becomes important for us to understand why Trinidad and Tobago was seen as the center. So persons would have been migrating at that time for work as well as to be involved in this particular art war. You would have had the whole issue of the World War, and you would have had the presence of naval officers or sailors in a base in Chagaramas in Trinidad and Tobago, in Port Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. And this actually started to open up the opportunities for Calypso as entertainment for the sailors. And so we found that that also was a draw. Not the only one, but it was a draw now for individuals to migrate to Trinidad and Tobago and for the Calypsoans who were resident in Trinidad and Tobago to leave their rural spaces and go to what would have been considered at the time a city space to perform for these naval officers. In addition, there would have been the whole issue of prostitution taking place at that space. So it would have been a buzz with life and activity. And so Calypso now was also part of that entertainment for that space. That is this army base where the naval officers were. And so we understand when you look at Calypso at that time, and I want to mention for your audience to be aware, the first known recording of Calypso would have been in 1912 by Lovey's band. But the interesting thing is that that was an instrumental. So what we're actually talking about now when I speak to the whole issue of the naval base, etc., we're talking about English lyrics, and to some extent, English and tatwa lyrics being used in the performance of the calypso. That is being used as part of the lyrical backing of these songs. So we see that trajectory moving from the musical or the instrumental coming all the way down, adding in the various languages or pigeons, or you know, the different dialects of the spaces. In particular, if we're talking about Trindad and Tobago, you would have had that token French, that patois, and the English being used. So you would have had a combination of the instrumentals, the African dialects that the space would have come with. You would have also had that French, you would have had that mixture of some of the Spanish because we're talking about all of the Europeans that are now coming to Trindad and Tobago. We're talking about wars that would have been fought, yeah, for ownership of the territory, and all of that is adding to the music, it's adding to the ways in which um the expression comes to. And so what we see happening is that the calypso at that time would have been sung using a different beat per minute, so it would have been slower than the calypso that we're looking at now. Why is that one? Because the naval officers needed to understand, they were trying to entertain them, they needed to understand what was being sung. They would not have been familiar with some of the dialects and some of the language that would have been used. Similarly, the Calypsonians, because they were also poking fun, which had to be the tradition of Calypso from the very start, had some of the leaders at the time who would have also been coming to be entertained along with the naval arts. The Calypsonians made a decision to use the double entendre, which is this double meaning, French for double meaning, because they didn't want the naval officers about whom they may have been singing, as well as the leaders of the country, to be aware of, in totality, everything that they were saying. So they hid the meaning within the lyrics. So they were using this double entendre where they would say one thing, but it seemed as though they meant something else. And so that was another feature of Calypso at the time. Lower speed and the use of this particular figure of speech, as it was, to deliver the message.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

There's a point that you made in your answer that I think is really central to one of my goals here at Strictly Facts. It's the fact of the impact of migration. And I think oftentimes when we narrow, in a sense, what our considerations of the Caribbean are, especially because of national and geographic boundaries, migration, in my opinion, is a way to transverse that, right? And so you mentioned the Southern Caribbean. I even think of New York as being another central place where cultural, you know, starts evolving, um, especially with the migration of people I even would be remiss not to mention like a Harry Bell Conte in the US, who also takes up these central roles. Another thing that I was thinking through as we were talking about will come to mind is Mike P. Scarlett's song, William the Conqueror, and how he uses that song to, in a sense, highlight a sort of pride for independence while also praising Eric Williams, in a sense, as well. And so there are all these sort of combinations that the story is not linear, it's rarely ever linear in general, but um, when we add in that that layer of migration to the story, it forces us to really reconsider um national and you know regional boundaries. And so another point that I definitely want us to mention in this episode is the connection between calypso and carnival. So do you

Calypso Meets Carnival Politics

SPEAKER_02 12:56

speak to that especially for Trinidad and Tobago?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

So there is a very deep connection between Calypso and Carnival. And that is mainly because Calypso music was traditionally seen as carnival music. So that means that they would have grown up alongside each other. Um, not to say that they, you know, they they came, they they started at the same time because of course we just spoke to the earlier in this conversation about where calypso came from. But when we start to speak about this carnival expression, which mind you would have been started during uh uh slavery times, um, where you would have had the different type of carnivals, where you would have had the pretty mass carnival, which would have been the French um variation of carnival dressing up in the costumes and that kind of thing. And alongside that, you would have had uh what would have been seen as this um low culture expression, which we see today as the old mask carnival taking place, where you actually persons dress up in costumes that are usually handmade to poke fun at the directorate or the leaders. So we see that having started uh to some extent during um those times where we had the slaves having that kind of expression, but we also note that if we look at it later on in its history, calypso music has been seen to be carnival music. And that is an early iteration of carnival. Now it becomes important to understand that calypso music is also about speaking to issues and themes like colonization, decolonization, speaking to the whole issue of this search and this demand for independence, speaking about republicanism that is becoming a republic, moving away from having any sort of British rule in terms of having the governor general the head of state. So you would find that there are various songs that would have been written by Calypsoans along the way for the carnival season that spoke to those issues. Because I think in today's society, we tend to think of a song being created, that is a calypso being created to speak to perhaps issues taking place in this society, but because it's the time of year in which the songs are released, there seems to only be this link between this is a calypso for carnival. However, what we saw in the earlier days, though the songs were created at the same time or for the same season or festival, what we really saw was the songs were heavy on the political commentary. So if we look at what is happening in the 30s and we see what was happening worldwide, we see that calypso is reflective of that time. Because Calypso also, while having that link with Carnival, did not only speak to what was happening in Trinidad and today. So if you were having issues in terms of rewards, if you're having issues in terms of tumult taking place in the world, that is what calypso was representative of. You're coming down to the 40s, you're coming down to the 1950s, you're coming to the 1960s. So you're talking about civil rights movements, you're talking about what is happening in the United States, what's happening in Canada, seeing a direct relationship between the lyrics of Calypso being produced for the carnival season and what is happening overseas. All right, and so it becomes important. Then we see the 1970s. So we're talking about the 1960s. I just spoke about civil unrest, but I'm speaking about that internationally. See then what's happening in Trinidad and Tobago in particular. You see, 1962 is this um independence, and so you have those kinds of discussions. You see, you mentioned um, you know, Sparrow Uli, and you have the song talking about the federation in terms of what's happening in the region. So you have that regional connection between the lyric of the Calypso and the Carnival Festival, and so it becomes important to see that in the 1980s. You see discussions about character, you see all those kinds of discussions taking place. And so this is why you have um artists such as Black Stalin, you have Lord Superior, you have Valentino. So, in addition to Sparrow, the Mikey Sparrow, you have several Calypsoans who speak to these kinds of issues, you know, and it becomes important to understand that Calypso is also speaking about issues of oppression, it's speaking about issues of rebellion. Because you have Calypso being the music for Carnival, but then you have all of these other carnival expressions in terms of dance, in terms of, you know, drama, and there's music that is created to speak to those kinds of issues taking place in the society. We see evidence of Calypso also speaking to the political issues taking place in terms of whenever there's a change in government, in terms of the role of the um directorate and the role of the um you know other party that would have been in power. How are they, you know, dealt with within the calypso in terms of the conversations that people are having on a day-to-day basis? And so it becomes important to just trace in terms of the trajectory of the themes of calypso. I prefer, generally speaking, to look at it in decades because I think that William Capsules, I would have said earlier in this conversation that 1912 is the first known recording of Calypso, but that of course doesn't mean that uh there wasn't Calypso before because we recognize that you know we're talking about the 1800s in terms of when slavery would have been, you know, in its heyday. And so it becomes important to understand that as we come down, we look at that expression.

From Calypso To Soca Debates

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Now, when we look at what calypso has become, calypso is the mother music, it is the brand, and then we have soccer, and we have the different variants of soccer music. So for some individuals within um, you know, the fraternity, they speak to the fact that they do not see that calypso and so is different, they just see it as a different expression, but coming from the same root. So you may have a sped up beat or you may have increased beats per minute, but that all that means is that it's an upbeat calypso. And when we look at who would have started that sort of discussion, we speak to um Lord Shorty, you know, speaking to endless vibrations, speaking to Indrani, and the whole fact that, you know, in the lyrics of his song, he's talking about the populace calling for a different kind of beat, a different kind of movement. But this is just showing the continuation of the calypso art form. There are other artists within the fertility who say fundamentally no, they disagree. They say calypso is calypso and soaker music is so music, and so it becomes important to chase that. We have Kitchener speaking to that, we have sparrows speaking to that, and so we understand when we listen to calypsos over time that we see older buds would have had a particular perspective about what calypso was and what calypso is, and then we would have had new generations, and this is why I mentioned this 10-year span in terms of looking at the contribution of uh of the performers and how they interpret it because they are basically interpreters of what is happening in the society, and then they bring them out in terms of the expression, you know, within their lyrics and the estate performance, the music that accompanies.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

As you were walking through your timeline, um, I had an earlier episode where we were talking primarily about religion um with Dr. Khan's book, Far from Mecca. But I also, in that conversation, we were talking about the 1990 coup and talked about songs like Brother Ebernese Abu Um Baker Takeover. Um, so just to add that other layer and for our listeners to bring that connection forward. And I really liked that framing of looking at things by decade to sort of help with how we see this evolution taking over.

Women In Calypso Monarch History

SPEAKER_02 20:57

I think we can also not talk about Calypso without talking about the Calypso Monarch contest, in that, especially as a women's historian, would be remiss not to also mention that important layer of what women have also done for the genre. And you know how Calypso Monarch is it sort of evolved, right? Because it was initially it went to name a Calypso king.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

What I want to do is I want to start with today and then move backwards for this particular response. And so if we look at Trinidad and Tobago, we're focusing on those two islands and looking at the Calypso expression, we're looking at what's happening. Um it's carnival time now, and it becomes important to understand that we are having a taste of carnival this year. So this is um 2022, and we're having a taste of carnival. What that means is that you're not going to have a full fledged um, you know, competition because carnival and uh calypso competitions have become synonymous, and we have Women, more women now being involved in the calypso at all. And so that becomes important. And I want to name some names because I think it's important for persons to know because we are so familiar as an industry in terms of understanding who the males are. So we talk about Tigris, you know, she is from Trinidad and Tobago, and she actually is living in South Carolina, but goes back every year to before. We speak about Lady Watchman, we speak about Corinne Asher, we speak about Tiny, we speak about Miguel Simon, we speak about Maria Bola. There's so many names. We speak about um uh Lady Adana. These are names that prison is saying, okay, but I'm not familiar with these names. So we take it back to understand who are these ladies really standing on the shoulders of? They're standing on the shoulders of this first um expression of the female in the calypso tense, not calypsoules. We're talking about Lady Iri. So Lady Iri would have been married to her husband, who sobriquet would have been Lord Adrian. And they were literally performing in the tense in the earlier days. And so she was actually the first female to be performing in the Calypso tense when we look at Trinidad Adam today's history of the female in the Calypso tense. Then we see Calypso Rose coming on the scene and having that kind of expression. And if we understand that Calypso Rose is still alive, if we understand that Calypso Rose is still performing, and we understand that Calypso Rose actually has sort of reinvented herself in terms of her contribution and her association with Carnival going on to win what we would now call a French equivalent of a Grammy. And it becomes important with management, how she sort of reinvented the expression that she wanted to share with the world. It becomes important, we mentioned earlier, Alexandria, the whole issue of the naming of the competition. It was the Calypso King competition. And when you had Calypso Rose attaining the crown, it had to be changed to the concept of the monarch. And so since then, that has really been the name of the competition, this Calypso monarch, who is going to win this monarchy, as they would say in local parlance. And so we've seen that we've had singing Francine also being part of that, of course, healing from Barbados, but performing, you know, a lot in Trinidad and Tobago. And so that brings with it the whole idea of migration that we were speaking about, and persons from the Caribbean, not necessarily in Trinidad and Tobago, being part of this particular art form. You would have seen Denise Plummer as someone who was not of Afro-um African descent entering the space. And that brought with it, you know, from a sociological standpoint, the whole issue of race and class and color entering the Gael as it would. And that became an important topic of discussion because what we know about Calypso, traditionally, it was an Afro-Tri-Chinidadian, but a male-dominated space. And for Denise Plummer, who is um mixed mulatto, if we want to give a descriptor, for her to be allowed entry into the space, she had to be given. The door had to be open to her. And it becomes important to name, you know, like Black Stalin and some of the others who would have said, okay, allow this expression because this too is who we are. And we saw the development of that in terms of this female representing. And so we've had many other females, you know, singing Sonia, and so many others coming down that would have made that contribution. And so we see what is happening now. And of course, we know that Denise Plummer would have won the crown, and we would have had times when you know you had Corrine Ashe in particular. I want to mention her because she is one of the younger artists. But the thing about it is that she actually has brought a sort of new generation with her to the art form. Um, she actually styles herself. It becomes important, I think, for your audience if they can get a visual. She actually styles herself as a soccer artist, which is interesting. So when we talk about the traditional look and fashioning and costuming of the female in Calypso, we speak about someone who looks a little like, you know, how singing Sandra styles herself with the wrapped head and the African garb because it's an afro, you know, it's an African intensive sort of art form. And so I think they want to capture that sort of, you know, uh visual. However, Corinne Ashey, though she may have started off like that, actually being trained by singing Sandra and some of the other females in the business, she has actually started to style herself more like a soccer artist in terms of the costuming. And what do I mean by that? I'm talking about, you know, the additions in terms of the hair, in terms of the eyelashes, in terms of the heavy makeup, in terms of a different type of costuming. And it becomes important to see the synergy, you know, and that intertwining between calypso and soca as you have younger persons coming in. This is an important point to me because as we talk about individuals like Nadia Batson, who would have been and a lot of the females I'm talking about would have started off in Calypso, and then some of them get into soccer music. So we have a Nadia Batson, you're just talking about Karina Shea, and you can also speak about so many of the others, you know, who have walked this path. We talk about Patrice, Patrice Roberts, who would have started off in in the junior calypso competition and then graduated as a group to the seniors, and then step across into um the soccer fraternity, and then begin to style themselves as soccer artists. Our reigning calypso manner is none other than Perry Lyon, who would be the daughter of Blue Boy in his first iteration and super blue in his second iteration as a as a performer. And that becomes important for us to note in terms of understanding the role of women, uh, understanding that women too have attained the crown and they have that ability and they have uh the support of the community in terms of getting that expression out. And we see that in fact Terry Lyons is just like some of the others that I mentioned, started off in Calypso and also sings soccer. But one of the interesting things about Terry Lyons is that she continues every year to perform in both spaces, and that is a difference because there are those that I mentioned before who would have started off in Calypso and then just graduated out of the Calypso art form and then have found their place in soccer music. But as a female, you know, involved in the industry, we see that Terry Lyons gets into the Calypso space and also into the soap-space, and that is a very interesting approach being taken. And we wonder if we can see this, if this is the future. If this is the future, the synergies that exist that we know in terms of the beats per minute, but also in terms of an individual making a decision to be involved and to express themselves in both ways, understanding that calypso is mother music, and so is one of those branches that would have come out of it.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

You've brought so much, I think, that gender history, I think is really important to our discussion of course that so I think sort of to tie in together all the things that you mentioned on the what would you think a sort of reflective sort of microcosm of you know therapeutic as you mentioned the gender issues, like issues of color, the issues of rates. Um, how can you really see calypso and think, okay, these are sort of reflective boundaries of changes going on through therapy and history?

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Um

Diaspora Carnivals And Multilingual Calypso

SPEAKER_01 29:46

I think that if we look at the expression, the calypso expression that comes out of some of the other islands, I think we would see that. One of the things about calypso that emerges out of Trinidad and Subbaby is that it tended to have a local focus, a regional focus, and an international focus. We see that with the mushrooming or the creation of other carnivals across the diaspora, particularly in the Caribbean region and even outside of that space. So we talk about Bincima, since in Dincina Bendis, we talk about the spice isle of the media and how they have the expression of carnival there. We talk about Cropova and Barbados, you know, and we talk about in the Dutch Caribbean, you have carnival taking place, you know, and there are other spaces, of course, where you have carnival. Then you also have what's happening in the United States of America. And so you see that in the twining of teams, you see that intertwining of expression in terms of the Calypsoan. So if you talk about the mighty Gabby in Barbados, you talk about red plastic bag and what they would have been singing about, and you talk about other persons coming and having that expression that really tells us about how we see the synergies taking place. We talk about skinny fabulous, we talk about persons who are performing today. We see that there has been this marrying of artists in terms of their contribution to the soccer art form, which we know is part of Calypso as well. You have a bunch of girl and you have a Marshall Montana, you have a skinny fabulous on a song that is expressing this feeling of what Carnival is and how we see that coming together. You would have seen so many artists across the region really contributing to this expression of Calypso and Carnival, and it becomes important to understand why this is taking place. We get back to the immediate conversations we were having today. Not only a migration of in terms of location and the physicality, but a migration in terms of the music. So let me give you an idea of what I mean. We talk about Lord Shoty, and we talk about this move from Calypso to Soka. And we understand that it was a combination of backup or session musicians who were part of what was the movement. So you would have had not only the migration of the Calypsoan who was the frontline singer, but you had background singers and you had musicians who were also migrating. When people migrate, they are bringing their culture with them. Bringing your culture with you means that the musical expression that you would have in your island territory or from your own space, you would add that literally to the way in which you play a guitar, in the way in which you beat a drum, in the way in which you play a keyboard, or the way in which you play a horse. And so this is what we understand when we talk about the synergies that take place in terms of the music, in terms of Caribbean expression. So now we would find that why, and this is why I made the point earlier, calypso music now has become sort of like the expression of the Caribbean, as opposed to just being squarely fit into Trinidad and Tobago. So we understand that it came to its fullest fruition in Trinidad and Tobago because of the competition and the competitions that we would have in Trinidad and Tobago, which is why people would ever want to come to compete, because it means one, you can have bragging rights when you are successful in these competitions. You also get an appearance fee. So it was work. So if you fancied yourself a Calypsoan or somebody who wanted to say something through the Calypso art form, coming to Trinidad and Tobago was a way to demonstrate your acknowledgement of your desire to be part of this fraternity. And so we understand that. But now that we've had the much room, as I indicated earlier, of the carnivals, you have Calypso expression across the region, across the Caribbean region. And so you have that being part of what is taking place. I've actually had the fortunate opportunity to be part of the carnival scene in the Dutch Caribbean. And one of the things that becomes important, and I think that this might be a bit of interest for your audience, is the fact that in the Dutch Caribbean, because it's a multilingual space, you have Calypso being sung in four languages: English, Dutch, Spanish, and Satramento. And that becomes something that is so important for people to understand as we talk about Calypso and what Calypso expression is, you know, and this is why I always start our conversations like this talking about where did Calypso come from, wherever there would have been the existence of slaves. And so you would have had this tradition. People sing in the language with which they're comfortable, but they also speak about what's happening in their own space. And so, as you had all of the migration taking place, you have that broken language in terms of the pathwork in the spaces where you would have had French occupation, you would have had, you know, pavement in terms of the places where you had Dutch, you know, occupation. And so you would have even looked at the what would be considered the Danish question. When you look at Singapore and look at St. John, you know, and it becomes important to understand you also have Calypso there, where you have that fusion um um, you know, dialects being spoken. And it becomes so important to see calypso taking place all across the region. When we talk about Costa Rica, and we talk about the influence of Trinidadians and Tibetanians going to help in the building of the Panama Canal, and you talk about um Calypso in Panama, and you talk about Calypso in Costa Rica. Where do these people come from? You see, it's because of the migration of people, the migration of the art form, the migration of the music within, encapsulated within the individual, the bodies of these men and these women as they move. And so this is really why Calypso is to be seen as a Caribbean expression. Yeah, understanding its root of force, understanding where the competitions take place, generally speaking, so that people come, but understanding that this has now completely taken off in the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

You so wonderfully tied so many of our previous episodes together. I was just sitting here, like, yes, we got that episode on Papento and this one on the Panama canal. So thank you so much for sharing that um very integral link to you know how we really consider movement and you know art and through. We want to so many of various artists and creators within Calypso today.

Films Songs And How Calypso Works

SPEAKER_02 36:33

So, what are some of your favorite um examples of songs and albums that you know are really reflective of Calypso's history in the Caribbean?

SPEAKER_01 36:43

I want to look at my favorite song and I want to look at a movie or a film that I think encapsules. The film is Calypso Dreams. And I think that it is extremely important that anybody who's interested in the history of Calypso have an opportunity to look at this film. This film really encapsules what was happening at the time in terms of understanding the story what were involved in Calypso, in terms of why they got involved. You would have mentioned earlier issues regarding um, you know, sensual or sensor taking place. And it becomes important to understand that the calypsonian, how the calypsonian was seen by the authorities, by the leaders. And so we speak about, you know, a lot of violence being associated with the Calypso art form. So that people need to know that it's not all, you know, wonderful singing expression, and you just, you know, getting an opportunity to be yourself. It's about what did the Calypsoan have to go through to be on the stage? What did the Calypsoan actually have to endure in terms of the expression? And that becomes important to understand. So Curly So Dreams really encapsulates that. It speaks about the good days, it speaks about the bad days, it talks about um uh the fight that the Calypsoan had to go through. It speaks about we have pretender in that uh film speaking about remuneration because this is also something we spoke earlier about people migrating for work. But we have to understand that the first set of Calypsonians got paid in terms of vata, in terms of agricultural products, they didn't get paid in money, you know, and it becomes important to understand that sort of history of the calypso art form. It speaks about the various periods, time periods, as I would have mentioned, these decades, or looking at it, you know, across themes and time periods. But it also speaks about that 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and the African history that would have written resident. That is when people were going in the back to Africa themes and content in terms of understanding how that came into the calypso art form and how that was also part of what the expression was. That becomes important because even though it was African retention, African, male dominated, not all of the themes are always about Africa, and that's interesting to note, and that is an important part of what would have taken place with that. I mean, I'm not too sure how many places have seen the film, so I don't want to sell out the entire film, but it's it's it's worth your time. It's worth your time to see this film entitled Calypso Dreams, and it really, in the title of it, really tells you about what the Calypsoan had to endure and the dream of being a Calypso and about taking Calypso to the next level. In that film, Alexandra, you mentioned earlier Harry Belafonte, they speak to the involvement of Harry Belafonte, but they also speak to the negativity that was associated with Harry Belafonte being called the Calypso king and being representative of this art form. Um, you know, even though Harry Belafonte would, of course, been associated with the Bahamas, that is not the link that we see. Because at the time he was being seen as a North American artist and therefore not being representative of the islands, where the feeling was that is where Calypso really came from. And so it becomes important to understand that some Calypsoans, Lord Melody, um, and some of them who would have gone with him and allowed him to, you know, sing their songs over, etc. And then you would have had that tumult taking place in the islands where prisons were saying Harry Belafonte ought not to be seen as representing the art form. So that is that becomes important to understand about that film. You know, this film also speaks to the whole issue of the female in the in the art form, and it you know, it covers the relationship between you know Calypso Rose and the Sparrow and that kind of thing, because they were the most dominant one. So you had the dominant male, the dominant female worth your time looking at that film, Calypso Dreams. In terms of my song, that I think really encapsulates me if I look at the Mighty Sparrow as an artist. I think that Good Citizen really is a song that speaks to the style in terms of how we capture the Calypso lyric. So the name of the song is Good Citizen, and we're thinking that the song is really going to be about good citizens, but it's really asking a question: what does it really take to be a good citizen? As it really tells the story of citizens who are not actually being seen as good. And it becomes important to understand the use of the lyrics, to sort of use figures of speech and to use, you know, hyperbole and to use similes and to use metaphors and to use different, you know, approaches to understanding how we really tell a story. So for me, that song in particular really, really encapsulates how we can turn a lyric. Very, very, very important. There's so many other songs. I mean, my artists in particular that are favorites would be like Black Stalin, would be Kitchener, just to look at some of the older ones. In particular, special mention must be made of the Mighty Shadow. Um, because for some persons within the fraternity, we tend to see that Mighty Shadow had a subgenre of Calypso and Rome that was almost separate and apart from what was happening with the other Calypsonians, um, because he had his own style, he had music, etc. And so it becomes important to see that uh shadow must be given special mention. And if we look at the females, we see, you know, of course, as I would have mentioned in the end of this conversation, we have calypsos making that then singing Francine in particular, and think about the themes. One of the things I want to mention, um, because it would be remiss of me not to do so, is the difference in themes of the calypsos that are sung by men as opposed to women. Women would have really spoken to the issues that were affecting the family, that were affecting relationships, that were affecting issues of the responsibility of the males in terms of taking care of the family, taking care of the responsibility in terms of the financial stability of the family, issues uh dealing with uh domestic violence, dealing with rape, dealing with incest. And it becomes important to understand that calypso too spoke to those issues social commentary, but those are some of the issues that would have been affecting the society, not only at that time, but the fact is that those teams were raised within Calypso. When we look at what males tend to say, they tend to spoke about issues external to themselves as well as what was happening in the general society and the region as a whole and internationally. So you would have found them speaking to sometimes relationship issues. Um If we think of um like a saying in 1935 money is king, he's literally talking about what is happening, you know, between a man and a woman in a relationship and that the woman really wants money. So there are some relationship issues that would have been tackled, but basically they would have been speaking about what's happening in the society. So we look at political issues, economic issues, um, you know, financial issues, issues looking at the government and the the other parts of the structure, you know, um, making statements about judicial issues taking place. Um, and so it becomes important to look at that um in terms of the themes of what's happening. When we look at, if we bring it down in terms of the trajectory, in terms of looking at more modern times, and we're looking at the calypsos that have really had an impact from my standpoint, I think it becomes important that we not focus so much on female expression versus male expression, but we look at the expression coming out of calypso. I think that is how it has more. Now, this is my perspective about what the calypso has done. I understand and I am able to situate the contribution of the males and the contribution of the females, but in terms of when we look to a competition, we're more looking in Trinidad and Spagh, as far as I see it. We're not trying to say, okay, we're going to have six males and six females. It's not like that, it's about what is the expression, what. So we're looking now at the Calypsonian, and that is one of the ways in which I think the Calypso art form has really graduated. What is the expression of the Calypsonian in any given year? And so the song that the Calypsonian sing is really based on what they want to express. One of the things I want to mention is also a feature of the Calypso art form, is that a Calypsonian is not necessarily someone who writes their own song. What we have are Calypso writers, so they're different parts now of the Calypso space. You have the Calypsonian, who is known as the bar that goes in front of the audience and performs it. You also have calypso backups, that is the background singers. They too are integral because this is an art form of call and response. So we need to understand the vital importance of the background singer. You also have the musicians that accompany the Calypsonian, you know, and we understand you spoke about New York earlier. So if we speak about what would have been happening in the 1950s, yeah, um, in that decade, and you speak about that golden period where you would have had Calypso performing in New York and New Orleans, for example, and having that fusion with jazz, you would have had Calypso singers, as they were called then, right? And you would have had the musicians who would have migrated from Trinidad and Tobago and other parts of the region to New York and other parts of North America to perform because it was felt that the musicians who accompanied the calypso singer know had to come from the space and had to understand the music in a particular way. And so the musician, I spoke about Love's Band being that first, you know, um iteration of the calypso, and that was an instrumental and it's so understanding the musical accompaniment to the calypso is important, but then we speak about the calypso writer and we understand the importance. Sparrow would have had um writers, and so that this is not a tradition that is new, and so you have a lot now of one of the young places that we will see. We see Devon C, we will see Rondell Donovan, we will see Caesar O'Connor, we see Dueno Connor, we see um Chucky Gordon, we see a lot of these individuals, you know. Um, some persons write and some persons have a Calypso writer, and that becomes important to the debate that is taking place because there for some people, traditionalists, the diehard, they believe that a Calypsoan must write their own song, all right, as opposed to purchasing a song and making it your own. When you speak to some of the artists, the Calypsoan to perform, what they say to you is as far as they're concerned, once they purchase that song and they make it their own in terms of their performance, then it's raised. So you speak about Corinne Ashley doing that. You have um there's Kurt Allen, who's involved in some of the writing as well, and you have, you know, um his daughter Chocolate Allen, and you have, you know, Elon Francis, who's also part of that dynamic in terms of writing, writing for others, as well as um singing their own song. So it becomes important. Nadia Batsy, who I spoke about earlier, who we know now as a soccer artist, actually is a fantastic writer. So she writes calypsos and she also writes soca songs. And so this is how you see the intertwining of calypso and soca and writing and singing background and being involved in the music. So it's all one whole fascinating mix. You know, it really, really becomes very, very important to consider.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

You

Final Resources And Signoff

SPEAKER_02 49:09

gave us so many. I feel like our syllabus is going to be overflowing with resources and songs and films and etc. So thank you so much, Dr. Sylvester, for joining us today, for talking so much about this very integral history and helping us think our viewpoint of crypto as really a therapy musical expression. Thank you so much for joining us today. All right, and we will as always everything in the focus. I call it points for you to follow up and learn more about Dr. Silbester's work. We hope you enjoyed this episode everyone a couple more.