Calypso--The Mighty Sparrow and More

With Spring Semester over, this blog is on hiatus, but I hope to be teaching EN 202 again soon.  So I thought I would close Spring 2008 and begin...Spring 2009?...with an an entry on Calypso.  Many of these sites are from an annotated bibliography written by a Trinidadian-American student from EN 201.  (Thank you, Marilyn!)  The picture above is the cover of the CD that I played in class.  The site below has more information about this particular collection:

http://www.amazon.com/First-Flight-Early-Calypsos-Collection/dp/B000BH4YMM/ref=sr_1_7/002-3473942-4057656?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1211249211&sr=1-7

As you will realize, the songs I played in class were probably the more PG-rated ones.  The Mighty Sparrow is a trickster and a social critic, which at times forces one to be PG-13 or NC-17. 

This biography from Ice Records' site is probably just the right length:

http://www.icerecords.com/MightySparrow.htm

Here is a link to The Mighty Sparrow's own site.  Since it is very much a commercial site, it is quite up-to-date.

http://www.mightysparrow.com/

Or is it?  On the other hand, you may prefer to go to You Tube to see this artist in performance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-xsJDtGQwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K54xLBA-KHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHdFjyNkwHI

Here, he is interviewed.  From his hairstyle, it looks to be an interview from the 1990s. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGsPSHEn_AQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poj84VBlqpk

For an overview of calypso music, Wikipedia's entry is a good place to begin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/calypso_music

In 2005, Miami's Historical Museum of Southern Florida staged an exhibition on calypso's history:

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/introduction.htm

Or you may prefer to listen to a few clips from Calypso Calaloo, a more historical collection put together to accompany a history of calypso:

 http://www.amazon.com/Calypso-Calaloo-Various-Artists/dp/B0000002TN

Here are links to sites about some of the musicians featured in this collection.  The first is Lord Invader:

http://www.globalsound.si.edu/feature_12A.aspx

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/artists-13.htm

Another, Lord Invader, began performing in the 1890s and continued up until the 1950s.  Unfortunately, I could not find much about him online.

Lovey's Band began recording in the 1910s:

http://www.trinbagopan.com/forum/webbbs_config.cgi/noframes/read/134

http://www.calypsoworld.org/trinidad/lovey_band.htm

Here are links to other historical collections:

http://juneberry78s.com/sounds/ListenToCalypso.htm

http://www.moistworks.com/2006/01/1.html

A specific example of calypsonian social commentary is Lord Caresser's "Edward VII/Love, Love Alone," which is actually sung by others here:

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/songs-3.htm

My student from EN 201 informed me about Lord Kitchener, who came a generation before the Mighty Sparrow and did much to popularize calypso throughout the world.  At the sites above, you'll be able to listen to his songs and his "battles" with other performers.

http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/History_LORDKITCHENER_Peopleofthecentury.htm

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/artists-20.htm

Lord Melody battled with the Mighty Sparrow.  I'm also including information about two of the songs Lord Melody made famous:

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/artists-01.htm

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/songs-5.htm

http://calypsoworld.org/noflash/songs-10.htm

Did you know that there have been female calypsonians?  An early performer was Lady Trinidad:

http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography%5Cbio_ThelmaLewis_LadyTrinidad.html

http://www.bestoftrinidad.com/calypso.html

Calypso Rose is a current performer, and in one of the videos above we saw her perform with the Mighty Sparrow.

http://www.bestoftrinidad.com/calypso/rose.html

http://www.trinisoca.com/articles/2003/2601.html

http://jouvay.com/interviews/calypsorose.html

My student's annotated bibliography also mentioned soca and chutney, two newer genres of music, but I'm afraid that they will need a separate entry of their own.

 

 

1000 Years of Popular Music...Crossposting from EN 201 Blog

Last night, while my husband and I listened to Ajay Parham, a young jazz vocalist, perform at HR 57 (a club in DC), I pondered the title of Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music, and I wondered what Parham would have included on a similar CD. What would the members of my favorite band Los Lobos (www.loslobos.org) have included?

Then I began to have a few qualifications about the idea of 1000 Years of Popular Music. This evening I've written down my qualifications, that is, the material in parentheses. First of all, the songs that Thompson & his musicians cover are mainly from the UK, the USA, and Australia, with the exception of one song that is in Italian. There is no mariachi, tango, or calypso, to name three types of music I have in my CD collection. There is no reggae. There is nothing by Brecht and Weill.  Technically, one song sounds a little Indian, but would you count a song written by a British person who was influenced by Indian musicians as non-Western music? And there's no Chinese opera either. Secondly, all of the songs on Thompson's CD have lyrics. Apparently, Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing!" [or insert your favorite instrumental] didn't make the cut.

Nevertheless, 1000 Years of Popular Music helps us think about what it means to consider an anthology of works from other cultures--and times and then the way that these works all fit together to make, in one case, (popular) music and, in another, world literature. OK, I admit that we are at an advantage over Thompson since, in making up his list, he has to factor in what he can play and what he can afford to play. (Somehow I don't think "Sing, Sing, Sing" works without a horn section although, if anybody could make that song work with a guitar & drums, perhaps Thompson could.) In EN 201, we're more like someone who is burning a CD or two, but, like Thompson, we are still thinking about why it's important to examine older works from different traditions rather than just being content with our own times & traditions.

Which songs would you include in your 1000 Years of Popular Music?

p.s. I hope that you can take a closer look at the cover!! It is not simply a picture of medieval times, but the artist has created a clever collage of musicians from different time periods.  And here is a link to Thompson's own web site.  You may find out more about his ongoing tour and its evolving playlist...and ask him questions about his choice of songs!

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/default.asp

Here are some more pages on the DVD that I showed in class and the tour:

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=540

http://www.richardthompson-music.com/1000yrs.asp

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1042743,00.html