Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad

Abstract

Mathilda, she take me money and run Venezuela, may sound familiar, but how about From a scandal and hideous bacchanal/Today we got a glorious carnival, or anywhere you go you must meet people sad/They search for employment, none can be had. Classic calypso, one of greatest creations of Caribbean culture, is more than frivolous music played for tourists in pink hotels overlooking tropical beaches. Much traditional calypso is also social commentary and has reflected, sometimes not so subtly, Trinidad's difficult social and political evolution. This book is about people who made calypso, topical music of Trinidad's Carnival, and about society that spawned it. Hill follows calypso from its 18th-century origins in Carnival street music to Carnival tents and later to club circuit and recording sessions in United States and Britain, up to moment in 1950s when great pioneer calypsonians - The Growling Tiger, Lord Invader, The Roaring Lion, Attila Hun, and rest of first generation - had finally passed into what one of its members called the atmosphere. The participants' opinion of development of their art comprises a large part of book. Reading about music is not same as listening to it, so a compact disk accompanies this book. Hill has collected a sampling of history of Calypso on record, and result is a collector's dream - a compilation of largely rare tracks from Smithsonian, other archives and commercial studios. Hill has illustrated his book with 61 photographs of calypsonians and paraphernelia of recorded music, and with transcriptions of lyrics of over 30 of most important calypso songs, a glossary of calypso terms and an annotated discography of calypso recordings. This overview of development of calypso should appeal to students of Caribbean and ethnomusicology, to folklorists and record collectors and to anyone who has hummed along with Brown-skin Girl or Mary Ann (Down by seaside sifting sand).