Kaiso legends’ spirits in young artistes

THE EDITOR: The spirit of Ras Shorty I had been passed on to Luta even before his (Ras Shorty) demise. That was most notable in Luta’s offering about biological fathers who are shirking their responsibilities. That tune needs to be given more air play. Luta, whose real name is Morel Peters of Point Fortin, went on to slam the preference of dancehall music in “Bang Bang Jamaican!” It is my humble view that the number which reflected the “fraction” between Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj would have been a better choice for the 2002 Calypso Monarchy at the Dimanche Gras in Queen’s Park Savannah, than “Bang Bang Jamaican!”

Other mentors in calypso include the Shadow, whose “Baseman From Hell” in 1974 was a landmark three years after his debut in the tent. His spirit was passed on to Ajala, the youngster who took party goers by storm with “Rude Gyul Party” featuring the rapper General Grant. Scrunter, whose mentor was the late Grandmaster Kitchener, was also under the influence of Shadow whose name is Winston Bailey. Kitchener, the late bard of Arima, came on the scene in 1944 with hits like “Donkey City,” “Trouble In Arima” and has been so creative throughout his life that not only Scrunter with “De Will” (when he was presented with a bag of soca from the Grandmaster), but his own son Kernel Roberts and Scouting For Talent participant Olatunde Yearwood are set to emulate him. As for Birdie, or Sparrow, there seems to be nobody to trot in his footsteps. Nothing is being heard from the customs officer Errol Ballantyne whose sobriquet is Bally for nearly a decade.

The other customs officer Rikki Jai spend more time in the chutney arena than in the calypso tent. When he toured India with a political contingent in 1997 he showed that he is influenced by Slinger Francisco better known as Sparrow by singing one of his renditions (that did not excite the audience there at all). I want to close with the observation of what is passing for soca music today. This trend was started firstly by Nigel and Marvin Lewis (with “Movin”) and then by KMC in 1998. Bunji Garlin (de girls dem darlin’) is the present exponent of this new blend of soca and ragga music while Machel Montano, who passed through the school of calypso, and Iwer George are following suit! Now I see why the late Garfield Blackman, the father of soca wanted to protect the artform from this form of bastardisation! Devon Seales, a member of the Calypso Revue (Kitchener’s tent) used a remake of one of Aldwin Robert’s rendition to blend with dancehall music as well! This form is quite different from mento, the raggedy version of calypso. The only thing ragga soca is good for is keep-fit exercise routines.

JEFFREY M JOSEPH
Fyzabad