Trinidad Bill What a wonderful life

Trotman, 82 recently sat with this reporter at his Morvant home and recalled his fascinating, and oftentimes amusing life with surprising clarity, seeing that many of the events took place over 50 years ago.

Still lively and full of energy, he reminisced about the good old days, complete with anecdotes about people he had met and places he had visited or lived, that had me laughing out loud.

Trotman wore many hats over his 60-year career including mas player, dancer, calypsonian, composer, comedian, master of ceremonies, painter, sculptor, poet, and national award recipient. This has taken him to North America and through the Caribbean where he interacted with numerous international celebrities such as Mick Jagger, Brook Benton, Nat King Cole, Bo Jackson, Roberta Flack, and Bob Marley.

“I enjoyed my life completely.

The only thing I would change is if I could do the same thing better - better places to perform and better treatment,” he said.

Despite time spent away from these shores, including living in the US for ten years and in Canada for another ten, he always has a love for his country, which was why he named himself Trinidad Bill after dropping the soubriquet, “Lord Flying Fish.” In fact, he said no matter where he goes, he represents the country.

“Even when I lived abroad I would decorate my home with steelbands, flags, the national colours and birds. I am an ambassador extraordinaire.

I not waiting for anybody to say it; I represent Trinidad and Tobago to the fullest,” he said.

THE BEGINNING Trotman said although he had always dreamt of working in show business, he got into it by accident.

He said it all began when he was playing mas with some friends, crossing the Queen’s Park Savannah stage in 1954. They were doing the limbo and he went down lower than the others. Rupert De Souza was in the audience saw him and asked him to join his dance troupe.

He joined in 1955, and stayed with the troupe for years, performing at hotels, cruise ships, clubs, and at various events.

That very year, he met Slinger “The Mighty Sparrow” Francisco, with whom he would tour the Caribbean, dancing and singing calypso.

“At the time he was checking out Jean, who became the mother of his first three children. She used to dance in the troupe and we became friends,” he said.

Over the years he would perform with several troupes during the Carnival season and from 1961, toured with Sparrow on the off season.

This led him to dance with pros such as Julia Edwards, Neville Shepard, Bury Thomas, Aldwyn Boynes and Stretch Cox.

He lived and worked in the US for ten years, doing comedy, hosting events and performing at clubs and at iconic locations such as Carnegie Hall, Apollo Theatre, and Madison Square Garden. In 1967, he began working in Canada where he stayed for ten years before returning to Trinidad.

There he married his wife of 45 years, Trudy Antuniuk, and had three children. He admitted to having one other child before he left for Canada, and said he was certain there were other children of which he was not aware.

“I used to see myself being in Hollywood, California. That was my dream and I made it! I did my own show on Hollywood Boulevard, “Bill Trotman in Concert. I sing all meh songs, a give all meh jokes and I dance meh limbo,” he laughed.

“I was hired to sing, dance, and do comedy. I was a boss at everything I do. When they wanted me, they wanted me to do everything, and I did everything,” he said.

Since he began his show business career, Trotman recorded over 15 albums. Of all his songs, he said, it was only “Drunken Sailor,” “Tribute to Eric Williams,” and “Kiss,” that he did not compose. According to Trotman, his song, “Back to School” sold 40,000 records in TT alone, which he did not believe any other calypsonian accomplished.

Although he hosted the Dimanche Gras show for 11 years and would often perform on the show, Trotman never entered the Calypso Monarch competition.

In fact, the only time he ever entered any competition was the Soca Monarch competition in 1998 with “The Energiser.” He said he did not like competitions because, except other calypsonians, promoters who know the business, and persons who studied music, he does not believe the judges are qualified to do so. “They don’t understand where I’m really coming from in my songs and in my performances.

They have to understand what it means to go on stage and face an audience that you don’t know and have to make people happy.

All the sleepless nights I stay up to write my calypso or jokes and you want to go up there and judge me? Nah! Very few people who are judging know about that,” he said.

In addition, he said the thinking of people had changed with the times and so, while calypso may probably never again be popular, it would not die because it had substance, truth, and it was where the country’s stories were told.

He said youths today want to know they were not copying their parents, but were creating their own thing.

However, he said, in the case of Power Soca, this was not necessarily good. “What was really good to people once upon a time, is like nothing to people now.

What I would consider nonsensical, the youths would rave about. All those power soca songs is stupidness,” he said emphatically.

He added that, while he had no problem with the tempo and energy of Power Soca, the lyrics were repeated too much. “Take out your rag, put your hand in the air, jump up - any idiot could write those songs and they singing it because they could win a million dollars in the Soca Monarch competition,” he said.

BILL, THE ARTIST Meanwhile, Trotman’s talent goes beyond comedy and calypso, as his love of art went back to painting in primary school.

Since then, he said, he never stopped, and in 1961 he entered a painting in the Trinidad Art Society competition, where he won second place. “I was always painting, and just fulling up the place with paintings. I only had my first exhibit in 1994 and that was because Leroy Clark come in my house and looked around and said, ‘You could paint like this and you on the stage talking sh*t?’. I felt really bad!” he laughed.

He said the local artist was one of the reasons he stopped performing in 1995. At that time, Clark had organised for Trotman to exhibit his work, and 35 of 45 paintings were sold. “That was it for me. From then on I started to paint every day. I wanted to have an exhibition every year,” he said.

Trotman’s art mostly features Trinidad and Tobago culture, especially Carnival, but also includes portraits, and abstract pieces.

He still paints but admits that he does not do so often because he finds it difficult to get a showing at a gallery as many artists were lined up to get their work exhibited.

Trotman has also had small roles in two movies where he danced in 1961’s America by Night and acted in Flight of the Ibis in 1996.

In addition, he has written three books. Look Me, Yuh Carnival Man, published in 2014, is a biography of his Carnival life; while Eye Love Myself, a collection of his poetry and philosophy was published in 2005; and his first book of poetry, The Search of Bill Trotman.

He is also in the process of chronicling his life for a biography to be written by another author.