Machel eyes 9th Road March title

The prize-giving ceremony for the VIBE CT 105 TUCO Road March title - which saw Montano receive a 2016 Ford Ranger - was held at Ford Motors, Charles Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday.

Montano stuck by his stance that he would not be competing in major competitions like Soca Monarch anymore.

Ford’s general manager, Jimmy Boissiere, Carib’s Antron Forte and VIBE CT 105’s programming consultant, Joel Morris (Signal to Noise) also addressed the audience gathered for the prize-giving.

He said his motto going forward is cooperation over competition.

Road March, he said, was not a competition like other competitions but one that fed the vibe and energy of the masqueraders.

He indicated that his work for 2017 would incorporate traditional sounds and tones. Montano said he felt he was at an important juncture in his career where, now holding eight road march titles, he could work with the younger soca artistes and, “still give them some of what was traditional/cultural.” Montano joined calypso and soca royalty with The Mighty Sparrow holding eight Road March titles, SuperBlue with nine and Lord Kitchener has ten.

He jokingly told those gathered that he had four more road march titles to go. But urged that the soca and calypso traditions needed to be shared with younger generations.

“A lot of the knowledge, they say, is usually in cemeteries. We don’t want to wait to pass on knowledge...You have to pass it on...we want to do that with music.

We want to teach them about the foundation,” he said. He said a lot of young people, globally, are looking on at soca and should be properly informed.

He said his documentary “Machel Montano: Journey of a Soca King” would be released early next year.