Sweet calypso reigns

Crosby who owned a music store and producer a lot of music for decades, passed away last August.

At the We Kaiso event, hosted by the WeBeat St James Live17 committee, a number of top entertainers remembered Crosby in song on June 9.

Young Lani K (Jelani Kojo), opened the show with his own Fight, then followed it with David Rudder’s Engine Room.

He made way for Errol “Bally” Ballantyne who sang his popular Party Time, Queen’s Canary (Sparrow), Maxi Dub and Ten to One (Sparrow).

Entertainer Relator (Willard Harris) did a number of oldtime calypsoes from some of the greatest masters of the art form like Sparrow, Kitchener, Terror, Blakie, Roaring Lion and Nelson, and had the crowd singing along with him from the first number. Those gems included PAYE, No Money No Love, Maria, Hold the Pussy Cat, Had a Little Monkey, Pan Talent and Lizard, before taking a “commercial break” to sing an old Nagib Elias jingle.

He continued with Sugar Pie, Santa tief ah big man from St James, Morvant, Mas in Madison Square Garden, Rainorama, The Road, Ugly Woman, and closed with La La.

Nest was 3canal, featuring Wendell Manwarren who was celebrating his birthday, Stanton Kewley and Roger Roberts. They began with Walk in Beauty, followed by Memories (Sparrow), dedicated specifically to Crosby, that left some tearful eyes in the audience. But soon enough they got the party started with Good Morning, but had to make way for a presentation to the Crosby family. The live entertainment restarted with reigning Calypso Monarch Chalkdust (Dr Hollis Liverpool) who sang Doh See African, 75 Can’t Go Into 14 and Speaking Frankly, then from Explainer (Winston Henry) who left the stage and went down to the audience to deliver Doh Touch Meh Ras, No Guns in the Party and Lorraine. The audience danced to all of his selections.

Multiple Soca Monarch winner SuperBlue (Austin Lyons), kept the party going with Soca Baptist, To Love Somebody (Bee Gees), Nature’s Plan (King Austin) and Ethel, and left Crazy (Edwin Ayoung) to close the show with a number of his ditties including Drive It, Cold Sweat, Crazy I Don’t Know Why, Paul Yuh Mother Come, and OPP in the Party.

MCs Nikki “Granny” Crosby and Errol Fabien entertained the audience while Errol Ince & the Music Makers accompanied all the artistes on the night.