All Rounder’s golden 50

It was the early 1960s, a period in which the law penalised vendors who sang calypso and whistled in fish markets and other business places.

And Hendrickson, a precocious 15-yearold at the time, was charged one day by a policeman for singing at the former George Street Market in East Port-of-Spain while selling fish for his ailing mother.

“At the George Street Fish Market, I was carried to court for singing and whistling calypso by an officer by the name of Constable Sonny Small from Woodbrook. He had now come in the (police) force and was keeping duty in the fish section when he heard me singing and stopped me,” said Hendrickson, 77, known to the calypso world as All Rounder.

Hendrickson recalled that PC Small had cautioned him before he was eventually slapped with the charge.

“I had stopped whistling after Small’s warning, but continued after he walked away. But when he make the rounds and come back down, he take out his notebook, because that was the law: a vendor could not sing and whistle behind the stall, whether is calypso or what. So he charged me for singing and whistling calypso.” Hendrickson pleaded guilty in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court.

“I tell the magistrate that I am a law-abiding citizen. I told him my mother now get a stroke and I have a little sister and brother to help, and instead of going on George Street and picking pockets and doing wrong thing, I go to the lower fish wharf and most of the fishermen, they know me and my mother and I will credit the fish, go up to George Street market, sell it and I will tie up their monies and bring it for them.” Hendrickson said the court sympathised with his plight and the magistrate nodded in approval.

“I said, ‘Sir, had I the slightest idea that it was an offence for singing and whistling I would have never, sir, I am a law-abiding citizen.

The magistrate say, ’I believe you,’ and dropped the charge.

“That day in court, I put on short khaki pants and a blue shirt and the magistrate say, ‘Mr Hendrickson, you love calypso?’ to which I replied, ‘Yes, sir, that is my culture.’” The magistrate, Hendrickson said, then asked him to sing a verse of the Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) tune he was singing when he was charged.

The magistrate, he said, expressed his wish to hear him perform at a calypso tent some day.

Today, more than five decades later, Hendrickson still laughs about the incident, which brought to light, even at that relatively tender age, his penchant for pushing the boundaries.

It would become his defining characteristic as a calypsonian, one which enabled him to survive 50 years in the artform and become one of the country’s most loved and revered entertainers.

With a repertoire comprising timeless favourites such as “Blacks Ability”, “The Talking Baby”, “Garlic Sauce”, and the ever-popular “Innocent Jimmy” (Swaggart), Hendrickson is still at the top of his game and showing no signs of slowing down.

If anything, his warm, fatherly demeanour, eccentric outfits and rib-tickling offerings have continued to enthral audiences at the Klassic Ruso tent, which he has led for many years.

“I love to make people laugh,” a dapper- looking Hendrickson said in a Sunday Newsday interview on Wednesday.

“It is nice to make people laugh. It is a tonic to the body.” Hendrickson has made it to the National Calypso Monarch Finals of the Dimanche Gras show on 11 occasions.

“But the highest I ever reached was fourth place in 1984 with “The Talking Baby”. It was good to be there,” he said of the experience.

The veteran, whose children Diane (Lady Wonder) Hendrickson and Shirlaine Hendrickson, have followed in his footsteps, said he had never regretted not winning a National Monarch crown.

He has won the Calypso King of the World title on two occasions (1983 and 1984), and was awarded a Hummingbird Medal at the National Independence Awards in 2015 for his contribution to culture.

A semi-finalist in yesterday’s Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park, San Fernando, Hendrickson said he has enjoyed a fantastic season thus far and is confident about his ability to go toe to toe with his counterparts for the remaining days.

And while he believes his witty 2017 selection, “Granny Loves Jack”, in reference to the “relationship” between former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Independent Liberal Party founder Jack Warner has been a crowd-pleaser, Hendrickson said his uplifting selection, “To Be An Icon”, was crafted to leave an indelible impression in the minds of young people.

It was written by Shirlaine, who is also a manager and host at the Klassic Ruso tent, and Hendrickson regards the tune as both timely and thought-provoking.

“I am basically talking to a youth man and I am telling him that to be an icon you have to leave footprints on the sand for people to emulate you. That is the inspiration to be an icon.” Hendrickson said icons also had a responsibility to live up to their reputation.

“When you get a young person coming to give you advice, as an icon you should be able to tell them something in the right way.” Hendrickson has shied away from overtly political songs.

“I will sing a political song, but I don’t get too deep in politics. It will get you in trouble. You don’t want to be walking the street and people watching you cross-eyed and you don’t know what you do them.” Over the years, the calypsonian said he has gravitated to humorous songs, social commentary and nation- building selections.

Born in Gonzales, Belmont, Hendrickson grew up on Clifton Hill, at the top of St Paul Street.

His mother was a fishmonger and his father died at the St James Infirmary while he was very young.

“I will always remember, my mother worked hard. She had ten children, nine of my brothers and sisters died, and now I am the only one alive,” he said.

“So that, too, has given me the encouragement to continue in calypso, hearing in my ears God telling me that I have something to do.

This is why I am enjoying this 50 years more than anything else.” As a young boy, Hendrickson said, he listened to the music of Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), Sparrow and others who had already established themselves in calypso.

The gifted Hendrickson said he experimented with various tunes and, at one point, took a keen interest in extempo. Little did he know that a chance meeting with Kitchener would change his life forever.

“I met Kitchener in a barbershop and I didn’t even know he was Kitchener,” he recalled with a chuckle. “ I walked in the Saturday evening and I started to extempo, singing ‘Yuh can’t charge a bald head man the full price, charge him half price.’ Kitchener say, ‘Who is he, boy?’” The rest, he said, was history.

Hendrickson’s first song was called “My Little Brother Charlie”; he made his debut with it on January 6, 1967, at Legion Hall, Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain.

“I remember singing on position five and I got seven encores.” Hendrickson said Kitchener was pleased with his performance and vowed to turn him into a calypsonian.

“I could tell any young fella now, in the days of Kitchener, he will take a weak song from you and when he done inject it, it get life.” Hendrickson boasted that since his debut performance in 1967 he has never missed an opening night at a tent.

After performing with Kitchener for about six years, Hendrickson became one of the founders of the Carnival Development Committee (CDC) tent.

Under his stewardship, he recalled that a little-known singer, now President Anthony Carmona, was once a cast member.

“In 1980, the present President of this country, Carmona, started singing calypso at the CDC tent at the City Hall under the name of the Prophet of Sisyphus and he made the semi-finals,” he recalled.

“All these things have meh feeling great for 50 years. Anything that you could do to help anyone, do it, and don’t do it for the show because you could do it. Do it from your heart. Remember when Christ was dying and he said, ‘Forgive them.’” The CDC would morph into Klassic Ruso, Hendrickson’s base for the past few decades.

While its emphasis has been on retaining some of the traditional elements of calypso, he said the tent was also futuristic in its approach.

“I look at tent as one that will bring younger ones. But you could mix it. You will have experience.” Asked how the tent measured up to its counterparts, Hendrickson said Klassic Ruso had weathered many storms and developed the careers of many calypsonians.

“You want to be a boxer, come out and box. Don’t stay in your room and box.

I want to see when you get cuffed down or when you cuffed down people. The Calypso House, the East Zone tent, they all come from the CDC which is now Klassic Ruso.” The tent’s line-up includes Contender (Mark John), Versatile (Dorrill Hector), Manchild (Carlton Collins) and Brother Ebony (Fitzroy Joseph).

As he commemorates his golden jubilee in calypso, Hendrickson praised his wife April for her unwavering support as a wife, mother and cheerleader.

“On April 17, we will have 57 years married.

She was the one who gave me the name All Rounder.” Hendrickson said his family – he is the father of five – has been the backbone of his life and success.

“Shirlaine will tell me, ‘Daddy, when you going out and sing, put on a smile.

That smile is the attraction of the song to the people.’ “I have learnt a lot of things from my family, and money can’t buy that.”