A TRIP TO TRINIDAD…
I had the pleasure a couple weeks ago of traveling to Trinidad for the first time…not Tobago, just Trinidad. Everyone I’ve ever talked to from Trinidad (including Lord Nelson, who I had the pleasure of recording a number of years ago) always says “you must go to Tobago.” But I was going mainly to take part in a music conference in Port Of Spain, the capital of Trinidad, so didn’t make to Tobago.
For many decades, Trinidad has been known on the international stage for three things: carnival (the most famous carnival celebration along with the Rio carnival and Mardi Gras in New Orleans), steel bands and calypso. Most foreigners know little else about the place. Calypso in fact made a huge international breakthrough in the 1950’s thanks to The Mighty Sparrow’s massive hit “Jean and Dinah”, Harry Belafonte’s million-selling album “Calypso” (the first million-selling LP) and various other incursions into popular culture. Along with Latin music, calypso became the defining music of the Caribbean in the minds of most Americans, leading tourists to such places as Jamaica to demand to hear calypso, not realizing that it was dominantly a product of Trinidadian culture.
Calypso deserved its popularity; it was at its peak a sophisticated, highly refined art form combining a lyrical sense of melody, exquisite wordplay, trenchant social and political commentary, and elegant arrangements and musicianship. With roots traceable through kaiso to West Africa, calypso, along with Afro-Cuban music is a major repository of African culture. The earliest recordings of calypso were made before 1920 and the style came to fruition with such artists as Lord Invader, Roaring Lion and Attila The Hun in the 30’s and 40’s then with Lord Kitchner and The Mighty Sparrow in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. A major feature of carnival has always been competitions between performers and many major artists would compose a new calypso to debut during the carnival season.
During the Seventies, calypso began to lose steam; it was eclipsed internationally by reggae and by the Eighties had been superseded by a newer style called soca. While I was in Trinidad I heard guitarist Michael Boothman, who had been a session guitarist in Trinidad in the 60’s and 70’s, explain that “soca” is shorthand for “the soul of calypso. But soca was early on less explicitly Trinidadian. It incorporated rhythms from other Caribbean islands, such as the kadence rhythm from the French Antilles and artists from Barbados, Grenada, Antigua and Monserrat had hits. Where calypso had lilting, liquid feel and lyrical melodies, soca has a more driving, more basic beat. The lyrics tend to focus more on partying, dancing, and love, rather than political or social commentary, although some soca recordings do still have that. And with the advent of drum machines and synthesizers, the big band arrangements with intricate horn interplay of calypso were replaced by stripped-down, highly synthesized dance tracks. Arrows scored an international hit with “Hot Hot Hot” (though most people did not know it was soca) and Kevin Lytle also hit U.S. charts with R & B/soca hybrid. Aside from working with Nelson in the 90’s I put together a couple of compilations: “Rebel Soca”, a collection of more politically oriented, musically diverse soca recordings, and “Wind Your Waist: The Ultimate Soca Dance Party” which featured tracks by Arrow, Shadow and some of the other better soca artists. Many long-time music fans, especially in Trinidad, decry the advent of soca in place of calypso, feeling that a sophisticated art has been replaced by simplistic dance music. In the past few years, soca has often incorporated elements of reggae, especially dancehall styles and artists, as the popularity of reggae has eclipsed both calypso and soca, an ironic reversal of fortunes for Trinidadian music.
In Port Of Spain, I was surprised to find little evidence of a live music scene. On “the Avenue”, a major entertainment strip, most of the bars and clubs feature dj’s, if they feature music at all. Soca—and even calypso—has always revolved around the carnival season and it seems the Trinidadian music scene has not evolved beyond that into a vibrant year-round culture. There are few breakout stars although artists such as Machel (Montano) and Alison Hinds have managed to cross boundaries and get some notice outside the Caribbean. And I was surprised to hear that local Trinidadian radio in general does not feature much local music; the charts are dominated by foreign pop, R & B and hip hop. At the music showcases I attended I was surprised to find artists performing in a wide array of genres—R & B, rock, gospel, reggae, jazz, folk and hip hop, as well as soca. With the prominence of the internet and smart phones and satellite television, wannabe musicians in Trinidad –like most wannabe musicians anywhere in the world—are hearing and being influenced by all kinds of music (much more so that in the United States).
It will be interesting to see how things evolve in Trinidad. It would be nice if some brilliant new artist could trap into the rich history of calypso to come up with a vibrant new variant. Perhaps soca will fuse with some other genres to make a splash on the international dance music scene which outside of America is huge. Soca after all is pre-eminent dance music and by virtue of its simplicity, easy to fuse with other styles. So it is not a stretch to imagine a high-octane dance variant of soca producing an international hit or two in coming years.