St. Thomas with Emmet Cohen

We are loving these older performances of Emmet Cohen and other musicians. Their version of the Sonny Rollins classic is quite faithful yet modern. The drummer plays just like Max Roach did several decades ago, but with an exuberance and youthful spirit. Cohen is also great on piano, alluding to other songs in his solo. He sounds like he's having a blast. 

Dancing Cheek to Cheek (in Trinidad)

One of the many pleasures of old calypso is catching references to other songs and melodies. Roaring Lion's "Cheek to Cheek" is clearly based on the US standard, but expertly adapted to calypso settings.

Mighty Dougla

 

Excellent and topical calypso number by Mighty Dougla on race and ethnic differences in Trinidad. As a reader with a growing interest in Trinidad, this song encapsulates some of the ethnic, racial, and political divides in Trinidad, some excellently satirized in Naipaul's The Suffrage of Elvira.

Lord Invader's Old Time Cat-O'-Nine

Catchy calypso! Naipaul sang this song to Paul Theroux in Africa, described in Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents.

London Is the Place For Me

Classic calypso sounds from the legendary Lord Kitchener! Despite its praise for London and the 'mother country,' Kitchener and other West Indians who moved to London in the postwar years quickly learned how racist English society was. In this sense, this lovely song is useful accompaniment to Selvon's classic, The Lonely Londoners. For those interested in Lord Kitchener, there is an interesting BBC radio documentary on his life and music. 

Birth of Ghana

Ghana is the name we wish to proclaim!

Enjoy this Caribbean calypsonian's tribute to Ghanaian independence from 1957. Kitchener clearly held Kwame Nkrumah in high esteem, and Ghanaian independence was celebrated throughout the African diaspora.

All For You, E.T. Mensah and Black Atlantic Musical Currents

A beautiful example of Black Atlantic musical exchange from one of my favorite highlife orchestras, E.T. Mensah & The Tempos. Their song, "All For You," is based on the melody from the Caribbean tune, "Sly Mongoose." In addition to entering the highlife repertoire, "Sly Mongoose" surfaced in US jazz recordings, too, such as this lively rendition from Charlie Parker and Jack Sneed & His Sneezers. Don't forget to hear Lord Invader's take and Sam Manning's.

Rum and Coca Cola

I'm shocked I never realized this song is about Trinidadian prostitutes serving American soldiers...I first heard the Andrew Sisters version, but the calypso style of the original song is only present in Lord Invader's version. The Andrew Sisters probably didn't even know where Trinidad is. Gotta love that violin! Old calypso records, like much of the popular music elsewhere, tells us a lot about the history, popular culture, and worldview of the times. This song, for instance, comments on the presence of American soldiers in the Caribbean (likely during and after WWII) and their need for prostitutes being met by Trinidadian women, as well as the tale or joke of one Trinidadian man losing his wife to an American soldier! Calypsonians are like the blues singers of African America or the griots of West Africa, entertainers and singers who tell the story of their communities.

As this article explains from Slate, rum represents the Atlantic Slave Trade and the peculiar historical experiences of the Caribbean while coca cola symbolizes American empire and capitalism, which began to increasingly overtake British colonial authority in the Caribbean after the Spanish American War and various American occupations and quasi-colonial rule in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere. Thus, one could read Lord Invader's song as a critique of American military and economic intervention and dominance in the Caribbean, thereby fueling the growth in prostitution and unequal economic and social relations.

I must say, the last thing I ever expected was meeting a Norwegian familiar with the song who joined me in singing it. The world is a small place. A very, very small place. 

The Origin of Sonny Rollins' St. Thomas

The unforgettable "St. Thomas" from Rollins' Saxophone Colossus is a great example of a jazz musician tapping his Caribbean roots. Rollins is the child of Caribbean immigrants from the Virgin Islands, and his mother's family came to the Virgin Islands from Haiti, if I remember correctly. St. Thomas is also one of the islands within the Virgin Islands, so although the song is of calypso origin, it's dedicated to the homeland of Rollins' parents.

In truth, Rollins was not the first to record the song. Better known as the calypso tune "Fire Down There" (with obvious sexual metaphors), it was recorded by Louis Farrakhan back when he was a calypso singer in the early 1950s and jazz pianist Randy Weston, who is also of West Indian (Jamaican) heritage. Now when Rollins has endeavored to explain the origin of the song, he claimed his mother sang it to him as a nursery rhyme. On another occasion, when interviewed Rollins stated the song came from a Danish song (Denmark had Caribbean colonies so it's not too far-fetched for a Danish song to spread in the Caribbean region). As previously stated, the song is "Fire Down There" and its most likely an original composition in the calypso style that became popular in Jamaica, Trinidad and perhaps other Anglophone Caribbean islands, such as the Virgin Islands.

Here is the earliest jazz recording of the song. By Randy Weston and titled "Fire Down There." Recorded in 1955, one year before Sonny Rollins recorded it for Saxophone Colossus. 

Here is the classic Sonny Rollins recording of the tune in 1956 which features great drumming from Max Roach.

And a live performance of the tune in the 1960s or round about then

Ska version of "Fire Down There" by The Skatalites in the 1960s

http://yankeedollar.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/helan-gar-dey/ Excellent site tracing the origins of St. Thomas

Here is a collection of unreleased Fela Kuti highlife recordings. The second track quotes part of the melody of "St. Thomas."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7CyDi5dTk&feature=related