PICK OF THE MONTH
Remember Me
Sheldon Blackman and The Love Circle (Jamoo Goodnews Ltd)
The Love Circle were wearing chic Afrocentric robes and head-ties years before Erykah Badu, and were purveying “conscious” messages long before young dancehall dons started returning to their spiritual roots. They called their style jamoo, a captivating blend of calypso, spiritual folk, roots reggae and jazz. There was always something genuine about this family ensemble. Guided by bandleader and patriarch (and soca innovator) the late Ras Shorty I, they led a simple rural existence, eschewing commercialism in favour of authenticity and commitment to God. The band proved to be a crucible for the prodigious musical gifts of Shorty I’s plethoric brood.
On the basis of sheer talent, any of the ensemble’s members could probably have gone it alone, and a few of them (Abby, O C) in fact did. But Sheldon emerged early on as the heir apparent, a beatific, dreadlocked dauphin who wielded the guitar and belted out his own compositions with authority, in a voice which recalled both Eddy Grant and Steel Pulse’s David Hinds. Remember Me is as flawed and brilliant a work as there ever was — a typical first offering from a group of young, supremely talented artists. The album’s 20 (!) tracks offer works dating back to 1995, an assortment of jamoo numbers, jamoo-flavoured soca, and spiritual chants (backed by acoustic guitar or the full-bodied orchestration and chorus of the Love Circle), including Sheldon’s trademark Mr Oppressor.
Sheldon and the band are far stronger in their natural idiom of jamoo than in soca, which doesn’t always carry spiritual messages with ease. But on the majority of the album’s numbers they’re spot on, and when they are, Sheldon Blackman and the Love Circle positively soar. (GP)
CALYPSO/SOCA
The Autobiography of the Now
David Rudder (JW Productions, CR 033 CD)
David is starting to get a little spooky. Ten years ago he wrote a song called 1990 that eerily presaged the civil unrest of that year. This year he offers Requiem for Miss ‘D’, an allegory/hymn eulogising the concept of democracy to the tune of How Great Thou Art. Almost immediately it became a weirdly appropriate soundtrack to the constitutional challenges set in motion by Trinidad and Tobago’s December 2000 general election. The grim portrait on the CD’s cover reflects Rudder’s mood through much of the album. Jerusalem mourns the never-ending conflict in the Middle East, and Forty-One Bullets takes a troubled look at the death of Amadou Diallo and other immigrants who end up on the wrong end of justice in the United States. Closer to home, Back to the Same Old Same is a gently rocking contemplation of the revolving door of political corruption, while Bigger Pimpin’ flings the contemptuous insouciance of rapper Jay-Z (who filmed a music video in Trinidad during the 2000 carnival) right back in his face. Yet Rudder is smart enough to both begin and end this unflinching album on a positive note. Autobiography opens with Power of the Song, an infectious paean to Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), co-written with pannist Andy Narrell. The CD closes with Chocolate Fog, a bittersweet ballad that leaves us with Rudder looking inward. (ML)
Just for You
Shadow (Crossroads Records, CRCD 008)
From the first note on this new CD, it’s clear that Winston Bailey intends to remain the Prime Minister of Rhythm. That song, Stranger, is the first party calypso he’s recorded in almost a decade, and it’s immediately followed by one of his idiosyncratic commentaries, the enormously popular Yuh Looking For Horn, which gives stern advice to an unemployed young man planning to marry. Shadow’s themes range far and wide, from domestic violence, HIV, politicians’s empty promises, to the story of a rabbit being chased by a dog. He approaches his subjects directly, the metaphors simple and elegantly direct, delivered in his signature plaintive wail. In 2000, Shadow was crowned Calypso Monarch, so it’s unsurprising to see his unforgettable Bassman appear here, in both the original form and an update (Unknown Bassman), exploring what might have happened had he pursued the advice to “forget calypso to go and plant peas in Tobago”. (Factor in Shadow’s wry, earthy humour: it doesn’t turn out pretty.) Hearing Bassman again after all these years, it’s startling to realise how little Shadow has changed over the years. His concerns remain rooted in the vagaries of day-to-day life, his lyrics pointed and unambiguous, the beat as compelling as the first time we heard that unforgettable bass walk. (ML)
Strictly Soca 6
Various Artists (JW Productions, JWCM 125 CD)
Crosby’s Strictly Soca series reached number six for the 2001 Carnival season, with a solid line-up of party music and pan kaisos. With the passing last year of Lord Kitchener, the all-time greatest composer of music for the steelpan, it’s not entirely surprising to see a surge in the number of calypsos composed primarily for the pan. Preacher (Rain Melody), Blackie (Tribute to Pan Pushers), Scrunter (Pan on De Moon), and Colin Lucas (Real Pan Jumbie) all contribute pan tunes alongside their party material. One of the finest pan pieces on the album is The Sound of the Ghost, by Kitchener’s son Kernal Roberts, arranged by veteran Leston Paul. On the party side, Preacher follows up his 2000 hit Market Vendor with another fruit-oriented selection, Julie Mango, plus Jenny and Ah Show Yuh Dat. Leon Coldero offers Pokémon and J’ouvert groove Madness. Blackie goes chutney on Gee Dem Sumin, and ring bang on Carnival Is Woman Ting. Newcomer Wickedy contributes the ragga Love To See Dem, Scrunter the Latin Gimme Ah Break, with Roger George contributing Party Refugee, and radio deejay Mark Anthony the cautionary Foreshore Lover. (GP)
Pan Messiah
The Original De Fosto Himself (JW Productions, JW 126 CD)
If anybody can be called the heir to the late Grandmaster, the Lord Kitchener, it’s De Fosto. In a fashion even more single-minded than Kitchener himself, De Fosto has devoted his career to making music for the steelpan, a dedication which was recognised in 1999’s inaugural Pan-Kaiso competition, where he took first prize. Pan Messiah is a valuable compilation of De Fosto’s pan tunes since 1993, including Panorama winners Four Lara Four and Pan in A Rage, and his 2001 selections Kitchener Say and the Calypso Rose Tribute Queen of the Road. (GP)
Soca In The Mix 2
Horyzon and D Crew (JJ Music Production)
Soca band Horyzon strives for, and almost succeeds in finding, an original voice within the competitive arena of band soca. Thanks are due to Wayne Rodriguez, a smooth, commanding presence on numbers like Breakway and Latin Jouvet, Steve Sealy, strong on Jouvet Morning, Krismorys (Victims of D Bacchanal, Why Horn Meh), and Byron Lee veteran Oscar B. The female front-liners don’t do badly either, especially Candy Hoyte (No, Get It Up). (GP)
2001 Calypso Compilation: For Kitch
Various Artists (JW Productions, JWMM 05CD)
I said it last year, and I’ll say it again: to bring the season’s best material for pan together on one album is a brilliant idea. This year’s follow-up to 2000’s A Tribute to Pan is dedicated, naturally, to the late Lord Kitchener, who pioneered the steelpan calypso and became its greatest practitioner. For Kitch assembles numbers by Oba, De Fosto, Roger George, Steve Sealy, Nigel Lewis, Blackie, Wayne Rodriguez, Bally, Eunice Peters, Hollis Wright, Sean Daniel, Denyse Plummer and Preacher. (GP)
REGGAE
Shocking Vibes Crew presents Scarface
Various Artists (VP Records, VP2124)
Shelve your PC (that would be political correctness, not your computer) and hit the dancehall bashment with Scarface and his yardie crew, featuring some of the more prominent names on the Jamaican cutting edge: Lady Saw, Madd Cobra, Harry Toddler, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Brat Camp, Kiprich, Captain Barkey and Mega Banton,
Roundhead, Mr Vegas, Mr Lex and Madd Anju. Suspending political correctness will enhance your enjoyment of choice tracks like Hot Gal Race, Shorts, Kitty and Me Too, fine examples of dancehall’s male chauvinist ways. But if the bwoys have a rough and ready approach, Lady Saw has everything under control — new check book, condo, Porsche and offshore account, otherwise she’s “not unlocking the kitty”. (SL)
JAZZ/PAN JAZZ
Belle Eau Road Blues
Garvin Blake (KhalaBash Music, KHA33191)
Pannist Garvin Blake finds an assured and original voice within the pan-jazz genre, with a well-chosen selection of standards and original material. Blake has a delicate touch, and there’s an ethereal quality to his arrangements which somehow succeeds, even on driving pieces like Ellington’s Caravan. The album includes standards by Wayne Shorter (Footprints), Thelonius Monk (Well You Needn’t), Lord Kitchener (Pan In A Minor), and The Mighty Sparrow (Jane). Uwiuyho, by South African keyboardist Tony Cedras (who makes an appearance on five of the album’s tracks and is also the co-producer), holds its own among the bigger guns. Of the eight compositions, two are by Blake himself. His Belle Eau Road Blues is a lovely, effervescent blues inspired, presumably, by the Belmont thoroughfare. The other original, Pan Romance, with vocals by David Rudder (yet another addition to the catalogue of songs in praise of the pan and its never-ending struggle) is perhaps a little too reminiscent of GB’s Pan Rising. The recording itself doesn’t have the crispness of, say, Ron Reid’s Calypsoldier, but this does not detract too much from the loveliness of the music. (GP)
Tribal Voices
Élan Parlé (Parlemusik)
Michael “Ming” Low Chew Tung, a veteran of Trinidad’s soca scene as both a live and a session musician, turns his talents to composing and producing on this pleasing début release of the jazz fusion ensemble Élan Parlé. According to the liner notes, Tribal Voices represents what would appear to be years of work and absorption of calypso and jazz fusion influences. There isn’t a bad cut here, though stand-outs (for me at least) include Toby, Me’Shell¸ Tribal Voices, and Blue Ming. Calypso Music, a jazzed-up cover of the David Rudder anthem with Roger George on vocals, succeeds, as a good arrangement should, in shedding new light on the piece. The album features musicians Wayne Cottoy, Richard Joseph, Curtis Michael Ruiz, Joel Bonaparte, Neil Bernard, Theron Shaw, Sean Blackman and Candice Alcantara. (GP)
Reviews by Simon Lee, Mark Lyndersay, Georgia Popplewell
