Lord Kitch February 20
After the war, British servicemen returned home from the Caribbean aboard a passenger freighter called Empire Wind Rush, and thousands of Trinidadians joined them, as the 1948 Nationality Act promised British citizenship to deserving colonial subjects. Among the immigrants were two of Trinidad’s greatest Calypsonians: Egbert Moore, aka Lord Beginner, and Aldwyn Roberts, known as the legendary Lord Kitchener, fresh from an extended gig in Jamaica.
Beginner had once before visited London and raved to his friend about the cosmopolitan lifestyle. Kitchener was so excited that he wrote “London is the Place for Me“ during the crossing, and it immediately became a hit upon landing at Port of Tilbury:
“To live in London you are really comfortable
Because the English people are very much sociable
They take you here and they take you there
And they make you feel like a millionaire
London that's the place for me“
The Calypso bounce suddenly became integral to England’s popular swing scene. The two Lords toured the country together to huge audiences, and, in the ’50’s, others joined in the act. The songs were tart, topical, funny, exotic yet somehow familiar to the ear, and their appeal reached across class lines. Princess Margaret loved Calypso. So did radio, especially in the years before rock and roll. Broadway and Hollywood soon took notice of the musical possibilities, while American folk singers embraced the political and social commentary at the core of the genre.
For Kitchener, the sheen of modern city life quickly dulled. The weather was dreary, the food was expensive, the prejudice was tangible, the people were cold. In subtle call-response style, he revised his appraisal of the mother country with his most popular tune to date, “Nora“:
“I tired with London,
I can't hear the steelband beating in John john
I getting homesick and feeling sad,
I want my passage and I am going back Trinidad“The Limies ate it up like shark and bake. They too became homesick for the Caribbean Islands, and a European tourist industry was born.
Kitch put his English celebrity to good use for causes he supported. In 1957, Ghana won its independence from the Empire, and Kitchener internationally popularized “The Birth of Ghana“ with a Calypso smash. It is a fun and boisterous song, yet shrewdly written to be received at home as an endorsement of Dr. Eric Williams in TT’s own struggle.
“The doctor began as agitator
Then he became popular leader
He continued to go further
And now he is Ghana’s Prime Minister
Ghana
Ghana is the name
Ghana
We wish to proclaim
We will be jolly, merry and gay
The sixth of March independence day“
Queens Hall on Frederick Street hosts an evening of Calypso, which is fairly well attended, mostly by older white Trini’s—nothing compared to the Soca and steel pan armies which fill the Savannah nearby. Calypso has been considered old-fashioned for more than a generation, similar to doo-wop and Elvis in the States. With the rise of wordy hip hop, many believe it has lost its relevance, which is odd given that relevance has always been the very point of Calypso.
The jazz idiom that once inspired the golden age—Kitchener, Beginner, Invader, Shadow, Mighty Sparrow—no longer carries currency. Moreover, extended lyricism is giving way to cheap thrills, much like Carnival itself. Old-schoolers lament the advent of “pretty Mas“ and the descent into “bikinis and beads,“ according to Mas leader Peter Minshall of the Chaguaramas Callaloo Company. “The new generation wants easy gratification. Calypso is not so easy. It’s like jazz, you have to listen hard.“ For an outsider like me, much of the time you have to listen harder than is humanly possible.