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Monday, May 22, 2006
KITCHENER'S BEBOP CALYPSO
Lord Kitchener
Melodisc : c. 1951
Available on: London Is The Place For Me: Trinidadian Calypso in London, 1950-1956
Honest Jons Records : 2002
[Buy It]
CALYPSO BE
Young Tiger
Melodisc : 1953
Available on: London Is The Place For Me: Calypso & Kwela, Highlife & Jazz From Young Black London
Honest Jons Records : 2006
[Buy It]
Internecine jazz wars raged in New York in the 1940s, spilled over into the Carribean and ended up in a London where they were fought by proxy, in the streets of Notting Hill, by a host of Trinidadian stick-fighters and calypsonians. Lord Kitchener launched an opening salvo with this defense of the music's avant-garde:I heard the record of Gillespie
It really enchanted me just to hear him play "Anthropology" The Mighty Terror, Lords Invader, Executor, and Smasher, and King Timothy - joined Kitchener in the struggle, arraying themselves against Atilla the Hun, The Growler, and a coalition of spliter groups led by the Young Tiger:The be-boppers you see around
They all converse in a spacial tongue
"Ool-ya-koo" and "il-ya-da,"
One means "hello" and the other "ta-ta."
They call a man a "cat" and a girl a "chick"
And they're up to all kinds of shady tricks
With their "oop-bap-pa-da...."
By '53, the counter-revolutionaries were in control, leaving the clubs safe for an influx of trad bands and moldy figs. The following year, a CIA fresh off great successes in Iran and Guatemala, threw its support behind Dizzy Gillespie, upsetting the balance of power and driving reactionary forces into the shallows. By winter's end, clubs on Gerrard Street were in the boppers' hands, leaving Kitchener & co. free to fight against expeditionary forces newly arriving from Jamaica:
CALYPSO WAR
The Mighty Terror
Pye/Mixa : 1958
Available on: Trojan Calypso Box
Trojan : 2002
[Buy It]Labels: alex, calypso
posted by Alex
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