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Get ready to sizzle at the Swizzle
Written by : Stephen Spark
Location : London
Posted : Jun 5, 2006 : 12:00:00 AM |
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Before jump 'n wave, ragga-soca, rapso and the rest there was just pure, sweet, scandalous calypso.
Stolen, abused and watered-down for the tourists, ignorant commentators have often dismissed it as cheerful but inconsequential music. Yet, in the hands of the greatest calypsonians the music is as heady as puncheon and the lyrics as strong as well-seasoned saltfish, able to bring an audience to its feet or a corrupt politician to his knees.
In 1950s Port of Spain the place to hear calypso was Dirty Jim's Swizzle Club, opened by an American soldier in an old rum distillery on South Quay and claimed to be the first club in Trinidad to be frequented by both black and white people. The unique atmosphere of the club was specially re-created for a film, released earlier this year on DVD, and for an EMI album, Calypso@Dirty Jim's. The latter includes performances by some of the best-known calypsonians surviving from that time, and is released in the UK on June 12.
DVDs and CDs can never quite generate the excitement and immediacy of a live performance, however. That is why, for one night only, the Barbican Hall is being transformed into Dirty Jim's Swizzle Club, giving us all the chance to know what it was like to hear Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Lord Superior and Mighty Terror when they were redefining the artform in Trinidad. In fact, we have the advantage over their early audiences, because, as they have grown older, so these premier calypsonians' voices have matured like a fine rum - warm, rich and mellow.
For Sparrow the show will have special meaning, because this year represents the 50th anniversary of his winning both the calypso crown and the Road March with Jean and Dinah, a song that is as fresh today as it was half a century ago. Rose first won the Road March competition in 1977, with Gimme More Tempo, and the following year gained the (hastily retitled) Calypso Monarch title and the Road March. Lord Superior doubtless has many memories of Dirty Jim's as it was here, in 1955, that he first came across a certain Grenadian called Sparrow. Nicknamed "The Golden Voice", former boxer and taxi-driver Terror won the Road March back in 1951, helped popularise calypso when he moved to England, then moved back to Trinidad, taking the Calypso crown in 1966 with Steelband Jamboree and Play Mas.
Dirty Jim's Swizzle Club begins at 8 pm on Friday 23rd June at Barbican Hall; tickets £14 to £22.50, available from 0845 120 7541. |
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