Pe­ter Ray Blood

You know you are in the heat of T&T Car­ni­val when ca­lyp­so tents pre­miere their pro­grammes and four of them are open­ing this week­end.

Ca­lyp­so tents were in­tro­duced to the fab­ric of Car­ni­val back in the '30s by ca­lyp­son­ian Wal­ter Dou­glas (Rail­way Dou­glas), the 1934 Road March cham­pi­on. Pri­or to this, pre­ced­ing World War I, chantrels bore the melodies of the sea­son, sung by men like Nor­man Le Blanc, Julien White Rose and Hen­ry Forbes the In­ven­tor. Af­ter the First World War, ca­lyp­so's flag bear­ers in­clud­ed Dou­glas, Hou­di­ni, Lord Ex­ecu­tor (Philip Gar­cia), Atil­la the Hun (Ray­mond Queve­do) and Roar­ing Li­on (Raphael de Leon).

The art form, re­gard­ed as "the mouth­piece of the mass­es," has tra­di­tion­al­ly rubbed those in au­thor­i­ty the wrong way. As far back as 1938 of­fi­cials have been try­ing to muz­zle ca­lyp­so­ni­ans.

Then Port-of-Spain may­or Gar­nette Mc­Carthy said: "It is not right that any in­di­vid­ual should be held up to calum­ny. If a man errs, I don't think that per­son should be held up to ridicule by per­sons singing ques­tion­able songs about him. This prac­tice must def­i­nite­ly stop."

The may­or fur­ther rec­om­mend­ed that the lyrics of ca­lyp­soes be sub­mit­ted to the Car­ni­val Im­prove­ment Com­mit­tee (CIC) for vet­ting.

Sev­en­ty-five years ago CIC an­nounced the first "of­fi­cial" ca­lyp­so king com­pe­ti­tion. It was ac­tu­al­ly staged on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 11, 1939, one week be­fore Car­ni­val Mon­day. Com­ing from Siparia, Growl­ing Tiger won the ti­tle and the $20 first prize. He de­feat­ed Atil­la the Hun and Pre­tender, singing The Labour Sit­u­a­tion.

At Tiger's crown­ing, then Port-of-Spain may­or Cap­tain Arthur Cipri­ani said: "I am asked, 'What is ca­lyp­so? 'A ca­lyp­so is not the mu­sic of the mas­ters of the past; it is not the mu­sic of the mae­stro of to­day. It is the long-lost art of the Mus­es."

Ca­lyp­so tents have come a long way, pro­gress­ing from the days of earth­en floors, thatched roofs and palm frond par­ti­tion­ing. Be­yond In­de­pen­dence in 1962, we have seen the art form served by knowl­edge­able cus­to­di­ans like Syl Tay­lor, Carl "Jazzy" Pan­tin, Son­ny Wood­ley, William Munro, Leon Noel and Claude Mar­tineau.

This year, Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Tu­co) is cel­e­brat­ing the 100th an­niver­sary of the first ca­lyp­so record­ing, "a his­toric mile­stone," ac­cord­ing to Tu­co pres­i­dent Lu­ta­lo Masim­ba (Bro Re­sis­tance). The first tent to open its doors was Klas­sic Ru­so, do­ing so last Sat­ur­day in To­ba­go. This tent fea­tures peren­ni­al crowd-pleas­er All Rounder as well as Tu­co North Zone of­fi­cials Con­tender and Dr Will B, and for­mer Road March cham­pi­on Crazy.

Klas­sic Ru­so Ca­lyp­so Tent has sched­uled its "of­fi­cial open­ing" at the au­di­to­ri­um of Port-of-Spain City Hall on Knox Street, tonight at 7 pm. The of­fi­cial open­ing of this tent will be a gala af­fair and it in­cludes Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona who con­firmed his at­ten­dance last week­end, adding that this was the first ca­lyp­so tent he sang in, per­form­ing un­der the so­bri­quet of the Prophet of Sysi­phus.

In­ter­na­tion­al Di­vas Ca­lyp­so Cabaret, run by ca­lyp­so his­to­ri­an Rudy Ot­t­ley, opened last Wednes­day night at De Nu Pub (The Mas Camp), Wood­brook. The cast of this all-fe­male tent in­cludes for­mer na­tion­al ca­lyp­so queen Karen Ec­cles Thomas, Stacey Sobers and Tenaj Smith.

Speak­ing to Pulse this week, for­mer na­tion­al ca­lyp­so monarch Cro Cro (We­st­on Rawl­ins) was con­fi­dent that he will have a ca­lyp­so tent this year, though he pre­vi­ous­ly said he was un­able to pro­duce a tent, be­cause of be­ing "vic­timised by Gov­ern­ment," by be­ing de­nied fund­ing from the State.

Cro Cro's tent is be­ing sub­sidised by ca­lyp­so fan Den­isha May­ers-Gard­ner, her fam­i­ly and sup­port­ers of Cro Cro. So con­fi­dent is Cro Cro that he said he will hold "call-back au­di­tions" to­mor­row to de­cide on his fi­nal cast.

A main­stay at Cro Cro's Icons tent since its es­tab­lish­ment, Spar­row is again ex­pect­ed to be sup­port­ing the diminu­tive bard. If all goes well for Cro Cro, the Peo­ple's Icons Tent is ex­pect­ed to pre­miere its sea­son around Valen­tine's Day, Feb­ru­ary 14.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly Ka­lyp­so Re­vue has opened its sea­son in Ari­ma and this year is no dif­fer­ent with the pre­miere billed for the Velo­drome tonight. This tent boasts of hav­ing three na­tion­al ca­lyp­so mon­archs on its cast in­clud­ing de­fend­ing Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Pink Pan­ther, Chalk­dust and Sug­ar Aloes.

Kaiso Kar­a­van, home of Tu­co East Zone chair­man John­ny King and for­mer na­tion­al mon­archs Scrunter and Kurt Allen, pre­mieres to­mor­row night at Er­ic Williams Au­di­to­ri­um, La Joya Com­plex, EMR, St Joseph.

On Sun­day evening it is the turn of Kaiso House, which is trav­el­ling to south Trinidad for its pre­miere, at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, San Fer­nan­do. Like Ka­lyp­so Re­vue, this year this tent's cast in­cludes three na­tion­al mon­archs (Singing San­dra, Karene As­che, Du­ane O'Con­nor) plus 50th An­niver­sary of In­de­pen­dence monarch Chucky (Rod­er­ick Gor­don) and for­mer na­tion­al ca­lyp­so queen Twig­gy (Ann Marie Parks-Ko­jo). The tent will have its Port-of-Spain open­ing at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah on Tues­day.

South tent Kaiso Showkase, led Ras Kom­man­da, will be­gin its pro­gramme on Feb­ru­ary 7, at Palms Club, San Fer­nan­do.

TENT CASTS

Ka­lyp­so Re­vue:SWW­TU Hall, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain

Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Pink Pan­ther

Chalk­dust

Sug­ar Aloes

Skatie

Baron

Bal­ly

Swal­low

Bri­an Lon­don

De­von Seale

Nin­ja

Kizzie Ruiz

Alana Sin­nette

Michelle Hen­ry

Tamei­ka Dar­ius

Nicole Greaves

Sexy Suzie

M'ba

de Mighty Tri­ni

Te­niel Coop­er

Maze

Fal­co

Dr Wit­ty

Mar­lon Ed­wards

Starr George

Yel­lows

Ex­pos­er

Rex East

Spran­galang

CG

Kaiso House:Queen's Park Sa­van­nah,Port-of-Spain

Singing San­dra

Karene As­che

Du­ane O'Con­nor

Mr Chucky

Mr Fa­mous

Bro Re­sis­tance

Bro Valenti­no

Ex­plain­er

Bro Mu­da­da

Twig­gy

Al­lan Welch

Broth­er Musa

Ca­lyp­so Kerr

Dee Di­a­mond

Bro Lasana

Roots­man

La­dy Aeisha

Soft Touch

Snakey

Lani-K

Brown Boy

Mar­vel­lous Mar­va

Bun­ny B

Nirke­sha Lo­gan

Black Sage

Sis­ter Ava

Mista Shak

Shar­lan Bai­ley

Shradah Mc In­tyre

Pos­er

Spicey

Kass­man

Kaiso Kar­a­van:Er­ic Williams Au­di­to­ri­um, La Joya Com­plex, EMR, St Joseph

Scrunter

Kurt Allen

John­ny King

De Fos­to

Kare­ga Man­dela

Stinger

Eu­nice Pe­ters

Ken­ny J

La­dy Paula

Young Cre­ole

Francine

My­ron B

Asha Ka­machee

Car­di­nal

Sur­pris­er

Shel­don Nugget

Er­phaan Alves

Dirty Cur­ty

Er­ic James

Singing So­nia

Black Czar

Marin­da Joseph

Skhi

Wolde Daw­id

Jah Burke

Bro Al­pha

Kid Callaloo

An­tho­ny John­son

God­frey Pierre

In­ter­na­tion­al Di­vas Ca­lyp­so Cabaret:De Nu Pub (The Mas Camp), Wood­brook

Karen Ec­cles Thomas

Stacey Sobers

Lyn­cia Mor­ris (Black Di­a­mond)

Crys­tal Charles

Kerice Pas­call

Ca­li­ka Grayson (Ca­li­ka)

Tenaj Smith

Lisa John (Di­va)

Sharon Alex­is

Vornique Ben­jamin

San­cha Sci­pio

Deli­na Di­a­mond

Es­ther­li­ta Lo­mans

An­gela Ra­moutar

Kali­ta May­ers (Kali­ta)

Heather Guer­ra (Sim­ply Heather)

Kaiso Showkase: Palms Club, San Fer­nan­do

Ras Kom­man­da

La­dy Adan­na

Pro­tec­tor

Ab­bie Black­man

El Dra­go

Joanne Fos­ter

Mr Mack

Count Robin

La­dy Gyp­sy

Tall­ish

Queen Vic­to­ria

Wan­der­er

Wack­er­man

Joseph Adams

Nikko

Kaiso Knob­by

Ron­dell Don­awa

Cy­clops

Up­ris­ing

Black Byrd

Akiel La Bor­de

An­dre Jef­fers

Liz Pa­ponette

Young Rose

Tr­ev­er B

Klas­sic Ru­so: Ca­lyp­so TentC­i­ty Hall Au­di­to­ri­um,Knox Street, Port-of-Spain

All Rounder

Crazy

Con­tender

Ver­sa­tile

Man­child

Bro Ebony

La­dy Won­der

Hamidul­lah

Black Prince

Dr Will B

Shirlaine Hen­drick­son

Mar­va Mc Ken­zie

Nef­ta Ko­jo

Ty­pher

QP

Stan­ley Adams

Kaiso Mac

Gary Her­cules

Me­chan­ic

Re­veal­er

Stock­ings

Dr Rhythm

Side­ways

Helon Fran­cis

Shy­locks

Ben­ny J

Diesel

Make­da Dar­ius

Rasheed Latif

Smurf D Jock­ey

King Soul