DAVID CUFFY

Vin­tage ca­lyp­so, a po­tent form of so­cial com­men­tary that con­trasts quite glar­ing­ly with present-day so­ca songs, re­minds us of a time when we cre­at­ed songs and melodies that in­formed and val­i­dat­ed our Trin­bag­on­ian iden­ti­ties. At Queen's Hall in St Ann's last Fri­day night, a large crowd was on hand to make the an­nu­al nos­tal­gic trip down ca­lyp­so mem­o­ry lane at the 9th stag­ing of Vin­tage Fuh So, pre­sent­ed by the Holy Name Con­vent Past Pupils As­so­ci­a­tion.

Fea­tured on the play­bill were four of the finest ex­po­nents in the art of sto­ry­telling that utilis­es rhythm and rhyme to cap­ti­vate au­di­ences–Mighty Tri­ni (Robert Elias), Denyse Plum­mer, Lord Nel­son (Robert Nel­son), and David Rud­der.

With bril­liant mu­si­cal back­ing from the ag­gre­ga­tion Vince Rivers and the So­ca Unit, Tri­ni opened the pro­gramme by em­pha­sis­ing in song that he was a Born Tri­ni. He fol­lowed with the dis­cern­ing Who Is Who, then launched in­to a med­ley of joy­ous and melo­di­ous songs from the pens of Dougla, Spar­row, Melody and Kitch­en­er that in­clud­ed Lazy Man Paul, Ben­wood Dick, Miss Tourist, The Road, Last Train, Ma­ma Look A Boo­boo, and The Bull.

He closed with his peren­ni­al favourites, Sail­ing and Cur­ry Ta­ban­ca.

Plum­mer, in her turn, took mat­ters to a high­er lev­el with a dy­nam­ic per­for­mance. In a voice that was bell-clear and tonal, she worked the au­di­ence in­to a fren­zy with songs from her reper­toire that show­cased Woman Is Boss, Ta­ban­ca, and Nah Leav­ing.

She, too, opt­ed for a med­ley of vin­tage works from oth­er en­ter­tain­ers. In her case, ven­tur­ing in­to the au­di­ence to en­gage mem­bers in a sing-along to Doh Back Back, Suck Mih Soucouyant, and an awe­some in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the Kan­chan and Babla's top hit Kuch Gad­bad Hai.

The mer­ry mood con­tin­ued dur­ing in­ter­mis­sion, as the six-mem­ber group Just Friends had pa­trons in the Hall's foy­er danc­ing and singing along to more vin­tage ca­lyp­soes from the song­books of Blakie, Kitch­en­er, Spar­row, and oth­ers.

Nel­son opened af­ter the in­ter­val. Now 81 years old and us­ing a cane for walk­ing as­sis­tance, the bard still showed some ves­tiges of his younger days. Dis­co Dad­dy, which he said should now be re­ferred to as Dis­co Grand Dad­dy; Bald Head­ed Ras­ta; King Liar; We Like It; and Mih Lover were his choic­es. In ren­der­ing the lat­ter he dis­pensed with the cane and took off his jack­et to show an 81-year-old ver­sion of the fa­mous "Nel­son wine."

Rud­der closed the play­bill with an­oth­er mas­ter­ful per­for­mance. Like vin­tage wines, he seems to get bet­ter with age, at least from an au­di­ence per­spec­tive. Ac­knowl­edg­ing that their "chairs were their en­e­mies," pa­trons took to their feet to dance and ac­com­pa­ny him with his ren­der­ings of Bahia Girl, Tri­ni To The Bone, The Ham­mer, Dus In Dey Face, Mad­ness and the sem­i­nal High Mas. Show host was the ir­re­press­ible come­di­enne Nik­ki Cros­by in the role of Granny.