Shel­don Os­borne

There are few around to­day to re­mem­ber when Lovey's String Band pro­duced the first record­ed ca­lyp­so in 1914, and prob­a­bly just a few more re­mem­ber when the first stars in the art form be­gan to stand out in­ter­na­tion­al­ly in the 1930s.

NA­PA Fest's cel­e­bra­tion of Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs from 1939 to 1980, how­ev­er, played to a packed house on open­ing night last Sat­ur­day and four gen­er­a­tions of ca­lyp­so lovers, from young chil­dren to se­nior cit­i­zens, en­joyed a sketch of Trinidad and To­ba­go's his­to­ry through the eyes of ca­lyp­so­ni­ans past and present.

Icons in the art form, both liv­ing and dead, were fea­tured, with to­day's ca­lyp­so stars stand­ing in for those who could not be there, but the liv­ing leg­ends present that night were the high­lights of the show–

Ca­lyp­so Rose, Chalk­dust, and Spar­row.

Ca­lyp­so Rose, born Mac­Cartha Lewis, de­liv­ered the songs that al­lowed her to cap­ture the Ca­lyp­so Queen com­pe­ti­tion for five years in a row, and led to her be­ing de­clared the first woman to win the Road March ti­tle. Af­ter a bat­tle with breast can­cer that slowed her down a bit in the 1990s, the art form's first fe­male monarch proved that she has re­cov­ered ful­ly as she sang and danced with the same lev­els of en­er­gy that made her fa­mous for more than half a cen­tu­ry.

Chalk­dust, a ca­lyp­son­ian, teacher, his­to­ri­an, and writer, was born Hol­lis Liv­er­pool in Ch­aguara­mas in 1941, and has been singing since 1967. This eight-time win­ner of the Ca­lyp­so Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion has record­ed more than 300 ca­lyp­soes. At last Sat­ur­day's show, Chalk­dust de­liv­ered one of his fans' favourites–Put on Meh Guns Again–to which he added a new line com­ment­ing on the Ude­cott af­fair.

Slinger Fran­cis­co, bet­ter known as The Mighty Spar­row, was born 75 years ago in Grena­da, and won his first Road March ti­tle in 1956 with Jean and Di­nah, a song that has re­mained pop­u­lar and is still heard at par­ties and on lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al ra­dio sta­tions.

Spar­row, who was de­clared Ca­lyp­so King of the World, went on to cre­ate more than 70 al­bums, and win the Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle 11 times dur­ing his long ca­lyp­so ca­reer.

While it is no se­cret that Spar­row has not been en­joy­ing the best of health, it was still a sur­prise for many to see the old bard sit through his per­for­mance. But, while there was none of the en­er­getic stage an­tics that he is known for, Spar­row's voice, and the reen­act­ment of the events cov­ered in his pop­u­lar ca­lyp­so Ten to One by a group of tal­ent­ed drama­tists, brought back many pleas­ant mem­o­ries for his fans.

Among the present-day ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and oth­er artistes who paid trib­ute to ca­lyp­so­ni­ans of yes­ter­year at Sat­ur­day's show, Kwe­si Jef­fers did a good ren­di­tion of Sniper's Por­trait of Trinidad; Dwayne O'Con­nor paid trib­ute to Duke with a med­ley of the late ca­lyp­son­ian's most pop­u­lar songs; Kurt Allen, ac­com­pa­nied by pan­nist Earl Brooks, did a trib­ute to Black Stal­in; and the Maisha Zuri and Je­une Agape Choirs did med­leys in trib­ute to Growl­ing Tiger, Lord Melody and Pre­tender Bomber, Ter­ror, and oth­er ca­lyp­so vet­er­ans.

To close last Sat­ur­day's show, De Orig­i­nal De Fos­to Him­self (Win­ston Scar­bor­ough), did con­vinc­ing ren­di­tions of Lord Kitch­en­er's most pop­u­lar ca­lyp­soes. Kitch­en­er, al­so known as "The Grand­mas­ter of Ca­lyp­so," has more Road March ti­tles than any oth­er ca­lyp­son­ian. Dur­ing his ca­reer that spanned over five decades, Kitch­en­er al­so ran ca­lyp­so tents in Port-of-Spain for over 30 years, the flag­ship be­ing his Kitch­en­er Ca­lyp­so Re­vue.