Nass­er Khan

We con­tin­ue a se­ries that takes a look back at the con­tri­bu­tions to our Car­ni­val art form of the fa­mous large band band­lead­ers from around 1955, the first year of the of­fi­cial Band of the Year com­pe­ti­tion.For the pur­pose of this se­ries, we take a look at that era fol­low­ing World War II when de­sign­ers were able to and be­gan to more wide­ly use their cre­ativ­i­ty and artistry to por­tray main­ly tan­gi­ble and non-ab­stract cos­tumes that trans­formed our streets in­to a the­mat­ic vi­su­al spec­ta­cle of colour and liv­ing the­atre.

GEORGE BAI­LEY (1935-1970)

The Mighty Spar­row in his ca­lyp­so Mem­o­ries re­calls: "George Bai­ley, I'll al­ways re­mem­ber, jump­ing when ah big band pass, play­ing big mas... George Bai­ley, wher­ev­er you are bred­der, just for you, we go gih dem re­al thun­der this year." (www.youtube.com)Car­ni­val 2010 saw a re­turn of the spir­it of the ge­nius of the late Wood­brook-born and bred George "Sir George" Bai­ley, via the Stephen Derek and As­so­ciates pro­duced band Call That George, a 15-sec­tion pre­sen­ta­tion, each named and de­signed af­ter bands pro­duced by Bai­ley from 1956 un­til his death in 1970 (it should be not­ed that it was his broth­er Al­bert who was the band­leader in 1956 al­though George him­self did the de­signs).

Al­so in­volved in no small way in the C2K10 pro­duc­tion were broth­er Al­bert, niece Lee Ann and grand niece Le­an­dra, her­self now a bud­ding young de­sign­er and avid mas play­er. His oth­er broth­er Alvin, well-known mas de­sign­er and cos­tume pro­duc­er, sad­ly passed away just be­fore Car­ni­val 2010. Their fa­ther Ald­wyn "Son­ny" was al­so a band­leader in his day."Sir George," so nick­named due to his per­son­al­i­ty and the high stan­dard of his art, along with Harold Salde­nah, be­tween 1955 and 1969, each cap­tured six Band of the Year ti­tles.

One can on­ly imag­ine the num­ber of ti­tles he would have added to his tal­ly had he not passed away at such a rel­a­tive­ly young age in 1970.A prodi­gy at the age of 20, the el­dest of sev­en chil­dren to his par­ents, he co-pro­duced with broth­er Al­bert, their first in­de­pen­dent band in 1956 en­ti­tled Timu and the Leop­ard King­dom a pre-cur­sor to 1957, and the African-his­to­ry themed band Back to Africa, which cap­tured the first of his ti­tles. This pre­sen­ta­tion large­ly cred­its Bai­ley for chang­ing per­cep­tions of Africa, his­to­ry, and Car­ni­val it­self de­pict­ing in­stead a re­gal her­itage, por­tray­ing mag­nif­i­cent, metic­u­lous­ly re­searched African cos­tumes in­stead of a past large­ly por­trayed in mas be­fore that by the use of rags, paint and spears.

A num­ber of his bands were por­tray­als of pe­ri­ods of African his­to­ry and be­fore Bai­ley, peo­ple could not con­ceive of African mas match­ing the grandeur of Ro­man, Greek or any oth­er Eu­ro­pean themes.George thor­ough­ly re­searched his por­tray­als and came as close to the orig­i­nal thing as was pos­si­ble.Dur­ing his 15 years in­volved as a Car­ni­val band­leader, George Bai­ley's pre­sen­ta­tions won the cov­et­ed Band of the Year Award six times (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1969) and the Peo­ple's Choice Award ten times (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970). He was the first to cap­ture a beaver-trick of Band of the Year ti­tles.

From a young age, Bai­ley de­vel­oped a love for draw­ing, paint­ing, and sculpt­ing un­der the guid­ance of MP Al­ladin, the renowned lo­cal artist. He was al­so an out­stand­ing ath­lete, in track and field, play­ing bas­ket­ball with the Wood­brook Limers and the T&T na­tion­al team. He be­gan his Car­ni­val ca­reer by de­sign­ing for In­vaders Steel­band in 1954 and 1955, then formed his own band with broth­er Al­bert and a few oth­ers as­so­ciates.

In 1962, when T&T gained In­de­pen­dence, he was a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee that de­signed the em­blems for the new na­tion.In 1969 he was award­ed the Trinidad & To­ba­go Hum­ming Bird Medal Gold for his con­tri­bu­tion to Car­ni­val de­vel­op­ment.On a num­ber of oc­ca­sions it is record­ed that there were huge dis­par­i­ties be­tween the non-George Bai­ley Band of Year win­ners and the ac­tu­al win­ners with Bai­ley's band gain­ing a much larg­er num­ber of votes.In 1970, re­turn­ing to Trinidad from an over­seas trip to Bermu­da, he fell ill. When the air­craft land­ed at Sea­well air­port in Bar­ba­dos, he asked for fresh air. He was led to the ramp, where he col­lapsed and died of an ap­par­ent heart fail­ure.

Car­ni­val pre­sen­ta­tions:

1956-Timu and the Leop­ard King­dom; 1957-Back to Africa; 1958-Of Pa­gan His­to­ry; 1959-Relics of Egypt; 1960-Ye Saga of Mer­rie Eng­land; 1961-Byzan­tine Glo­ry; 1962-Some­where in New Guinea; 1963-Realm of Fan­cy Bats and Clowns; 1964-Age of Gods and He­roes; 1965- In­di­an Lore; 1966-Kings Go Forth; 1967-Deities Spec­tac­u­lar; 1968-Fan­ta­sia; 1969-Bright Africa; 1970-Tears of the In­dies."

De­scrip­tives of a few of George Bai­ley's bands:

Relics of Egypt (1959): The his­tor­i­cal de­tail of Egypt­ian dy­nas­ties was de­scribed as mag­i­cal and re­al­is­tic and was the first oc­ca­sion that the prize called The Band of the Peo­ple's Choice was award­ed, which it won over­whelm­ing­ly.Byzan­tine Glo­ry (1961): De­pict­ing the Byzan­tine Em­pire from 337 AD to 1454 AD, pre­sent­ed in a blaze of colour and re­li­gious zeal, the grandeur, the ec­stasies and the ag­o­nies, un­der Em­per­or Con­stan­tine of the Holy Ro­man Em­pire.Some­where in New Guinea (1962): Spec­tac­u­lar again, es­pe­cial­ly the lead­ing char­ac­ters, daz­zling to the eye and mind, fea­tur­ing a broad spec­trum of life amongst the na­tives of New Guinea.

Re­mem­ber­ing "Sir George"

Ac­cord­ing to his broth­er Al­bert: "George was the one to start the first 'Drag Broth­ers' right there on Buller Street in Wood­brook. He al­so worked at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he was in charge of the cler­i­cal de­part­ment of the Ca­su­al­ty Ward. But with George's cre­ative abil­i­ty, he was trans­ferred to the Cul­ture Min­istry in St Ann's."

As a mas­cot to George Bai­ley's King of the Band Mac Ward (of De Nu Pub/Mas Camp Pub), Car­ni­val sup­pli­er Steve Sama­roo of Sama­roo's Ltd re­calls proud­ly his George Bai­ley mas-play­ing days as a young man from 1966 to 1970: "Those were tru­ly the days of mas­querad­ing when you put on a cos­tume and you felt trans­formed to an­oth­er era in his­to­ry."

Band of the Year Ti­tles

• 1957 Back to Africa

• 1959 Relics of Egypt

• 1960 Ye Saga of Mer­rie Eng­land

• 1961 Byzan­tine Glo­ry

• 1962 Some­where in New Guinea

• 1969 Bright Africa