Search - Alan Lomax :: Trinidad-Carnival Roots: Caribbean Voyage

Kalenda Carnival Songs

gsibbery | 01/06/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a collection of Kalenda songs that were played for the annual Shrovetide festival in Trinidad in 1962, a few months before being liberated from the British. The recordings are genuine and high quality although it may take the western ear some time to acclimate to the sounds. There are a few "tamboo bamboo" songs, many call-and-repsonse type songs that show the African roots of many of the sounds that one will find in the Carribean and interviews with some of the artists, which are more comical than anything. Lomax sounds quite out of place when asking the questions, kind of like a game show host, but it is still pretty amusing, and informative to a degree. One of the band members, Matthew Thomas, who played several songs with his band on this album, was an old stick fighter, and the CD contains a wealth of songs relating to the stick fighters of the late 19th century . . . over half of the CD is devoted to various stick fighting type songs of some ilk. There are also some of the more musical waltzes like the Castillians as well a sample of "Carnival Speech", a now defuct variety of activity that used to go on at the carnival in which a braggart boasts of his many feats in a sort of competition with other boasters or could demand "gifts" from the audience, although now it is more comical than threatening in character. Also is a celebration of the Husein festival honouring Mohammed's grandchildren who were killed that are played by some of the Indian Muslim immigrants to the island. Dr. Elder, a Tobagonian anthropologist, writes a very informative introduction to the musical culture and background to the songs. A very different, but entertaining collection."