This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean — featuring new music from Kobo Town; Horace Andy; Shaggy; Josean Jacobo; Dean Fraser & Ernie Ranglin; and Daniel Bellegarde
Kobo City
Carnival of Ghosts (Stonetree Records)
Calypso is the art of a lyricist and performer. Words matter. The distribution of these words – ideally written by yourself – makes the difference between a calypsonian singer and a calypso. Drew Gonsalves – originally from Trinidad, now resident in Canada – and his band Kobo Town challenge the role of calypso in a modern world divided by Trinidadian racing and the world music push of global record companies.
What is sacred to Caribbean ears as a rich local genre has become a commodity for global consumption, something that has eluded many outside the Caribbean diaspora in the US and UK since the 1940s. And this is not a bad thing, certainly not here on this new album with 10 different lyrical songs.
Gonsalves tells us that this new album is “a compilation of songs about the human condition—about our quirks and foibles, our anxieties and hopes, and the nagging sense of impermanence that fills our every moment with its urgency and priceless value.” Lyrical excesses with urgent polysyllabic play make for interesting listening: I’d treat natural selection as divine choice / I wouldn’t want to tamper with the laws of nature / If conscience is a fiction, it’s a threatening curse / A spoonful of guilt that only spoils the sauce. Wow!
Belizean Ivan Duran, who had a hand in Calypso Rose’s late career renaissance, works his production magic on this album. Modern sound ideas are mixed with the recalled souls of vintage calypsonians Roaring Lion and Atilla the Hun, to make this album not so much new calypso wrapped in old clothes, but a reckoning of what calypso can be in the century the 21st.
Horace Andy
Midnight Rocker (Sound On-U)
Horace Andy has one of the most distinctive voices in Jamaican music, making his trademark falsetto-vibrato-heavy with the flavor of 1970s dub music and signaling the trip-hop heyday of Massive Attack in the mid-‘ 90. His new album – a mix of well-produced originals and his own creatively reworked classics – showcases a more mature voice and delays the end of his career.
Shaggy
Come Fly Wid Me (Cherrytree Records)
“The Sinatra Songbook inna reggae stylee” is the subtitle of this compilation of songs made famous by the Chairman, reimagined by eclectic rock superstar Sting and sung by Shaggy. The pair don’t retreat to the empty genre covers of star catalogs, but shine a masterful light on how Jamaican Patois can infuse island wit and élan into timeless lyricism.
Josean Jacobo
Creole Heritage (Self Released)
Pianist Josean Jacobo says, “I take folkloric idioms, our traditional culture, Afro-Dominican heritage and mix it with contemporary jazz in a trio setting.” That statement aptly describes his new album, but doesn’t convey the degree of rhythmic influence that can be heard. Bachata and merengue pulses cement a new island jazz aesthetic.
Dean Fraser and Ernie Ranglin
Two Colors (Tad’s record)
When legends come together to record new music, the creative possibilities are endless. Ranglin (a 90-year-old Jamaican guitar icon whose nimble cuts and touches are undiminished) joins Fraser (sax saxist to every global reggae star) on a timeless jazz, ska and reggae instrumental journey and values heritages. Cooperate heaven.
Daniel Bellegarde
Pastourelle (Self Released)
Bellegarde—a Canadian-based percussionist of Haitian descent—explores rural music from Haiti and the French West Indies as an ongoing exercise in heritage recall. Quadrille, contradance, waltz, even Creole polka are heard as inspiration for the originals, and covers of classic tunes from Haiti and Martinique give this album the gravitas it deserves.
