Legends of Calypso

The 25 songs cover an extremely broad range of styles from classic testifying to folk styles to crooned ballads. Probably one of the most (in)famous double-entendre calypso songs The Big Bamboo is included here given wittily brilliant treatment by its composer Mighty Panther who contributes several other pithy pieces to the collection. Calypso Eddie gives an extroverted version of the staple Matilda, Calypso Mama warns the men Don’t Touch Me Tomato while balladeer Andre Toussaint croons Yellow Bird over a Cuban beat.

Another very popular artist of the era Blind Blake (not the blues guitarist) who was the very first calypsonian to cross over to commercial success in the USA contributes several of his hits. Other performers here are Peanuts Taylor, Harold ‘Digby’ McNair Brownie, Colin Kelly and Leslie Williams (daughter of legendary jazz pianist Clarence Williams). The sound quality of these vintage recordings is absolutely superb, aided no doubt by the fact that they all were originally made for commercial release. Still, the real meat of calypso is to be found in the witty wordplay and poetry, so the transcriptions of the lyrics to all the songs contained in the 36-page booklet are icing on the cake. Feb 2003