Calypso sends up Sinatra

Mighty Sparrow (photo Jeff Buxbaum)

Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) satirizes Frank Sinatra. 

Calypso General Election

In 2011, Parliament passed a Fixed Term Election law designed to block frivolous, costly electioneering.  So why another General Election? If the Referendum result was as binding and unshakeable as Brexiteers make out, what's there to prove?  To strengthen negotiations with the EU  at the price iof dividing the nation, stirring up hate and destroying the values that made Britain great in the first place?  There's a lot more to good government than politics. And a healthy democracy is not a one-party state.  So here's a look back at 1951, the snap election called after the 1950 election didn't secure a big enough majority for Labour.  Lord Beginner was an immigrant, who spoke patois and didn't have a posh education. But he took an interest in what was going on, and he took part.

"This is a Calypso about the General Election in Great Britain. Me, Lord Beginner, make this calypso in the style of the old minor calypso which we sing in Trinidad since many years ago"
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General Election we had in Great Britain, caused a sensation. independents also Liberal. It was essential. Socialist was glad, Communists was sad, Conservatives did cheer at the results in Trafalgar Square.

Chorus :  But I was confused, waiting to hear the news. Me and Dorothy in the rain and the cold in the whole night Piccadilly. 

Two long days there was announced in the parties with both majorities. It was said that the King was listening, so nothing was missing, traffic could not pass, Police had a task. It was the best election I'll say, proudly there til the break of day. At Piccadilly was a grand illumination, names went up in rotation. Some said, we will get more employment, others said better house rent. Balloons  went up too, I saw  red and blue,  for Attlee supporters draw, and for Churchill who won the war 

Get the recording from Honest Jons HERE. In fact, invest in the whole 6 CD set . Calypso was social commentary as much as entertainment.

Black in Britain - musicians and stereotypes

Good article "From slavery to singing star: celebrating Thomas Rutling, by Ronald Samm, who is a singer himself. Samm is starring in a piece on Rutling's life at Harrogate, where Rutling settled down. Samm was also one of the security guards in Tansy Davies' much misunderstood  Between Worlds  at the ENO. What must it have been like to be black in Britain in late Victorian times when any kind of non-white person was an exotic alien?  Rutling is seated above, middle row left. In his tux he could pass for a banker or a patron of the Royal Opera House. But look at the banjo and guitar in the foreground. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were admired but they still had to conform to stereotypes. No way was the public ready for blacks  as equals in "serious" music.

Rutling (1854-1915) was a contemporary of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), whose blackness was an accident of birth, and who grew up in an all-white environment, admired by Elgar and feted at the Three Choirs Festival. To Coleridge-Taylor's credit, he set out to learn about black identity, writing music influenced by generic "African" ideas and Black American music. Being a proper English gentleman meant he was received by the President of the United States. Ordinary black Americans  didn't get invited to the White House except as menials.  To Coleridge-Taylor's credit, he went out of his way to learn about black culture and meet black American artists and intellectuals, Coleridge-Taylor's music is possibly better known in the US today than in Britain. Read my article "Who really was Coleridge-Taylor ?" HERE, and my other pieces on him by clicking the label below.

Coleridge-Taylor's music is fascinating because he was genuinely trying to come to terms with non-white western aesthetics, much in the way that French composers from Bizet on explored exotic themes. Imagine if he'd worked with Ravel and developed a whole new musical language?  But he's also important as a perspective on race in late colonial times. Jeffrey Green's biography Samuel Coleridge-Taylor:: a Musical, Life is  essential reading. It's based on exhaustive first-hand research, presented with genuine knowledge of background and the composer's position in society. Even now, black people are exploited for novelty value, an approach which is fundamentally racist even if it's not intentional.  Jeffrey Green's sensitive book gives Coleridge-Taylor the dignity and respect he deserves.

William Grant Still (1895-1978) grew up in a black community in the South, so his experiences of black identity were more acute than Coleridge-Taylor's, and very different indeed to the prettified fantasy of Delius's Koanga. Grant Still was middle class and educated, but had to adapt to a certain amount of stereotype to make a living.  Fortunately, he lived long enough to be recognized as a musician and part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Back to Ronald Samm and his ideas on the role of black singers today. If this really was an equal world, the issue wouldn't arise, but the fact is, the number of black people in classical music doesn't reflect demographic reality.  Like it or not, classical music is perceived as being elitist. The myth reinforces prejudice, intensifying the problem.  One of the stupidest things in current arts policy is the idea that music can somehow change society, but in reality, unless society itself changes, we aren't going to get more blacks on stage and in the audience. Non-white people get patronized all the time. More talking down doesn't help. Besides, being non-white can sometimes be an artistic advantage. Last year, Eva-Maria Westbroek sang Puccini Manon Lescaut.  Westbroek's lush blonde voluptuousness was nicely set off by Lester Lynch as her brother. In a sense having a black guy as lowlife feeds stereotype, but the dynamic between Westbroek and Lynch was electric. Brother and sister, enthusiastic parters in crime, enjoying every moment.

Glass ENO and Coronation Calypso

Tonight, ENO Philip Glass The Perfect American at the Coliseum. Read about Philip Glass's Satyagraha, Einstein on the Beach and his In the Penal Colony on this site. They are relevant. I don't shatter Glass easily but The Perfect American didn't sparkle for me. Review HERE.

But it was nice seeing London decorated for the 60th anniversary of the Queen's Coronation. Less nice the post-midnight road closures. Admirably tasteful banners in maroon and gold. I love the Queen because she comes over as a genuinely decent person, who works extremely hard and cares about the country.  One of the reasons we admire the Queen is because she came to the throne at the right time. The war was over, but there were still bombed areas and memories of rationing, death etc. And  out of this a pretty, conscientious young woman taking on the mantle of Empire. Highly symbolic. Monarchy is image, not logic, and if it remains, the monarch must fill a need. Which is a contradiction in terms when it's hereditary. Long Live the Queen,  Long May She Reign! Preferably til she's 120. and keeps the throne warm for William. In 60 years, Britain has changed a lot, but she's been a wise monarch, interested in what's happening and placing nation above herself.

Anyway, here is a Calypso from 1953, and the singer, nice tenor, is Young Tiger (George E Browne) who was young then but was nearly 87 when he died in 2007. Listen to the inventive words, and the way they twist round the line.  "Her Majesty looked really divine, in her crimson robe furred with ermine", "the night wind was blowing freezing and cold, but I held my ground like a young Creole".

I was there at the Coronation!

Since Windsor and central London are no-go areas for common citizens, we might celebrate the Queen's Jubilee in other ways. I love the Queen because she comes over as a genuinely decent person, who works extremely hard and cares about the country (and Commonwealth). Which is more than we can say about politicians, or other members of her family. One of the reasons we admire the Queen is because she came to the throne at the right time.The war was over, but there were still bombed areas and memories of rationing, death etc. And  out of this a pretty, conscientious young woman taking on the mantle of Empire. Highly symbolic. Monarchy is image, not logic, and if it remains, the monarch must fill a need. Which is a contradiction in terms when it's hereditary. Long Live the Queen, Long May She Reign (even if it's only to keep the seat warm for William).

Anyway, here is a Calypso from 1953, and the singer, nice tenor, is Young Tiger (George E Browne) who was young then but was nearly 87 when he died in 2007. Listen to the inventive words, and the way they twist round the line.  "Her Majesty looked really divine, in her crimson robe furred with ermine", "the night wind was blowing freezing and cold, but I held my ground like a young Creole"  Royalty sure throws a grand party, though we pay and pay and pay and pay.....I'l be doing quite a lot more on the Queen in music over the next few weeks, but very "alternative". Which somehow I think she'd apppreciate more than right-wing Little Englanders.

Mix up matrimony

"Racial segregation I can see universally, fading gradually. Mixed marriage is the fashion...the organs are always playing, and the parsons are saying, co-operate and amalgamate..... the races are blending harmoniously, white and coloured people are binding neutrally, it doesn't take no class to see it come to pass, coloured Britons are rising fast." Note the reference to "Chinee man" and the huge (male) Chinese community in the Caribbean.

Chinese Calypso

Mixed Britannia BBC

This song makes me weep. It's so specific that it seems like it's about a real woman. She's half African, half Norwegian, went to Cambridge, acculturates white. But her feelings do not count.  She can "can never get away from the fact, if you're not white you're considered black". It's a calypso by Lord Kitchener, from around 1950 when mixed race was much less common than now. The man assumes the woman is acting superior because she doesn't fancy him. Years later when Lord Kitchener sang the song in Jamaica, he made it even more sexist, as if the woman was doing a crime for choosing not to sleep with him. At least calypso songs deal with race issues openly. But why should any woman, or any person, be defined by race?

Currently there are several programmes on the BBC about race issues. George Alagiah's Mixed Britannia must have taken ages to make because it's extremely well researched and outstandingly well made.They've uncovered completely new material, which has lain unnoticed in the archives and needs to be publiicized. Like the "Eugenics" movement which tried pseudo-scientific measurements of "mongrels" as mixed race people were called in those days. Someone must have realized where such things led, as they were quietly phased out after the Nuremberg race laws in Germany.

That didn't stop vindictive racism. As soon a WWII ended some bright spark had the notion of rounding up Chinese in Liverpool and shipping them back to China. The men were rounded up in the street, like animals,  and put on board a waiting ship. Many of the men werre long established UK residents, and had wives and families, but weren't allowed to make contact, or collect their belongings and papers. So hundreds of women and around 1000 children thought they'd been suddenly deserted, and never found out what happened..

If the men did make it back to China (they may have been dumped in India), the country was still in chaos, millions of refugees, destitute and homeless. Ironically many of these men would have worked for the British navy and merchant navy, where thousands of Chinese were enrolled, a huge proportion killed serving the British war effort.

Fortunately most normal people are sane. But racism is alive and well, for too many have vested interests in fuelling hate. The recent riots showed just how skewed assumptions really are.  Far Right white gangs attacked the police, immigrants gave their lives to defend their neighbourhoods, and  looters were most colours and classes. So programmes like Mixed Britannia are vitally important, to remind us that race is packaging, it isn't the person within. 

Please also see my posts on race issues, under labels like Africa, Chinese stereotypes, social issues etc. Watch the full movie Within Our Gates here too, the earliest known movie by a Black American that confronts things like lynching and exploitation. Also full download of Broken Blossoms, and a critique of Piccadilly, the Anna May Wong film much lauded by the BFI as progressive. The more I think about that film, the more offensive I think it is, but its appeal to Chinese outside Chinese culture is genuine, and needs to be analysed. You might also like this piece on Ghana Freedom, which mentions George Appiah, whose marriage to Stafford Cripps's daughter Peggy features in the second Mixed Britannia episode. Theirs wasn't the first high profile mixed marraige. My mole in FCO archives told me about the Govt of South Africa protesting mixed marriage in Britain, threatening to quit the Commonwealth. There are thousands of other stories waiting to be told. Like, a Colonial Police Officer held prisoner in a Japanese camp wants to marry. Under colonial rules he needs his commanding officers' approval.  They're all prisoners in the Japanese camp too but they forbid the marriage because the fiancee can't prove she has no mixed blood. Of course she can't. She's Eurasian. This is April 1945, right at the end of the war, but these colonials don't twig that the world's changed. Imagine what the Japanese thought. (and the irony still rankles with non whites today)

Madam Butterfly in real life.

Strictly speaking, Madam Butterfly isn't "about" Japan. Japan is an exotic context, building upon Europe's fascination with things oriental. This fascination with alternatives to mainstrean western culture had a huge impact on the development of western music and art. To Puccini's credit, he took the trouble to find out as much as he could about Japan even though there are things in the opera which aren't historically accurate. It tells little more about real Japanese society than Gilbert and Sullivan. The important thing is that Puccini is psycholgically accurate.

Moreover, Puccini picks up on the basic premise of imperialism that that some cultures are "superior" and have a right to exploit others. Lt. Pinkerton is the ultimate colonialist. For him, the east gives him the freedom to behave in a way he wouldn't dare at home. Ther locals don't matter, nor their culture. They exist for his own use, not as themselves. In the end he takes Butterfly's child, denying her her one comfort and identity as a mother, and foisting a perpetual reminder onto his new wife that she wasn't the mother of his first child. Sexist creep. Few, however, question the assumption that the child might be better off in America. But the fact is that the US was a racist society. Ask blacks and Native Americans. Orientals were seen as The Yellow Peril, almost as non-humans, and a threat to white values. In parts of Canada and the US, intermarriage was forbidden by law. Mixed race kids didn't fit in. So the idea that Pinkerton is somehow redeeming himself isn't true. He's an imperialist who thinks that non-white cultures are inherently inferior, so taking the kid is a further insult.  Any cross culture adoption is fraught with issues, but a man as insentive as Pinkerton will probably never learn. He's even more of blind bigot than the opera portrays.

Non-western cultures were a lot more enlightened than the Pinkertons of this world then and now realize. The Japanese, for example, absorbed change readily. Much of Japanese culture stemmed from China. In the 16th century, hundreds of thousands converted to Christianity. It wassn't just the introduction of Portuguese guns and cannon that interested them. Then the revolution of the Meiji, when Japan transformed from feudal to modern within a few years. The Japanese even adopted colonialism, assuming that if the west could demand concessions from China, so could they. They were nearer, after all, and needed the natural resoures. One of the ironies of the Second World War is that it took the Japanese invasion to end western control of China. Obviously core values don't change but Japanese culture's a lot more adaptive than many.

But not all colonials were Pinkertons. British India isn't typical because British society was exported wholesale. Prior to the arrival of Memsahibs and the High Raj, people mixed. Millions of Madam Butterfly situations that weren't necessarily exploitive, as the number of Anglo-Indians and Luso-Indians indicate. People are people ! From the shores of Africa to the shores of Japan, hundreds of mixed race communities, which developed their own identity and sub-culture. First-generation mixed race had something to turn to, even if it was never easy being different. (that's why anyone who mknows Asia will know there was never, ever an ur-Butterfly).

A while back, there was TV documentary in which a British actor traced his origins. He'd assumed his ancestress in what is now Ghana, was exploited, but it turned out that she was a prosperous businesswoman who'd had a family with a Dutchman. He didn't abandon her and left money in his will to his children. Millions more stories like that, all over Asia and Africa. As one Eurasian super achiever told me, "We have to try harder because we have to prove ourselves". Fundamentally, it's just not true that mixed race situations are prostitution arrangements doomed to failure. That's "colonial thinking" implcitly assuming the inferiority of "lesser breeds" (as they were actually called once) . Obviously there were horrible things, because that's the way the world is. But the idea that non-whites are vaguely inferior, persists. Even now mixed race communities are dismissed by those who think in simplistic black and white terms (sic). It's a throwback to colonial racism, even if it's completely unconscious. Mixed race sub cultures are  important because they show the way ahead in a world that's becoming increasingly mixed. Trouble is, they're not studied properly because they don't fit easy classification.

Click on photo to enlarge. Plenty more on this site about cross culture, yellowface, Japan, mixed culture and stereotypes.

Chinese Children Mighty Terror

Mighty Terror Trinidad Calypso singer of the 1950's. By no means the most un-PC song he does but yow, is this pungent. But that was life. There is/was a huge Chinese communiuty in the Caribbean and Central America, descended from indentured labourers in the 19th century - the notorious "coolie trade". As they were all single young men, they intermarried with the locals, settled and started creole communities which still exist today. Many moved back to China in the 1920's and 30's after anti-Chinese pogroms. Some were able to integrate into Chinese society, some had almost no connections to fall back on, so when the Japanese invaded, thousands died.  A long and complex story that needs to be told.

Anyway, here is Mighty Terror's take. He's with a woman called Imelda, who has been "Romancing with Chung Lee".  It's been 10 months since Mighty Terror kissed her but "that bald-faced women, she says, any child that gets born in my house I'm the Daddy".  Chorus :  "I'm so ashamed, I don't tell nobody, and my mother she wants to beat me, when Chinese children calling me daddy. I'm Black like jet, they  should be looking  like tar babies, (but) blue eyes and looking like Chinese....left, right, in front and behind me, Chinese children, calling me Daddy". 

"I can't  make no baby so chinky, it's very plain to see, some Chinese putting milk in the coffee......I have done with Imelda, I'm going with Tanya. I say when a negro pass with a negro, can't make no child other than a Congo.".  (Apparently "Congo" was a derogatory term used by Indian Caribbeans to describe Africans.) To our modern ears this might sound racist, but this song is a historical document that reflects what people thought 60 years ago.  In any case the song is really about a man being cheated by his partner. As he says "the results don't bring it back to me".  Now we appreciate mixed race hybrid vigour is a good thing. Hallelujah for all us creoles over the world. It's the world that's got to stop thinking in stereotypes, and recognize that there are millions who don't fit no mould.

The secret history of the Ghana Freedom Song

Ghana Freedom is a cult song, known to most Ghanaians under the age of 60 through the recording by E T Mensah made for Ghana's independence in 1957. The tune is irrepressible, but the story behind it is even more irrepressible than most  realize. This is a scoop for African history!  In 1977, one of the regular readers of this blog unearthed papers in Colonial Office Archive to explain the mystery.

He found a clipping from The Morning Telegraph, a Sekondi newspaper, dated 5 February 1952, which states "As an expression of solidarity between Africans of the Gold Coast and people of African descent in the West Indies, Trinidad calypso singers, headed by George Browne have composed a calypso called Freedom for Africa. The new dance song is dedicated to the Honourable Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Convention People's Party, popularly known as the CPP" ..... "the background music is provided by African drums  played by two Gold Coast Natives, Alfred Payne of Accra and Kofi Mensah of Cape Coast. The calypso has an attractive tune and should be popular among dancers as well as among supporters of the CPP". Here are four of the eight verses::


From his Ussherfort Cell, where they bolted the doors so well,
Nkrumah made his clarion call, and the people voted him one and all.

Chorus : Freedom, freedom is in the land, Friends, let us shout, Long live the CPP! Which now controls Africa's destiny. 

They called us all the verandah boys, they thought we were just a bunch of toys, But we won the right to vote at midnight hour, came out of jail and took power.

With Appiah  the ambassador, Casely Hayford the barrister, 
these two gentlemen did quite well, they got us out of the jailhouse cell.

The British MP Gammans was rude, by his dog in the mangerish attitude, 
But like the ostrich we know that man can go bury his head in the sand

Apparently several thousand records of the song were to be made and shipped to Africa, but the Colonial Office probably wasn't pleased. In those days, The Crown Agents held a monopoly of all government business and locals weren't supposed to act independently. So if a colony grew cotton, it had to buy cotton textiles from Manchester, via the CA.  In a minute preserved in CO554/595 dated 5th January 1952, officials are discussing the activities of men like "Mr Appiah of WASU" (Joe Appiah of the West African Students Union).  Making mass copies of a recording which criticized the government would not go down well. No-one really knows what happened to the first pressing of Ghana Freedom, but quiet words may have been said in London, where the master tapes were. Colonialism was sinister and pernicious, even though there were many good idealists, like Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke and Stafford Cripps whose daughter Peggy married Appiah. Their son Kwame Anthony Appiah is professor of philosophy at Princeton.

The recording is "lost" as far as can be ascertained. Maybe someone has a copy somewhere? George Browne, aka Young Tiger, was also quite a character- here's his obit.  E T Mensah, who made the recording that filled the gap left by Young Tiger's song, is even more fascinating. He was a qualified pharmacist who worked for the government by day and had a huge career in hilife music at night.

Prophetic Calypso singer predicted General Election result

A regular reader sends this prediction of the 2010 General Election, from Calypso singer Lord Beginner from 1950. Starts off with a mock fifties BBC voice, "Me, Lord Beginner make this calypso in the style of old Minou Calypso which we sing in Trinidad since many years, so hit it on.....

"General Election we had in Great Britain, caused a sensation, Independents, also Liberal  it was essential, Socialists was glad, Communists was sad, Conservatives did cheer at the results in Trafalgar Square. But I was confused, waiting to hear the news. ..... Two long days it was announced, the parties with no majorities, it is said that the King was listening, so nothing was missing, traffic could not pass, police had a task, it was the best election, I'll say, from ? to the break of day.....;But I was confused, waiting to hear the news....

"At Piccadilly was a grand illumination, names went up in rotation. Some said we will get more employment, others said better house rent. Balloon wernt up, too, I saw red and blue, for Attlee's supporters roar and for Churchill who won the war,  but I was confused, waiting to get the news....