As the homage continues, your pores raise as the senses are met with the incomprehensible but instantly recognisable “Ah be a ya-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya wha-wha-wha.” Who else but Winston Bailey could open a tune with his own blend of words and letters as a melody, to float upon the one he has …
Read More »From front to back and back to front; St Bernard on the legacy of the “Mighty Shadow”
“Come here Winston. Go there Winston. Dey always pushing me around,” sang the late iconic calypsonian, Winston “Shadow” Bailey. For that reason, I always called him Winston. I considered him my friend. He was complex and self assured about his music. I once begged him to allow me to compile a …
Read More »Daly Bread: Sing de chorus; why Tourism Minister should get out more and T&T needs What’s On app
By the time of publication, Sing de Chorus would have completed eight performances—including a morning show for students at a discounted price. Sing de Chorus is a calypso musical written by Rawle Gibbons. It is the first part of his trilogy of calypso musicals tracing the history of calypso from …
Read More »Daly Bread: Breaking useless moulds and transforming Carnival
I congratulate the Minister of Tourism, Randall Mitchell MP, for his reported admission that Carnival has failed as a tourism product. In 2015, I had already described “the acceleration of the decline of Carnival into a minority sport”. Only last week I complained again that our rich and varied musical …
Read More »Tribute to Professor Ken Philmore: the steelpan pioneer T&T never fully embraced
“Professor Ken Philmore should have been one of our immortal monarchs and champions… Without assistance, without adulation, without even our cursory attention, Professor went about spreading the gospel of our sound and our instrument. “He would continue to push the international profile of pan further appearing with giants: Tito Puente, …
Read More »56 Years, How Yuh Feel? Salaah suggests introspection as we prepare for Independence Day
On Friday August 31st we celebrate our 56th year of Independence. “How allyuh feel?” How allyuh feel we have grown since 1962 Independence and more significantly, the fact that we are getting near to our diamond anniversary—sixty years—a landmark achievement and a symbol of experience and maturity? Are we on the path …
Read More »Daly Bread: Our true treasure trove; T&T must let culture relieve the gloom
Being uncertain whether the appointment of glory Gary as Commissioner of Police, will make a difference, I am referring to some of our steadily growing international successes in arts and culture in an attempt to relieve the murderous gloom. This sector holds the key to diversification of the economy, despite …
Read More »Salaam: Forget Brazil and France, T&T should be emulating Japan’s tidy fans after more flash fooding
Even after they were eliminated by Belgium in the World Cup Round of 16 on Monday, the Japan National Football Team and their supporters gave us a lesson in class and a taste of their culture. I read that their fans cleaned up the section of the stadium where they …
Read More »Daly Bread: We dance to survive; Rosa Guy’s score and our Police Service’s fail
At the end of this column I will adopt the words of a recent editorial in the Trinidad Express newspaper on violent crime even as the murderers, whom we have undoubtedly empowered, laugh in our faces. Meanwhile, I have been dwelling on the richness of our culture and its potential …
Read More »Dear Editor: What desperately needs changing in St James’ We Beat festival
“[…] That appreciation [of traditional carnival characters at We Beat] does not, however, extend to the management of it. What I witnessed on Saturday night is an excellent example of what not to do if you are trying to get youths involved to pass it onto them.” Wired868 columnist Corey Gilkes …
Read More »Daly Bread: Music in Districts’ glorious potential, lengthening Carnival calendar and why Pan Trinbago is not missed
“Stay in tong!” I shouted those words on Sunday last, in appreciation of the scintillating performance of Coffee Street, San Fernando band, Skiffle, in Adam Smith Square, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, at the second event put on by the Music in the Districts programme. This event confirmed that other pan …
Read More »Daly Bread: The true meaning and effect of “culture;” Eric Williams’ legacy squandered
What a weekend last week: Carib Dance made a brilliant and authentic statement of the legacy of Beryl Mc Burnie in celebration of seventy years of the Little Carib Theatre and Starlift steel orchestra got the memo that changeovers from band to band must not stall. Ten minutes between bands …
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