Calypso Mandolin

[journeybear]

Yes, for real, and don't knock it till you try it. And I'll tell you one thing, or two: It's a bit trickier than you might think, and prettier, too.

I'll admit, I've done precious little research on the subject, though I have heard some bandolim music that sounds like it's in the ballpark. That doesn't keep me from liking the style and how it sounds on the mandolin - even if I have to play it myself in order to hear it. One of the reasons I moved down here was to immerse myself in these happy sounds, only to find hardly anyone here plays island music. There's a bit of reggae, some Latino/Cubano, plenty of trop rock. But the real deal? Not so much.

Which brings me to my main point. I will be playing a short set at our local annual Key West Musicians Festival tomorrow evening, scheduled for 7:30 PM EST. My plan for this year is - you guessed it, some original Calypso music. I've worked up four songs with a conga player, so I'll be able to play these very melodic tunes, without sounding plinky. Also, I won't have to rely on my voice to carry the melody, most of the time, and that is good thing.

These are pretty romantic numbers, and I am more expressive instrumentally than vocally. Hopefully the monitors will help me adjust my vocals when the time comes. I'm aware I'm not selling this well, but I want folks to be prepared.

All this would be neither here nor there if you are there and can't be here. But you can - it will be available worldwide via webcam: https://www.smokintunasaloon.com/tunacam.html

Tune in if you can. And if anyone can figure out how to record or download my set, I would be so appreciative. It would be great to have decent recordings of these tunes. Thanks!

[NDO]

If you can stream it on Facebook Live or YouTube you can capture it later. Not sure about the tuna cam!

[journeybear]

Seems to me I've done this before. But I have RealPlayer, which is pretty proactive in these matters. I'll be driving back from my gig in Key Largo, though -100 miles away - I know, dedication - so I won't be able to swing by my place and set it up. Also, the TunaCam seems to like being refreshed often, so it probably wouldn't be able to be left on its own. But someone did post a link for Live Streaming. I must warn folks, my antivirus program doesn't like it, sees it as a threat, so approach with caution. Thanks!

http://stream-in-hd.xyz/Musicians-Fe..._uzpQwRDbYeI2A

[Charles E.]

Check out recordings by the Talbot Brothers from Bermuda...

[Simon DS]

Wow, that fast swing takes a bit of getting used to.

[Bren]

you have never heard such classics as "Kinsey Report" by Lord Myrie et al?
Led off by calypso tenor banjo .
You need to cover this one journeybear!

"it seems dr kinsey wrote a big report, about my favourite indoor sport ..."

the picture on the YouTubeis of producer/collector Emory Cook, pictures and obit of Cecil Myrie below.



http://compassionatefuneralcare.blog...man-myrie.html

[James Vwaal]

Yes, for real, and don't knock it till you try it. And I'll tell you one thing, or two: It's a bit trickier than you might think, and prettier, too.

JB, this is the first calypso mandolin that I ever heard. And it is easily one of my favorite Dawg tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0lTd939Dd8

[journeybear]

Oh, sirs. Sirs! I post about original calypso music on the mandolin and you respond with examples of calypso on other instruments, including banjo?

You need to cover this one journeybear!

Um ... no, I don't. Thanks, but ...

Perhaps I did not explain myself quite accurately. You see, while dreaming up a set for this year's festival (showcase, effectively), I thought it would be cool and different to put together one of my original calypso and similar numbers. I came up with four, which turned out to be a bit short. But since the guy in charge has cut me short a few times over the years, I figured that would be fine. I practiced up another one just in case, and also brushed up the first calypso I ever learned, going back to my teenage years, something called "Bonita" - impossible to find a recording with only that as a title. (It's actually a love song for the singer's baby, a twist ending revealed at the end of the second verse.)

As it happened, things were running so smoothly, even as late in the day as this was, that after four, the guy told me two more. Good thing I had them - though it was news to the conga player. We plunged ahead and they were fine. All in all, it was OK, although the long drive left me a bit stressed, with no time to run through the songs first, and the monitor mix sound was kind of harsh. Well, it was what it was, and I think it went pretty well. I am my most severe critic, anyway.

The Dawg number is a hoot! Especially the visuals. Such hi-larious hijinks! I was quite unaware of this. It's from his album "Acousticity," which I don't have. It is a merrie melody, fo' sho'!

Bottom line is, calypso mandolin seems to be a rather minor subset of both elements. I'll do what I can to correct this, bring it to prominence and find it its proper place in the firmament. With what resources I have to work with, of course ...

[journeybear]

Of course, calypso has been around for a long time, and there was a craze here in the States for years back in the '50s-'60s, Harry Belafonte being the biggest star in the field. Other than the aforementioned "Bonita," my main specific influence in calypso is an album I found in the '80s called "Calypsos For Adam And Eve." This compilation was a revelation, as it showed a different side to the form - a somewhat more "naughty" one, though not really a bawdy one. More suggestive than outright descriptive, so to speak, with a fair amount of double entendre - not unlike Dr. Kinsey's "favorite inside sport."

Two of my favorites are the lead song, "Romeo," and "Big Toe," both by Lord Kitchener. They're both very catchy, with tight horn parts. "Big Toe" tells of a bit of a snuggle fest with the singer's girlfriend, the refrain of which goes, "Don't kiss me so low, Dorothy/Don't kiss me so low, take it easy/ The way you're kissing, if you continue so, you go past me ankle and reach me Big Toe." Silly, but charming.

[Ranald]

Journeybear, I just wondered if "Bonita" might be this song, "Juanita" or "My Sweetheart from Venezuela," recorded by many, including Harry Belafonte. It wouldn't be the first time that the two names have been switched in song. Sorry, no mandolin!

(added: re-reading Post #8, I realize that this isn't likely the same song.)

By the way, the Talbot Brothers seem like a swing band to me, with little if any Calypso feeling, at least on the song posted above. I can picture Bing Crosby or Gene Kelly singing this as he dances about while wooing his damsel on a coach through the park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwYV...oQuartet-Topic

[journeybear]

Yes, no, es differente.

All I have of "Bonita" are very distant memories, yet the words and melody are clear as bells. I'm not sure how that is, as I do not recall having listened to a recording. They may have had records and a listening room, but I don't remember. But it dates back to my formative years, a couple of years into the mandolin journey. I'd been gifted with it at 15, and took some time sorting it out, and finding music to play on it. My best approach was to get the Mel Bay book of mandolin chords, and songbooks from bands whose songs I knew - The Band, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Beatles, Traffic, Jethro Tull, and such (this was the Sixties, you know ) - and correlate these two information streams. But really, what helped me the most, in a way, was going deep into the field across the street from my hose, where I wouldn't bother anyone, and just bash away until I could figure out how to make palatable sounds on the wee beastie. And then, of course, find songs to play.

In the search for more material, I made at least one foray to the library downtown, a mile's walk, and pored through their collection. This is where I found "Bonita," my first blues song, "Brick In My Pillow" (just a surreal description of horrors besetting the singer - and which I found a couple of years ago does exist on youtube), and "Stealin'," my first jug band tune) Spoonful notwithstanding), which would go on to inform my musical development to an extraordinary degree. I don't remember how these and presumably other songs entered my consciousness, though I recall transcribing all eight verses of "Bricks" by hand - yes people, there were no niceties like internet, computers, and printers back in these Days Before.

[Ky Slim]

Oh, sirs. Sirs! I post about original calypso music on the mandolin and you respond with examples of calypso on other instruments, including banjo?

Congrats on the project! Calypso is certainly cool and you are in the spot where you could learn a lot about it from locals.

BUT - Your response to Bren"s constructive suggestions is a little silly and more than a little, well - little.

"Other Instruments"?? C'mon Tenor banjo is such a close cousin to mandolin that it was an excellent suggestion.

Do you mean that if it's not a mandolin you have no appreciation for it?

So if the fiddle was the only instrument playing an old time or a jazz tune you don't even need to try to learn from it because it's not a mandolin? C'mon!

[Ranald]

Someone mentioned Calypso being full of (not so subtle) double entendre. After hearing Bessie Smith singing "Take Me for A Buggy Ride" (a different song from "Bermuda Buggy Ride"), I'm wondering whether "Bermuda Buggy Ride" is as innocent as it first seemed. (I'll drop out of this discussion, I'm getting too far away from the OP.)

[journeybear]

Congrats on the project! Calypso is certainly cool and you are in the spot where you could learn a lot about it from locals.

BUT - Your response to Bren"s constructive suggestions is a little silly ...

Well ... yuh-huh! I was being silly. Hence the overuse of emojis and, well, just the silliness.

Then again, the main point of my post was a show notice. Mentioning the rarity of mandolins in calypso was a sidebar, a starting point for discussion perhaps, but only about that. There are plenty instances of other instruments being used in the genre - arbitrarily close to 100% - and examples of those are beside the point. I did appreciate James' vid clip of Dawg playing a calypso, especially one of his own invention.

Do you mean that if it's not a mandolin you have no appreciation for it?

No. Well, perhaps in this context, specifically, as explained above, yes. Even though this is a secondary concern, re: the OP, I'd like to hear more examples of calypso mandolin. But no one need feel compelled to do so.

The main point, again, was to mention that I've written several tunes in the genre, and was preparing to perform them in a venue that would permit people to hear these rarely performed compositions. That's all.

[catmandu2]

Yes, for real, and don't knock it till you try it. And I'll tell you one thing, or two: It's a bit trickier than you might think, and prettier, too.

I'll admit, I've done precious little research on the subject, though I have heard some bandolim music that sounds like it's in the ballpark. That doesn't keep me from liking the style and how it sounds on the mandolin - even if I have to play it myself in order to hear it. One of the reasons I moved down here was to immerse myself in these happy sounds, only to find hardly anyone here plays island music. There's a bit of reggae, some Latino/Cubano, plenty of trop rock. But the real deal? Not so much.

As discussed, calypso music is widespread in various styles and demographics - its influences range widely throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, right up into early jazz (vis a vis Jelly Roll Morton, and my avatar - Roy Byrd). Finding a 'pure form' of it somewhere may be an unrequited challenge. Instrumentation was a matter of access and convenience - hence the prevalence of guitars and banjos. I play the stuff on accordions, on which we can deploy the nice polyrhythms of Latin music forms.

[journeybear]

Someone mentioned Calypso being full of (not so subtle) double entendre. After hearing Bessie Smith singing "Take Me for A Buggy Ride" (a different song from "Bermuda Buggy Ride"), I'm wondering whether "Bermuda Buggy Ride is as innocent as it first seemed. (I'll drop out of this discussion, I'm getting too far away from the OP.)

Ha ha ha! Meandering is our mainstay at the Forum. And calypso doesn't get discussed much hereabouts. So ...

But yes, double entendre is a longstanding tradition in songwriting of all genres. I have noticed it's rather prevalent in calypso, especially on that album, which is why I mentioned it. It's on my list of all-time favorite albums, for its own sake, and for how it opened my mind to the genre and to certain lyric possibilities.

[journeybear]

As discussed, calypso music is widespread in various styles and demographics - its influences range widely throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, right up into early jazz (vis a vis Jelly Roll Morton, and my avatar - Roy Byrd). Finding a 'pure form' of it somewhere may be an unrequited challenge. Instrumentation was a matter of access and convenience - hence the prevalence of guitars and banjos. I play the stuff on accordions, on which we can deploy the nice polyrhythms of Latin music forms.

Interesting. In that way it bears a resemblance to jug band music, which was banged out on whatever folks could find to, well, bang on. Skiffle, too, perhaps to a lesser extent - chiefly, slapping together basses out of tea chests. After all, steel pans were invented by cutting off the tops of oil drums and hammering out sections to produce distinctive notes.

Someone told me that if I really wanted to learn more about calypso, I should visit Trinidad. He said everywhere you go there are steel pan players, solo and with group of all sizes. I first heard steel pans during a childhood vacation to Antigua or the Virgin Islands, and insisted my dad buy me a little one, a foot across, to take home with me. Guess something got started there.

My first trip to Key West in 1988, I met a steel pan player busking. He was sailing around the Caribbean, and this was how he'd make money, in one port and another. It was fun to watch him tune his pans with a small ball-peen hammer, thereby increasing or decreasing the resonating area of a note. I think my band got him to sit in with us a couple of times.

I figured out a way to adjust the settings on my effects pedals - compressor, mostly - to mimic the sound. That would come in handy on Jimmy Buffett songs and such. My current band plays a fair amount of island or island-y music, and I fill that role just musically, no fiddling with effects. Just a sort of lighter touch, perhaps a bit staccato, and lots of double stops. Fun stuff!

[Ranald]

As long as I have your permission to meander, "Lord Jellicoe and His Calypso Monarchs" provided my introduction to Calypso, in a record my grandparents brought back from a working visit to Jamaica in 1963, a different record from the one below. Over the decades, I copied it to tape, and often listened to it in my car. Being a singer must have been a second career for Lord Jellicoe, following his important role with the British Admiralty in WW II. I think the opening song might have a double meaning that sophisticates with psychology degrees can try to work out.

I don't seem to be able to post the video for this record.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lord...id:vrg9xfr6_bQ

[journeybear]

I believe this is a first - asking a thread starter permission to meander!

AFAIK, "Calypsos For Adam And Eve" has never been released on CD, and at this point, that's unlikely to change. Same with another album, "Theodore Bikel and Geula Gill Sing Folk Songs From Just About Everywhere," another gift from my mom when I was like ten, and it was my introduction to world music. Not all vinyl makes it to CD or other digital formats. Same with "Lotti Golden - Motor-Cycle," an amazing relic from 1969, one of my all-time favorite albums. I believe I've been able to track these down via youtube and elsewhere and download them that way. Thank goodness there are people who take the time to upload such things.

[catmandu2]

As long as I have your permission to meander, "Lord Jellicoe and His Calypso Monarchs" provided my introduction to Calypso, in a record my grandparents brought back from a working visit to Jamaica in 1963, a different record from the one below. Over the decades, I copied it to tape, and often listened to it in my car. Being a singer must have been a second career for Lord Jellicoe, following his important role with the British Admiralty in WW II. I think the opening song might have a double meaning that sophisticates with psychology degrees can try to work out.

I don't seem to be able to post the video for this record.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lord...id:vrg9xfr6_bQ

This is an example of how so many of these styles merged into the 'rhumba' - your basic 3 against 4 tresillo rhythm - with accents of their origins. Pretty much everything came from griot tradition, then popularized and morphing with various treatments - probably with the intent of appealing to tourists. The generic 'rhumba' rhythm is immensely popular - perhaps not like its Hollywood heyday, but still dispersed everywhere. In flamenco, for example, Paco de Lucia popularized the approach - and look at his legacy.

The roots of the music are so vast and rich - emanating from West Africa and the diaspora - and subsequent dispersion and proliferation of forms is a vast field of study. In the Americas, we have these rhythms ingrained in us as children - Jelly Roll termed it 'the Spanish tinge' and elaborated that it's the basis of the jazz feel (syncopation, being the operative).

Anyway...

[journeybear]

PS, Ranald: Don't get thrown by the "Lord" designation. It seems not uncommon for calypso artists to call themselves that. There are two "Lords" on the "Adam And Eve" album. And while there was indeed a Lord Jellicoe, it seems the musician was named Percival Jellicoe Parker. So at least that stage name didn't come from nowhere - just from his parents.

Yeah, the link doesn't work for me, either. Must be disabled. The whole album is up, there! Some classic covers, for sure.

[Ranald]

[QUOTE=journeybear;1896848]PS, Ranald: Don't get thrown by the "Lord" designation. It seems not uncommon for calypso artists to call themselves that. /QUOTE]

Thanks for the information about his name; that surprised me. I didn't really think that many British nobles had second careers as Calypso musicians.

[MandoMaximus]

Does this count?

[Ranald]

Does this count?

No more than it did in Post #7.

[James Vwaal]

Journeybear, I'm thinking that maybe you should approach Hal Leonard about putting together a Calypso Mandolin book and downloadable audio file. Your idea so you are the logical author of said course.