Calypso Awakening

Track List

Saturday Night Blowout The John Buddy Williams Band
Carnival Celebration Small Island Pride
Booboo Man Lord Melody
Federation Small Island Pride
No, Doctor No The Mighty Sparrow
Taxi Driver Small Island Pride
Tuning of a Ping Pong Unknown artist
Yankees Gone Steel band procession
Yankees Gone (Jean & Dinah) The Mighty Sparrow
Picong Duel The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody
Cowboy Sparrow Lord Melody
Reply to Melody The Mighty Sparrow
Carnival Proclamation Lord Melody
P.A.Y.E The Mighty Sparrow
Turn Back, Melody Lord Melody
Teresa The Mighty Sparrow
Come Go, Calcutta Lord Melody
No Crime, No Law Commander
He No Dead Yet King Fighter
Bongo Man Wrangler
Neighbor Jacqueline Wrangler

Calypso Awakening
from the Emory Cook Collection

Live Recordings 1956 - 1962
67 minutes.

eCaroh Price: $15.95

A flourishing of Calypso creativity, a dramatic period in Trinidad's history and an audio engineer inspired these exciting tracks, originally released on Cook Records between 1956 and 1962. Emory Cook used innovative recording techniques to capture the active interplay between calypsonians and their audiences. We hear classic song-duels between calypso legends like The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody, lively steel band processions, and a wide range of provocative calypso songs about life, love and politics. Live and studio recordings from Trinidad. 32 page booklet presents notes, song texts, Cook discography, bibliography. 67 minutes.

CD Recording Description

The 32 page booklet presents notes and song texts of recordings taken from the Emory Cook collection.

We hear classic song-duels between calypso legends like The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody, lively steel band processions, and a wide range of provocative calypso songs about life, love and politics. Live and studio recordings from Trinidad.

Review

Calypso Awakening captures a period of artistry that we have come to hold in very high regard. The combination of studio and live recordings from the Cook Collection feature classic songs by Sparrow, Melody and Small Island Pride. Other performances include King Fighter's "He Nah Dead Yet" and the live steelband rendition of "Yankees Gone", later renamed by Sparrow as "Jean and Dinah".

The superb live recordings place the listener in the audience at the tents and among the steelband chippers on the streets as far back as fifty years ago. One does not have to guess what it was like then. Calypso Awakening takes you there. [March 2006 - eCaroh/Ron]

Track List

Calypso Awakening from the Emory Cook Collection

Calypso Awakening
from the Emory Cook Collection