Calypso War (part 1)

Audio file
Date recorded: December 21, 1946
Contributor(s): Performer: Unidentified; Performer: Simeon; Performer: Pacheco, Victor; Performer: Morris, Albert; Performer: MacDonald, Patrick (Macbeth the Great); Performer: Grant, Rupert (Lord Invader); Performer: Felix, Gregory; Performer: DeLeon; Performer: Clark, Hi; Performer: Clark, Gerald; Performer: Anderson, Cecil (Duke of Iron); Recordist: Lomax, Alan
Subject(s):
Genre: calypso
Culture: Afro-Trinidadian, Trinidad
Instruments: bass (double), chac chac, clarinet, drum(s), fiddle, guitar (acoustic), piano, voice
Setting: Calypso At Midnight concert, Town Hall
Location: New York City, New York, United States
Physical form: Reel to Reel
Tape number: TD227
Track Number: 55
Archive ID: TD227R55
Note: Notes from Rounder Records release "Calypso After Midnight" read: "A calypso war is a duel in song between several singers. Based on an earlier tradition, this sort of improvised calypso became popular at the turn of the century. From his first session in New York in 1927 Wilmoth Houdini began recording songs challenging his rivals in Trinidad. He was the only major New York based calypsonian before World War II, and until 1934 he monopolized the 'exchange.' From 1935, one year after island songsters began traveling regularly to New York to make records, a series of calypso wars against Houdini was recorded. Atilla, Lion, Caresser, Tiger, and Executor all contributed to this retaliation. Very few examples of more than one performer singing against another have been preserved. Alan Lomax recorded two performances in this style with the Growing Tiger and other songsters in Trinidad in 1962 (Rounder CD 1717)."
Belongs to: New York City 12/46
About the session: A live recording of "Calypso At Midnight," a concert held at Town Hall, New York City, on December 21, 1946. Learning that Town Hall could be rented cheaply after regular theater hours, Alan Lomax produced a late-night concert series called The Midnight Special, which was thematically organized as "Blues At Midnight," "Ballads At Midnight," etc., and sponsored by the People's Songs Collective. The calypso concert recordings, made at Lomax's request and later found by chance in a closet by Bess Lomax Hawes, may be the only extant documents of this series. "This concert is a fascinating document of an American presentation of Trinidadian calypso at a time when interest in the genre was spreading from New York City into the mainstream of popular music in the United States" (Donald R. Hill and John H. Cowley, Calypso At Midnight [Rounder CD 1860])
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