1962
In 1962 the British West Indies were on the verge of independence. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and sponsorship from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Alan Lomax arranged to record the music of the Lesser Antilles, the chain of islands that form the south-eastern edge of the Caribbean. His idea was to document the musical and cultural commonalities that would support the Trinidadian and Jamaican plan for post-colonial Caribbean unity, which they hoped to realize through a West Indian Federation. He also wished to extend the Caribbean research he had begun in the Bahamas (1935) and Haiti (1937). This collection samples the rich linguistic and stylistic variety of then still-living and growing folk traditions in the Caribbean, rooted in West and Central Africa, Britain, France, Spain, Central America, and the Bhojpuri region of India. Work songs of numerous types, lullabies, pass-play songs, antique French ballads, chant-fables, beguines, Shango, Nation dances, chaupai, steel band music, funerary music, Doption, anthems, string band (a-cling a-ling), tamboo-bamboo, parang, and calypso were recorded on portable stereo equipment. Folklorist J. D. Elder, Minister of Culture for Trinidad under Eric Williams, worked with Alan Lomax on the project; other collaborators included Dan Crowley, Roger Abrahams (Nevis and St. Kitts), and Derek Walcott (St. Lucia). Antoinette Marchand and Anna Lomax assisted.
During his Caribbean fieldwork, Alan Lomax took photos and color slides to accompany his audio recordings. They focus on music and dance traditions of the Eastern Caribbean and Lesser Antilles: Martinique, Trinidad, Grenada, Dominica, Carriacou, Guadaloupe, Nevis, St. Barts, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Anguilla. The collection includes images of schoolchildren singing and dancing at their games; stick fighting sequences and tug-of-war matches accompanied by drummers; chante-fable, or story-song performances; the Big Drum Dance of Carriacou; boat-pulling and sawing songs; Shango ceremonies; and the Shouter Baptist and East Indian communities of Trinidad.
During his Caribbean fieldwork, Alan Lomax took photos and color slides to accompany his audio recordings. They focus on music and dance traditions of the Eastern Caribbean and Lesser Antilles: Martinique, Trinidad, Grenada, Dominica, Carriacou, Guadaloupe, Nevis, St. Barts, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Anguilla. The collection includes images of schoolchildren singing and dancing at their games; stick fighting sequences and tug-of-war matches accompanied by drummers; chante-fable, or story-song performances; the Big Drum Dance of Carriacou; boat-pulling and sawing songs; Shango ceremonies; and the Shouter Baptist and East Indian communities of Trinidad.