Roosevelt in Trinidad: Calypsos of Events, Places and Personalities, 1933-1939

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: March 23, 1999
• Total Time: 72:47
• Type: Collection (various artists), Lyrics are included with the album
• Genre: Reggae

Review

Phil Ochs once referred to his broadside folk as "All the news that's fit to sing," but Trinidad's calypso singers had the Greenwich Village folkie beat by several decades. The calypsos that were composed every year for Carnival functioned both as irresistible dance tunes and as smart, often satiric synopses of the previous year's noteworthy events. The 25 calypsos collected on the excellent Roosevelt in Trinidad are a solid mix of news stories, including somber retellings of local disasters like "Trinidad Hurricane" and more lighthearted sports stories like the cricket match calypso "M.C.C. vs. West Indies." There are calls to political action like the stirring "West Indian Federation" (by the Atilla, who also wrote the title track, one of the most famous calypsos of its time) and humorous stories about easily recognizable figures like the sinning parson in "Unfortunate Bridegroom." Thanks to both its colonization by Great Britain and its proximity to the United States (almost all of these calypsos were in fact recorded in New York City for American labels and imported back into the West Indies), the popular culture of Trinidad at this time was a curious mixture of adoration for cricket and the British royal family (several tracks, including the classic abdication song "Edward the VIII" by the Caresser, are about the House of Windsor) and all-American interests like "Movie Stars" and "The Four Mills Brothers." Helpfully, the extended liner notes include not only full lyrics, but extensive footnoting explaining now-forgotten personalities and translating the bits of French Creole that pop up here and there. An utterly charming collection, Roosevelt in Trinidad is an excellent introduction to the world of historical calypso. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi

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