Is calypso terminally ill?
It’s Carnival season in a number of Caribbean locations as well as elsewhere. Trinidad and Tobago’s celebration is of course one of the more popular Caribbean versions of this annual rite. But how ironic that while some have paused to note that this year marks the 50th anniversary of rather memorable happenings that added to the Trinidad Carnival tapestry back in 1956, this is taking place against a backdrop of real concern for the survival of one of the Carnival’s long-standing core constituents, calypso.
Ironic indeed, for it was in 1956 that there was recorded no lesser calypso milestone than the big, brash breakthrough of Slinger Francisco, the redoubtable Mighty Sparrow. To his credit, Sparrow somehow sensed that calypso needed a “take charge” presence and he obviously saw himself possessed of the kind of bravado, not to mention talent, to amply fill the breach. When he performed his legendary “Jean and Dinah” on Carnival Sunday night in 1956, clearly his intent was not merely to win a Calypso King title, which he did handsomely, but to serve notice that Trinidad and Tobago and the world would have to deal henceforth with a new, no-nonsense lord of the manor.