A post Middle Passage West African Griot wouldn't be far from a cantor/calypsonian imo.

Ref: Cowley – Carnival, Canboulay & Calypso, 1996 (most quotable I've found so far)

The index combines – chant(er), chantrel(s), chantuelles, chantwells(s), Maitre Chantrel & shâtwél.

No Cantor(s).

On Shanties

"Some cultural traits continued (>1838), such as the call and response singing of work songs, including shanties (chanties)." (p.5)

"In general, drum dances feature call and response singing, with the lead singer improvising verses to a common chorus. The chantwell can be male or female, as may be the chorus, and the form is generally accepted as African in origin.

Ranging from sea shanties to communal self-help, such as gayap in Trinidad, manual labour gangs used call and response singing. Work songs were employed on plantations and in prison farms (in the United States) and other forms of occupation, or enslavement, where rhythmic work was necessary. Improvisation by a lead singer was usual in these collective songs with the chantwell's." (p.230)

The terms and definitions are 1996 Cowley.