A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 03:34 AM

Azizi, I hope you don't take this as a personal attack, but if I was asking questions on here to start a blog - I don't have time to - there is my schoolwork and preparation for the HSC- Higher School Certificate, the equivalents of SATs- and I wouldn't want a blog anyway until my birthday in October when I would feel safer online- I would almost definitely be blogging to appeal to my school friends, so Mudcat wouldn't be on the radar, except as a casual mention of "what I've been doing with my time" and the thoughts of anyone on here would not be mentioned in detail. My friends follow the latest fashion, to be 'indie" in musical tastes, but I don't think folk music would appeal to them. But I understand your concern- no-one really knows everything about the person they are talking to online. If we did we would all be able to track down each other because we'd know everyone's address and phone number. Sorry if I'm offensive or something.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MikeL2
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 04:39 AM

hi

Don't think too much about it. Just play man play.

We had a calypso period here in the UK in the 50's/60's.

Hell we even had a Manchester United Calypso !!

"Manchester Manchester United.
a team of bouncing Busby Babes.
They deserve to be knighted"    !!!!!

Cheers

Mikel2

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 05:12 AM

It is sometimes possible to be age-inappropriate and get away with it. In Scotland, Siobhan Miller started out singing clearly "adult" songs like "Mickey's Warning" at around the age of 12. I thought this was a bit weird and creepy at the time but seem to have been proved wrong. It probably helped having her father in the background, but she's now one of the most prominent younger singers in the country.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 05:33 AM

Jack,in your opinion, if you learn an art from someone in the tradition, can you eventually become a part of that tradition?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 06:11 AM

Mg, I Googled "Semester At Sea" programs but they seem to be based in America for American university students. As I am Australian, do you have any plausible suggestions for Australians?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 07:53 AM

Jack,in your opinion, if you learn an art from someone in the tradition, can you eventually become a part of that tradition?

If you're learning it from them in person, yes. But it does need two-way interaction. You're part of it when they say you are, not when you think you are.

The Scottish fiddler Angus Grant Jr used to formalize this by giving a tassel to players who met his standards - they'd fasten it to the heads of their fiddles. I still see "Angus tassels" occasionally. Here's one:

Eilidh Shaw's Angus tassel

I see him around Edinburgh occasionally and have played with him, but I think he only gives them to fiddlers and as a multi-wind-player I'd need about 20 of them.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 11:49 AM

I am not a folklorist and know nothing about calypso music...but your question is could you become a traditional calypsonian through lessons, study etc. To me, it would mean that you had grown up in the tradition, someone around you, parents, community, etc. played it or you heard it constantly..it was absorbed from a young age. I think you could become a very good calypsonian through studies, a lesser route, and other types of immersion, but the question is, could you be a traditional one. I would say no, but folklorists here would ahve to say yes or no according to standard definitions. I would say you should follow your heart when it comes to music, go into as much depth as you can, sing it, share it, perform it, and you will probably become quite expert and you obviously have the heart for it...but will you be traditional? Probably no more than I could be a traditional flamenco dancer. It is just not my tradition, nor was I born into an area where I absorbed other people's traditions..which is interesting..there is ethnic heritage and there is also something I think called..I am making this up right now, but probably someone already has..geographical heritage. My ethnic heritage is Irish and other British Isles, Welsh, Cornish and some mixed..my geographical heritage is clearly Scandinavian-American. So could I be considered a traditional hardangar fiddle player? A traditional rosemaler? I don't know...? I mean if I had any skills whatsoever. I love rosemaling..or the concept of it..I would rosemal everything I owned. mg

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 12:18 PM

I'm sure that if you could trace your ancestry far enough back,mg, you would find some Scandinavians.

Consider the geology of it. In the last Ice Age, the British Isles were covered by hundreds of feet of ice. About 14,000 years ago, it was gone. Humans had to repopulate the islands from mainland Europe. Scandinavia was no doubt a stopover on the way.

So enjoy your rosemaling and hardanger fiddle. Wonderful things, both of them.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 12:27 PM

I think there might be something like a psychic heritage, where people are just really drawn to, and probably feel a profound connection with another culture. I remember a story about a little girl adopted from China and her mother wanted to expose her to her Chinese heritage and she just was not that interested. Then she saw some Irish stepdancers and asked for lessons. Mother said no, but then girl kept practicing in the bathroom and trying to do it on her own so mother relented. I think that really does take place, where you really feel at home with either an entire culture or parts of it. There are some universal things going on that we can't understand. mg

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 12:34 PM

Could you make a tradtional bread and butter pudding? Yes

Could you become a traditional bread and butter pudding maker. Not really - you'd always be an arriviste - a revivalist of the traditional bread and butter pudding making techniques.

so would you live your life in the shadows, a failure by your own standards because you were merely a wannabe - your aspirations dashed by a cruel twist of fate - an accident of birth and cultural background? For some people , that is the case. i don't suppose all those people who joined the Hitler youth - set out wanting to be categorised as the scumbags of history.

we all have to acquit ourselves as best we can, and hope for the best. that's life. that's the deal we all have.

Even poor old Gibb Sahib is on his way to learning something (albeit in a rather juvenile judgemental way)

if you feel you have a contribution to make as a calypso singer - just go for it. learn as much as as you can in the process. you may not end up with exactly what you aim for, but if you commit all your creative effort and are generous with the energy you expend - you'll end up with something worthwhile and interesting. At very least, you will learn a lot about yourself, about music, and a lot about YOUR community - which is the environs you will be working in as an artist. And your community (you will find) will be the determinant of your art - not some tradtional faraway one you can only read about or at best, live alongside.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 12:38 PM

http://www.semesteratsea.org/academic-life/academic-community/international-universities.php

I think semester at sea is accredited through some Australian and other international universities.

You might consider, as you pick a college, or you probably already have, whether they have programs that allow some international experience as part of the curriculum. Do you know what your major will be? mg

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 05:13 PM

Yes (warning- thread drift alert) but what about Fiona Graham, the Australian woman I mentioned above? She is a clearly "traditional geisha", isn't she, even if she isn't Japanese? As I said before, she may not be doing things in completely the traditional way, but she went to Japan as an exchange student and was able to speak Japanese well enough so that the geisha community of Tokyo would accept her and she started out as a maiko (apprentice- a long apprenticeship, according to some websites with this information, although in Tokyo apparently, it can take only up to about a year), although the oldest geisha community is in Kyoto. Anyway the point is, to me (and I realise this is quite different to everyone else's definitions), a traditional artist of any artform is one that goes directly to the source of their art, learns extensively and directly from practitioners with an extensive knowledge of the tradition, often immersing themselves in the culture (if it isn't their birth one) for long periods of time, and is accepted in the tradition by the practitioners and people around them, as well as going through whatever training is needed to be accepted. Preferably they would grow up in that tradition, but as I said above, for me, they only need to be well accepted by a community and by traditional artists as being part of the tradition to be traditional.
Mg, can you give me a link to the Chinese flamenco dancer story? I assume it is a news or magazine article?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 05:33 PM

http://www.youthradio.org/oldsite/society/kpfa040320_irish.shtml">Adopted Girl Irish Step Dancing - could this be the girl you were talking about mg?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 05:48 PM

Let me try that again:http://www.youthradio.org/oldsite/society/kpfa040320_irish.shtml">Adopted Girl Irish Step Dancing<. It's not a blicky- why isn't this link working? The "Scarlet Ribbons" one worked.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 07:17 PM

Never mind. I found the article in a PDF.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 08:12 PM

I think we are operating under different definitions of traditional. I would call what you are talking about more "in the traditional style" or something similar, rather than traditional per se, but I am sure folklorists have a definition that they tend to apply to this question, as it undoubtedly comes up off. mg

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 08:45 PM

Okay, so I want to do what I want to do "in the traditional style" as opposed to a revivalist style.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 08:52 PM

According to you, mg, at least. I think it's a good term for people who have different definitions of "traditional" to use. If you are performing or watching music being performed in the traditional style, I think it's a very different experience from performing, or watching music performed in a "revival style", which is more modern.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 23 Apr 11 - 10:28 PM

too long a thread to read & respond to..

I don't care,I'll just absorb and refine whatever stimulates me..

I'm too proud to put on a pretend accent or fake a persona that's not me

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 12:08 AM

that was not what I had read but a similar story...I think it is basically good to cross-pollinate music, art etc.. basically, usually etc. mg

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 01:45 AM

Would this be it? Certainly it seems like the same girl as in the commentary on the Youth Radio site that I linked to. It certainly fits your description of what you read. On page 6 of the PDF: "Dancing To Her Music".
http://www.fccne.org/news/ccapril2003.pdf. It is a reprint of an article originally published in a magazine in 2002. I like your description of a "psychic heritage"- I suppose that means a kind of strong "mental link" where a person feels a strong cultural connection to another culture.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,glueman
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 03:59 AM

Psychic heritage sounds like it could be useful. Does anyone born after WW2 have their own traditions? Very doubtful, they're almost all adopted. Don't fret over it.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 04:13 AM

So basically

1) You're from Australia

2) You want to sing calypso in a funny accent, having a 'mental link' with the folk musicians of trinidad

3) You want to be accorded the status of an authentic primary source folk artist like sam larner, john reilly, leadbelly.

4) however you wil settle for the status of an 'in the traditional style' type revivalist like martin carthy, nic jones, etc.

Best of luck!

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 05:09 AM

This might be contentious, but I did say a few things some posts up about being able to pick up accents after being around people from a different country for a while. So I imagine that after being in Trinidad for a number of years (and if I was lucky, being surrounded by only Trinidadians for that period) my accent would be so different that when I returned to Australia, people would say "You have a Caribbean accent'. So my accent would be different to Australians, and I would be totally unconscious of it unless it was pointed out to me. So if you're saying my Australian accent would be funny in calypso, it would depend on how long I'd been there and how much I was actually talking with Trinidadians. "Mental link", "psychic heritage"- possibly not the best choices of words, but I was trying to describe the situation of being drawn to another culture that you are not connected to by ethnicity or in my case, nationality. And having "the status of an "in the traditional style type revivalist" is the closest I'd get to the tradition- if I was a "traditional style type revivalist", trained by Trinidad calypsonians, wouldn't you say that's a good thing? After all, I'd be learning in the tradition, be accepted in the tradition.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 05:28 AM

To be a revivalist like carthy would be a very worthy ambition. Better get practising! When he was your age, he had a residency at The Troubadour in London.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:01 AM

But then again, culture is very much down to the individual - even an individual like Martin Carthy - but all culture & tradition is the sum total of individial action, continuity and innovation. As an English Person my personal culture reflects all sorts of international idioms & inspirations that determine my individuality, but let's not rock the banana boat here...

Tell me, how does Calypso fare in the 21st Century? Is it alive and kicking ass (like Hip-Hop and Reggae and their diverse & innumerable offspring) - or is it stuck in an MOR easy-listening limbo of post-modern precious-purist revivalism (like much of Folk appears to be)?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:54 AM

I think we are operating under different definitions of traditional. I would call what you are talking about more "in the traditional style" or something similar

mg has a point - Irish dancing is not really comparable. It's highly formalized, and has an organizational structure designed to promote it (as codified by the relevant bodies) on an international scale. If you do it according to the rulebook, you're in. Whether your network of social contacts includes anybody with a personal link to Irish dancers from Ireland doesn't come into it.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 05:55 PM

There are certainly calypsonians still singing and composing. The Mighty Sparrow, for example, is certainly still performing. That's the point- can you be a revivalist if the tradition you want to perform in is still "alive and kicking?" I'd say no, you are a traditional artist if you are trained directly and accepted by traditional artists in a living tradition. Jack, your point about "having a network of personal contacts" certainly makes this more comparable to becoming a geisha. Traditionally, geishas had a personal link to an okiya (geisha house). Like Fiona Graham, the Australian geisha, I may have to go on foreign exchange (she went there first when she was 15) to find a calypsonian who may agree to train me.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:15 PM

Unless there is an easier way to get in contact with a tradition bearer.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 08:46 PM

Somehow the original question keeps reminding me of proposing to join a family you admire, doing everything they do, developing the same family tales, recounting the same memories, learning the same accents and idioms- and then asking if you do that long enough will you be a bona fide member of the family.

The answer, of course, would be "no". You may be accepted by them and by the world but the differences will always be there.

Not that I think that is a bad thing.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 10:31 PM

Well, Ebbie, that's true, except the family analogy doesn't really work. With a family, if you married one of the members, you would become a member. By marriage, but still a member. Or if you got adopted into the family as a child, you would be a member by adoption. That doesn't make you any less a "real" family member.
With being a calypsonian, you can't marry into the tradition and become a calypsonian. You may decide to keep the tradition alive in your family, but if your child doesn't want to be a calypsonian, they're not. But in a family, your child is still a member of your family whether they want to be or not. You're a member of a family without choosing.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 02:02 AM

And anyway, the differences between her and other geishas didn't matter to Fiona Graham, nor to the people who trained her, when she started her training. So yeah, they'd still be there. But they didn't matter in the way she was trained. She was trained and treated in the same way as a Japanese woman who wanted to be a geisha. There are some differences in things like how she and a Kyoto-trained geisha tie an obi (kimono sash) and how long the period until her debut was. But those are differences in tradition- she's still a geisha.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 02:21 PM

You get more options with calypso's descendant, rap. There so many variants of it now that no sort of central tradition exists any more. People rap in just about every language on earth. It's probably the most rapidly globalized musical idiom there has ever been.   I just checked on YouTube with a bunch of small nations and minority cultures:

Burushaski Rap
Ossetian Rap
Abkhaz Rap
Korean rap video dubbed into Hmong (I think)
Fijian Indian rap (English/Punjabi?)

At what point would an attempt to do calypso in geographic and cultural isolation simply become a reinvention of rap?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 06:27 PM

Imagine you're in a folk club in Edinburgh, and you hear two floor singers in succession. The first, you happen to know, has lived in the area all his life, as did his parents and grandparents before him; his speaking accent is identical to the accent he uses to mumble his way through "Flower of Scotland". The second has only recently moved to Scotland, where nobody knows him apart from his partner; he sings a heart-rending version of "Young Waters" in an accent that's textbook-perfect but utterly false.

Which of these is going to get the better reception?

The answer is, of course, that it will depend on the club, and on who's in that night. Similarly, in your case, you can't hope to call yourself a calypsonian without being accepted by calypso audiences and fellow calypso artists - and we can't possibly know whether they'll accept you or not. Sometimes the answer is "if you have to ask you'll never know" - in this case it's "if you have to ask, you have to ask".

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 06:52 PM

"If you have to ask, you'll never know" means "Just jump in and do it" while "If you have to ask, you have to ask" means "Make sure you ask people and are accepted by them" which is also for reasons of cultural respect. I think that's one of the best pieces of advice I got on this thread. Thanks, Pip Radish.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,glueman
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 03:08 AM

If you're from outside the tradition ME1, you stand a greater chance of being a song carrier into places it would never normally reach. Purists might rant that song has no business outside that tradition but they're wrong of course.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Marle
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 08:08 PM

Please stop thinking and start acting. You are doing what I used to do, putting barricades in your mind that prevent you from living your dream. You can not offend anybody by trying when you are young and talented. I am Dutch and from age 21 I knew I wanted to sing (and I did write one) calypso. I never did it, stupid me. Look at "Orquesta de la Luz" a Japanese salsa band, they became famous all over the world. And there are some Japanese steelbands who are starting to get fame too. Girl if you have the guts, do it! Live is too short to overthink everything.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 09:26 PM

Thanks, GUEST Marle.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 07:07 AM

I collect, preserve, and create new spirituals. (I'm quite white.) I've written here before about how I sing 'em.... just do what you can, as you can, and learn from people around you what is OK or off for them. Find the place inside you where you can sing authentically, no matter the cultural source, and go there. It's all good.

~Susan

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Apr 11 - 07:09 AM

Oh and PS, black friends have claimed me as friend from my singing (Spirituals workshops, etc.), and sung along with me. Not because I did it "right" (yes I asked), but because I seemed "fearless." THAT was a surprise!

~Susan

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 25 Jun 11 - 08:18 AM

I don't think you should have any such qualms. As An Irish trad singer playing in the UK my music has long now been acceoted as a part of the Folk scene, and the British Folk scene in particular has evolved from being somewhat insular to widely accepting and welcoming all kinds of Ethnic cultural music. So the more the merrier I say

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 25 Jun 11 - 08:37 AM

Thanks, Desi C, for sharing that (late, but still appreciated) opinion! Could someone get rid of prchecker's post, please?

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Musket
Date: 25 Jun 11 - 09:22 AM

Just had a scan down a few posts since my last one and I reckon this is a thread with no definitive consensus. In fact when I see somebody stating that if you disagree with them you must be a troll, (still haven't worked out what that means...) I get very bored very quickly.

However, it is an interesting thread title and I have been thinking about it, hence this observation.

We may be discussing "other" musical traditions, but we are still being very parochial. I am me, and "me" has a few guitars (+ banjos etc but I digress.) When I was a teenager, I would be playing in a punk band in pubs and clubs Saturday and Sunday night, then playing "folk" in a folk club on a Sunday, Monday etc. It is still me, it is still my songs about my experiences. In the punk band, we did rock up a few jigs & reels and I have always slowed down a few rock classics when doing a folk turn.

I play in a local folk club regularly alongside a banjo player from South Yorkshire who comes originally from Wales and plays American banjo and fiddle songs, usually with Chicken in the title. Is anybody here seriously saying Banjo Ray has no place in the folk scene? I might be expendable but talent such as his is to be celebrated...

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 25 Jun 11 - 04:35 PM

Just want to echo what some others have said here.

OWN what you sing. If it moves you, sing it.

A friend of mine used to get requests for "Blood and Fire", a song from the Indigo Girls, all the time. He is neither Indigo nor a girl, and admits himself to not be the best singer in the world, but he loves the song and sings it powerfully.

Do what you love... the great achievers in life, no matter what their skill or trade, did (and do) what they love, and it shows through.

Best of luck to you!

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 30 Jun 11 - 11:58 PM

This is the blog post I mentioned in my 21 April 11 post.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 12:00 AM

Chop-Tensils "On Cultural Appropriation" .

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 07:32 AM

" I have a knack for picking up accents in a short time. I have a friend from the Southern US, who came to my school in Year 9 (not that long ago- 2008) and after a while, I would find myself talking in a similar way to her. So I expect if i went to Trinidad, I may find myself being asked what part of the country I am from after a long period there"

see this is where I think you might come unstuck. do you intend to sing calypso in a Trinidadian accent? I seriously advise against this.

If I sing an Irish song, I don't put on an Irish accent. If I sing a Scottish song, I don't put on a Scots accent. Irrespective of how "well" I might be able to do it. It's just naff. I wouldn't consider it a badge of pride if a listener listened to it and assumed I was Irish or Scottish. I'd consider it a waste of time, and a bit weird.

Are you going to sing all your "the"s as "de"s? Like Diana Coupland, the white English actress who dubbed Ursula Andress singing "Under de mango tree" in Dr No?

Listen to John faulkner's "turtle calypso" on the otherwise brilliant Bagpuss album. OK, it's a children's song, but it's painfully dated. You can bet the people that do the voices for 'Rastamouse' aren't white RADA actors.

When black Londoners first started rapping in the 1980s, most of them put on American accents. They sounded rubbish. London Posse took a lot of flak for rapping in their East End cockney accents. All the people into hip-hop laughed at them, thinking they sounded ridiculous. Ten years later, time has totally proved London Posse were right all along, as now rappers all rap in their own accents, whether they're from Cardiff or Peckham. Nobody raps in someone else's accent.

Sing your calypso songs in your own accent, or you'll always be a cabaret act.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 07:59 AM

also, I'm not really sure how much traditional calypso still exists in the West Indies (outside of the tourist/heritage/hotel circuit). Soca is huge of course, but that has about as much in common with old-school calypso (Mighty Sparrow et al) as present-day dancehall has to traditional reggae. It's digital, bass-heavy party music, not dissimilar to reggaeton.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 07:26 PM

Singing songs in a cabaret or somewhere similar is not exactly what I had in mind. I'm thinking of going to Trinidad (or Costa Rica) to learn calypso from people like The Mighty Sparrow and get a chance to perform in a tent.

Subject: RE: A very uncomfortable question- perform other trads
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Jul 11 - 09:45 PM

200