Shadow found music in the forests

After leaving his grandparents' modest home in Les Coteaux, Tobago, Winston Makalan Bailey often gravitated to the nearby forests, presumably to connect with nature.

The young Bailey, who would become the Shadow in later years, communed there for hours at intervals, sleeping under the stars and moon–an experience which enabled him to unearth the musical genius that has mesmerised thinkers and party-goers alike for decades, longtime friend Opoku Ware told Sunday Newsday.

"When you are close to nature, you are close to God. That period of his life enabled him to dig deep within his soul and nurtured his musical talents."

Indeed, Bailey's repertoire, which captured everything from poverty and gambling to obeah and relationships, was heavily influenced by the Africanness of Les Coteaux, its spirituality, dance, tambrin drum rhythms and norms.

To compound matters, his grandfather was a choir master, an upstanding and respected man in the village.

"So, he (Bailey) had an early grounding and developed culturally and artistically in Tobago, hence the reason why his music is influenced by that kind of drum beat and rhythm."

But even before venturing on his own, Ware said Bailey, who was born in Belmont, Trinidad but grew up in Tobago, was captivated by calypso.

Bailey, he recalled, once said: "The first time I heard a calypso song on a gramophone record player, I was amazed and asked what is that music and fell in love with it immediately."

Ware said Bailey, then a brilliant student at Les Coteaux Government Primary School, was often seen "pounding out rhythms on his bucket while going to fetch water for the home."

Even then, he said, Bailey had vowed to travel the world singing calypso.

A Tobago columnist, cultural activist and one-time promoter, Ware was a member of Bailey's inner circle, a friendship that spanned more than four decades.

He said he spoke to Bailey from Tobago for several hours a day, the last occasion being just two weeks ago.

Bailey, 77, died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, on Monday, after suffering a stroke on the weekend.

The calypso icon was to be conferred yesterday with a Doctor of Letters degree at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies for his contribution as a music composer.

Ware said while he respected David Rudder, Roy Cape, Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) and other artistes who have received prestigious titles, Bailey's contribution, in his mind, had surpassed theirs.

"Shadow was light years ahead and you will wait now to give him a doctorate. After Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) and Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), Shadow is the man that should have been given that. But they keep the man suffering all the time."

Ware said the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Tobago, should be named after Bailey.

"And if they name a room at the complex after him, that will be a cultural crime and an insult against the great man."

Ware told Sunday Newsday he first saw Bailey on stage during one of his performances in Trinidad in 1973.

"I was so fascinated by him and I arranged to see him and made the link. I was impressed by his dynamism on stage and realised he was bringing a revolutionary concept to calypso music."

Two years later, in 1975, he invited Bailey and other calypsonians to perform at a Good Friday show on Piggott Street, Scarborough.

"We wanted to defy the concept of calypso not being sung in Lent because that was a type of unwritten norm that calypso should not be sung in Lent. So, I got these conscious calypsonians."

Ware said while James Brown, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin were leading the revolution in African-American soul music in the US in the 60s and 70s, Bailey was the man who transformed calypso music in the early 70s and impacted its development in the modern era.

"Shadow had introduced the drum beat and bass and magnificent horn lines while men like (Ras) Shorty were still imitating Sparrow (Slinger Francisco)."

Passionate about the artform, Ware said Bailey, who once led the Master's Den calypso tent, was bent on breaking Sparrow and Kitchener's dominance in calypso.

He recalled: "Between 1963 and 1973, only Sparrow and Kitchener won the Road March in TT and no other calypsonian could have broken through that long span between these men. But when Shadow left Tobago, his intention was to challenge them."

Ware said Bailey's songs from 1971 to 1973–The Threat, Trouble in 72 and Carry Me By The Obeah Man–were conceptualised with this aim.

He said in 1974, Bailey "turned the whole place upside down" with Bass Man and I Come Out To Play.

"So, what he in fact did was to expand the base of calypso music. He gave it a wider musical dimension because before that calypsonians never used to have bass sheets but chord sheets. If you check the history of the music, Shadow was the calypsonian influencing others."

Ware said Bailey's work has also influenced the current crop of entertainers.

"If you check the bass lines in that song, it was similar to Shadow's bass line."

Saying Bailey's contribution to calypso was enormous, Ware said Bailey was a humble man who was often misunderstood.

"Shadow was a very spiritual guy, perceptive and deep guy. But he was a simple man. Some people might misunderstand him. But when you get to know Shadow, he is a simple, warm, loving human being."

Ware said this disposition allowed Bailey to survive in what he regarded as the cut-throat business of calypso.

"The calypso business is a very brutal business. So, for a man with his personality to go to Trinidad, which is still a class-based society, and dominate to fight through the kind of pressures he went through, it was not easy. Because within the very calypso fraternity, there was a lot of fight down."

He recalled a time when Bailey was prevented from singing in tents in Trinidad.

Ware said Bailey also experienced difficulty in making his recordings.

"Opportunities for proper recordings were difficult, like Dingolay was produced when (Robert) Amar had his studio and Yuh Looking For Horn and Stranger was done in a studio in Sea Lots."

Ware claimed when "certain elements" in Trinidad recognised the strides he was making, they went into the studio and destroyed his music.

"That frustrated him because he sometimes could not find the place to make the songs he wanted to make."

Ware contends calypso is not truly respected in TT.

"We are the land of calypso and we still having a calypso history month. That should be a year-round thing. You think you will hear Jamaica having a reggae history month or America having a country and western history month.

"We still believe in putting calypso in a corner. They just have it for Carnival and that is why the artform not growing."