Gypsy gets basics right

AFTER a day of intense talks with Caricom peers to try to diffuse political tensions in Venezuela, the Prime Minister unwound on Friday night at the launch of the Back To Basics calypso tent run by Winston “Gypsy” Peters, National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman. Dressed casually in a short-sleeve shirt and unencumbered by bodyguards, Dr Rowley mingled freely with guests and lapped up the night’s fare. However, he declined to comment on Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido’s earlier rejection of offers of mediation to that country’s political crisis.

At one point when Peters sang, he hailed Rowley. “The Prime Minister, my friend, is one man who doesn’t mind listening to the truth. He listens to real calypso.”

Among the packed house at Roslyn Hall, Auzonville Road, Tunapuna, were Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, and People’s National Movement leading lights Andrew Gabriel, Terry Rondon and Ray Brathwaite.

A big surprise for guests was Peters’ choice of MC, none other than High Court judge Justice Malcolm Holdip. “I’m enjoying myself,” he said, saying it was his first time performing publicly. Throughout the three-hour show, Holdip proved you can be witty without being crass. For example, he assured guests the night’s first singer, Ramesh the Pirate (real name Rudolph Ramdeen) was not to be confused with any other individual, prompting chuckles in the crowd.

The laughter continued when Ramesh, in a rendition called Happiness, sung of his mission to supply lonely women with “ha-pi-niss.” He got an encore.

Josanne Rodriguez, said by Holdip to be just five foot, three inches, was a dynamo of energy in her rousing delivery of a social commentary, Inside. This lamented that while white-collar bigwigs ride high, black youths languish inside jail. The crowd encored her chanting, “Inside! Inside!”

Guests whipped out cell-phones to capture the stage antics of one performer introduced by Holdip. “He is known as the road march king of North Korea, but I’ve had the Ministry of National Security check him out and he’s from Claxton Bay,” Holdip jested. Enter Rex East, real name Carlisle Chen.

People loved the zaniness of his lyrics and dance moves, and erupted in wild cheers.

Gary “M’ba” Thomasos cooled the mood in his social commentary, Power mongers. “Kamla fighting to win power, Rowley wish he could be boss forever.” With the Prime Minister seated just feet away, guests chuckled. The song also warned of worshippers, threatened with hell-fire, quickly coughing up their religious tithes.

The mood lightened with Jerrod “Bongo Spear” Johnson who sung of his obsession with a succulent La Brea Girl and Donkey Stones, only for Holdip to then assure guests these are the names of two local mango varieties.

Holdip boasted that while the tent had just opened, it had three past calypso monarchs, namely Gypsy, Luta and Tobago Crusoe.

Gypsy broke tent tradition of performing last but came on early, singing the offhanded Faking Country and the introspective When Elephants Fight.

A former culture minister, he spelt out the continuing cycle of politics, in the latter song. “This government blame the last government; the last government blame the one before; and the next government going to blame this government.” Saying people kept asking how he had got Holdip in his tent, Peters punned that the judge had simply “judged the tent to be genuine.”

He later said Daniel “Trinidad Rio” Brown had named the tent Back To Basics, as he also related a tent manager’s power to give stage-names to calypsonians such as by saying, “You look like a scrunter.” The crowd laughed.

Donrick “Funny” Williamson sang Certain Things in his trademark deadpan voice.

Despite the Prime Minister’s presence, Funny humorously sang, “Politicians talking and feeling so swell; It reminds me they is ‘class’ without the ‘c’ and ‘l’.” All laughed.

Now a teenager, former children’s calypso monarch Aaron Duncan, showed a continuing evolution of style moving on from soca to offer his lively ragga-soca Back to Basics.

Holdip introduced Ortniel “Tobago Crusoe” Bacchus as returning to the stage after 28 years abroad, who said, “How good is it to be here tonight.” He detailed all the great events of modern history that calypsonians over the years had Recorded in Kaiso. Recalling the late Kelvin “Duke” Pope’s critique of apartheid, How Many More Must Die, and Gypsy’s social commentary Little Black Boy, Crusoe asked, “Where is our hall of fame?”

He got a great reception. Crusoe said he did not want to have to sing his second song, but that he must. It’s title? Too much bandits.

Morel “King Luta” Peters gave an amusing yet incisive commentary on how lifestyles and social values have changes in TT over the years.

Singing that yesteryear a tattoo was an animal to be hunted for food, Luta quipped, “But today tattoo is a set of demonic paintings all over your body.”

With the backing band giving this song an introduction based on the Bassman, Luta briefly paid tribute to the late Winston “Shadow” Bailey and the late Winston “De Fosto” Scarborough.

Back on-stage again, M’ba also paid tribute to Shadow in a performance supported by two moko jumbies. In What the ghost says, he spoke of getting advice from the great beyond on how to win the Calypso Monarch.

“Get the brain of a dead donkey, make sure he real stupidy. Put it on the door where the judges pass, soon they’ll all be braying like real jackass.”

Trinidad Rio sang his classic, Back To Basics, a funny and good-natured tale of how to cope with unreliable technology. Lamenting the worries of the electricity supply, he sang, “I’m going to get a flambeau and lamp with wick.” Having phoned Talparo but been billed for a call to Mexico, he vowed to resort to a phone made from two Klim tins and string.

Trinidad Rio’s second song was sung kaiso-style, with a reggae beat but with the lament of a sad country and western. In Watchdogs, he mourned the passing of fellow bards but vowed, “I’ll keep their legacy alive.”

The show ended with Elon “Cardinal” Bagoo singing Sheet where he suggested that because calypsonians get no public pension, their bread and butter is best assured by singing what the market wants, “tata, tata, tata, tata.”