A trumpet and a concertina

Culture Matters

The music that

made us merry

Listen, Mama, I want you to tell Santa Claus

To bring a trumpet and a concertina for me

I am lonely 'cause there's no children near by me

Ma, you don't know how happy your son would be.

– Listen Mama by Nap Hepburn

THIS TOUCHING song about how a complete stranger made Christmas possible for a little boy remains one of the nicest pieces of music to come from TT.

Written around 1961 by a calypsonian called Randolph Nathaniel Hepburn, the Christmas song conveys the entire story in a just a few verses. “Nap,” as he was called, takes the listener along his journey as he eavesdrops on a conversation between a mother and son about what the child would like as a gift from Santa Claus.

It is obvious that they come from humble circumstances, but as the mother worries about how she was going to get him a gift, her son chats happily in the way that children do, oblivious to the fears of his mother.

“She was so worried, yes, so worried and so confused/ As they strolled along the street, no shoes on his feet/ While they walked he continued to repeat as he plead/ Listen mama...”

Nap asks the mother for their address and takes the trumpet and a concertina (a type of accordion) for the son. He ensures that the child is happy for Christmas and the mother is relieved that her child would always have this wonderful memory.

Children are also the focus in Lennox Gray’s Around my Christmas Tree. The haunting music at the start is very different to the typical Christmas song, but eventually leads into another story of the blissfulness of children at this time as they get toys from Santa to make them happy.

“Laughing children tug at Mr Santa/ Teddy bears and dollies saying mama/ The fragrance of black fruitcake and red wine/ We'll toast to a special friend of mine/ His name is Jesus/ Come little children/ Round my Christmas tree/ We'll have a very merry time/ We'll sing, dance and play/ Till the break of New Year's Day/ We'll listen to the church bells chime…”

Emancipation, the end of East Indian indentureship and independence all fostered a growing sense of nationhood and pride in our cultural traditions. This evolution was important for us, given the antagonistic attitudes to African and Indian forms of celebration prior to 1838, 1917 and even 1962.

Significantly, the newspapers of those early times were run by social elites, and this was reflected in their reporting of the cultural activities of ordinary people. For instance, records from Christmas 1846 reveal the derogatory language used by one Charles William Day, a white European traveller, about the celebrations he observed:

“…One band which came forth at two o'clock on the morning of Saturday merits particular notice. It seemed to be composed of an enormous tambour…banged with a maniacal violence; a fiddle or two, a triangle, and an infinity of cow-horns!”

By the 1940s, especially after the end of the Second World War, calypso began to grow in significance as the music of our nation. It is said that one of the earliest recordings of local music for Christmas was made in 1949 by the BBC. The song was called Christmas Day Calypso and featured calypsonians Lion, Tiger and Invader. I was not able to find a recording of the song, but I will continue to do some digging to find out if the recording still exists.

The tradition of the Christmas calypso continued to grow, characterised by celebration and abandon of all concerns. Lord Kitchener, for example, recorded numerous songs about the season, many of them talking about being with friends, music and local drinks. Interestingly, in this one he invites his mother to come and enjoy Christmas with him in England, or as he refers to it, “the mother country:”

“Mooma, Mooma, would you like to join your sonny/ I am over here, happy in the mother country/ Darling, for the Christmas, your son would be really jumping/ Listen to the chorus of what we all will be singing/ Drink a rum and a punch a crema, drink a rum/ Is Christmas morning/ Mama drink if you drinking!”

Over the decades, the Christmas calypso has formed another important soundtrack to our lives. Emerging from West African roots, its evolution has been influenced by musical genres such as American rhythm and blues. But through it all, the themes are universal – children, family and friendship. As Lord Kitchener sang, “…this is Christmas Day/ So leh we drink and share/ Merry Christmas/ Cheers to all of us!”

Dara E Healy is a performance artist, communications specialist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN