SuperBlue rules Etienne Charles' Road March in Concert II

NIGEL CAMPBELL

Etienne Charles continued his high-quality concert presentations for local audiences, this time allowing patrons to understand the popular Carnival song, the road march, as more than entertainment, but as the tool of the calypsonian and the soca artist to move feet and bodies.

Our physical response, our celebration, at Carnival time and year-round, to this music is measurable, and on February 6, inside the Winifred Atwell Auditorium, Queen’s Hall, St Ann's, Charles and his band delivered music that made dancing inevitable for the sold-out audience.

A simple review could say the show was a sublime concert of memorable road marches with a rollercoaster of emotions and elation, all capped by the two most important artists in soca music of all time. But, Charles always brings a level of deep thinking and analysis in his productions – a cerebral celebration – that reflect history and revel in island genius. Here was no different.

In 2024, the concert celebrated a linear history, the evolution of this music that is measurably the most popular song on the road during the two days of Carnival bands on parade and the creative output of the arranger and musicians.

In 2025, the focus seemed to point towards the singer, that avatar of a kind of hedonism and merrymaking that makes this island a magnet at Carnival time.

Charles explains the reason
d’etre of Road March in Concert II thus: “For me, a big part of why I started this show is because I realised that in my years of travel and performing, everywhere I go, icons get properly celebrated. We don’t really do that in Trinidad because we are all about the new.”

In 2024, it was Pelham Goddard, this year it was the turn of SuperBlue to receive those musical accolades.

The eager and expectant atmosphere of the auditorium, minutes before showtime, was sated by DJ Rawkus challenging patrons to remember and sing along to the early road marches of Mighty Sparrow, Mae Mae (1960) and Lord Blakie, Maria (1962) and the later 20th century winners – Poser, Ah Tell She (1979) and Penguin, Deputy (1982).

Charles, always a sartorial exemplar, resplendent in his “amazing technicolour dreamcoat” hand-dyed silk suit, led the five-piece horn section – including his American student Kevin Shinskie – of his expanded Riddim, Brass and Mas band, through a three-hour spectacular that captured the spirit of Carnival music that moved masses over decades,and played a role in supporting dances of joy and cathartic release.

The road march is a song of call-and-response, a New-World anthem of jubilation, in which singer and music, performance and arrangement are equals.

His first guest, tap dancer Lisa La Touche, explored a connection between tap and calypso/soca rhythms unheard and unseen in the canon of that dance form. Charles was commissioned to create a suite of music for her to flesh out a new way of dancing to "de riddim of tings."

The hoofer and the horn man opened the audience to artistic possibilities with duets on Lord Kitchener’s Miss Tourist (1968) and that 1955 road march outlier the Happy Wanderer ("valderi-valdera").

Next up was Kernal Roberts, son of the Grandmaster Lord Kitchener and a winning songwriter and producer of a handful of modern road marches himself, to interpret three of his father’s 11 road marches, The Road (1963), Mas in Madison Square Garden (1971) and his last winner, Flag Woman (1976).

Roger George interpreted songs from David Rudder and Tambu Herbert, and Lima Calbio sang from Calypso Rose. The auditorium was a sea of smiling faces and screaming fans. The energy was palpable. This succession of singers shone the spotlight on the idea of the new-age chantwell being the mover of feet and waists.

In addressing the dichotomy of the relative importance of what makes a tune a hit or a road march, Charles says, “Impact on the audience is another perspective because the audience sees the singer and hears the music, but the arranger does not get the same visibility. It’s equal parts that creates the music and the impact of that music. If our society is to grow in our artistic sensitivity or our ability to navigate creative arts, we have to start paying attention to the deeper levels of what makes music.”

His years of research and transcriptions of horn charts for all the songs are important.

Critical Mas is a project made up of former incarcerated youth rapping and singing calypso that is near and dear to Charles, and their inclusion into the show split audience affinity to a show that was producing a momentum. Charles responded in a post-concert interview to some criticism of that intervention by saying:

“We in Trinidad, we live in denial. Trinidad has different realities, and people don’t pay attention to other people’s realities. Me, as a musician, I have to because I have to speak to all levels of society. That’s my role as a musician, that’s the role of the calypsonian. It’s the role of me as a jazz musician, and sometimes you let people speak for themselves. You give them the platform you let them present the work. I know people had a problem with it going long, but these people had voices that needed to be heard...People need to remember that calypso was looked down on for years...While we wining and jamming, ‘I’m like yeah, we got to pay attention, wining and jamming was illegal too!'”

Nigel Lewis restarted the jam with Shadow’s Bassman (1974) before singing his hits Moving (To de Left), (1996) and Follow da Leader (2002).

MX Prime fell flat with a gimmicky trophy presentation to Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam as a Fetting Champion –his 2025 song– before letting loose the biggest road march by the numbers, Full Extreme (2017), which was played 556 times. Thankfully, then it was star time.

SuperBlue is iconic with ten road march wins. His mere presence elicited screams. This concert was beyond tunes and ideas, it was palpable energy and adulation. "Blue" ran through the crowd, jumped off the stage, juggled that microphone, hallmarks of his reputation as the ultimate entertainer and showman. His voice, reduced to a gravely tone, by a hard life and possibly age, did not deter or distract as he built on hit after hit: Soca Baptist (1980) as a duet with his daughter Terri Lyons, Ethel (1981); Rebecca (1983); Get Something and Wave (1991); Jab Jab (1992); Jab Molassie (1994); Signal for Lara (1995) had the audience permanently on their feet almost like a procession. Chaos as "Blue" sings, with the stage crowded with jab jabs, singers, costumed dancers and a tap dancer too.

And if that wasn’t enough, the ultimate unannounced surprise, the king of soca, Machel Montano, closed the show with four songs – Bet Meh, his 2025 calypso for the big yard; Big Truck (1997); Pardy, his 2025 road march contender, and his collaboration with SuperBlue, Soca Kingdom (2018) – that cemented the idea that Road March in Concert II was a tour de force. Period. This event can become an annual hit with new and older fans of Carnival music, with the ideas and the history of that music, and to copy another Etienne Charles album title, as the embodiment of the sound of a people.