Search - Various Artists :: Calypso Awakening: From The Emory Cook Collection

Full of energy!

"Gimpy" Peach Johnson | 12/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is a remarkable achievement, both musically and technically.Musically, this is the real stuff--calypso music recorded on location in Trinidad by Emory Cook in the mid-1950s. It is vibrant, exciting music, reminiscent of early jazz. Although the lyircs to these pieces often critique very real social and political problems at the times ("Federation" and "No, Doctor, No"), others are bursting with humor ("Booboo Man"). Still, I find that this CD always puts me in a good mood. It's a great disc to pull out on a dull rainy day to spice things up a bit.Technically, this CD is nothing short of amazing. These are not your typical historical field recordings. Emory Cook founded his own label, Cook Records (under which these titles were originally released) to show off his technical expertise in sound recording. These recordings are the ultimate in hi-fi! And, they are among the earliest stereo recordings. Long before it was possible to capture a stereo signal in one groove on records, Cook developed a type of record that required a double tonearm to track two separate grooves on different parts of the record. Each groove contained one channel of musical information, so when played simultaneously on a properly modified turntable, they provided the listener a true stereo recording-this in the early 1950s. The folks at Smithsonian Folkways (which acquired the Cook label in the early 1990s) have done an outstanding job remastering these stereo recordings for CD, and the result is a very enjoyable listening experience.The accompanying booklet is also excellent, with extensive notes about the musicians and selections, printed lyrics, and photographs. Definitely recommended."

Gangsta Calypso

Lawrence Waldron | Queens, NY United States | 07/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This commercial release from the Smithsonian vaults a la the Cook Collection is a treasurehouse of some of the 50's hottest. There is a good sense of the spontaneous Calypso Tent experience, which as the magazine blurb above points out, was Cook's recording forte.But we can easily forget that Calypso originated as a music to accompany stick fighting. Bongo Man (Bongo Night) by Wrangler might remind us of this with its frantic beat. But the lyrics on two of these songs is noteworthy. In Carnival Celebration, Small Island Pride makes himself out to be a Carnival hoodlum "To show you I aim for trouble, on mih right hand is mih steel knuckle." He goes on to tell us he's got an icepick in his left pocket and a fighting stick under his jacket. This guy is armed to the teeth and by the end of the song, he declares his willingness to die. In fact, he says, "I done pay off mih lawyer, so he could pay off mih undertaker."
Indeed, there were such characters stalking the Carnival back then and we find more and more of them the further we go back into Carnival's rebellious past. We can trace fighting songs all the way back to Africa but they have never occurred in such great profusion as in corporate Hip Hop.
The other unfriendly, but side-splitting, tune on here is the Picong Duel between Sparrow and his then boss, Melody, who ran the Tent that Sparrow sang in. The extemporaneous insults fly and you can decide who wins. Here's another pan African trend that's shown up in today's Hip Hop. The parallel is heightened further by the fact that this is not quite a friendly duel.
Because Sparrow would eventually leave Melody's employ and over the next few years would release a string of insulting tunes about Melody, among them Madame Dracula about Melody's wife. Check that one out on Mighty Sparrow volume 4. On that same CD, the last verse in Simpson (the Funeral Agency Man) also takes a potshot at Melody's ugliness.
No, the beef between these two guys, from all I've heard as a boy in Trinidad, was quite real. But no one ever got physically hurt."

Caribbean Folk Fusic meets Swing

gwdonohoe | Albuquerque, NM USA | 08/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As an amateur musician and Reggae fan, I was curious about the origins of modern Caribbean music. This is it! Not the studio-refined Calypso of Harry Belafonte, but true roots music, with the biting social commentary that Bob Marley gave us later. The enclosed book is very informative.Calypso voices backed by Swing-style wind instruments, acoustic bass, guitars, and Caribbean folk instruments. Truly a breath of fresh air for the musically jaded. My favorite listening CD."