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Sparrow, Flea keep calypso a global phenomenon
Sparrow, the veteran performer. - Winston Sill / Freelance Photographer
Lord Kitchener may have been the first to take calypso music into international waters, but there were others who performed similar and equally important roles in helping to spread and popularise the genre abroad.
To any calypso lover, the first that would come to mind readily is The Mighty Sparrow. Born Slinger Francisco on the island of Grenada in 1935, he moved with his family to Trinidad before he was two years old.
There, he first became interested in music by singing in his school's choir during his pre-teen years.
Jamaica's main exponents of the genre included Count Lasher, Chin's Calypso Sextet, Lord Power, The Ticklers and Lord Flea.
Born Norman Byfield Thomas in the early 1930s, at Regent Street in West Kingston, Flea was credited with helping start the calypso craze in the United States.
An exciting guitarist and a clever tongue-in-cheek exponent of rhythmic rhyme, Flea began his entertainment career, along with his band, The Calypsonians, at local dancehalls during the late 1940s.
Those performances came while The Calypsonians did a few record releases for local businessmen, Alec Durie and Ken Khouri, and earned for the group a contract with Miami club owner, Bill Saxon, in 1954. Saxon had travelled to Jamaica in search of an authentic sound for his Florida venue
http://mobile.jamaica-gleaner.com/gl.../ent/ent10.php
Sparrow, the veteran performer. - Winston Sill / Freelance Photographer
Lord Kitchener may have been the first to take calypso music into international waters, but there were others who performed similar and equally important roles in helping to spread and popularise the genre abroad.
To any calypso lover, the first that would come to mind readily is The Mighty Sparrow. Born Slinger Francisco on the island of Grenada in 1935, he moved with his family to Trinidad before he was two years old.
There, he first became interested in music by singing in his school's choir during his pre-teen years.
Jamaica's main exponents of the genre included Count Lasher, Chin's Calypso Sextet, Lord Power, The Ticklers and Lord Flea.
Born Norman Byfield Thomas in the early 1930s, at Regent Street in West Kingston, Flea was credited with helping start the calypso craze in the United States.
An exciting guitarist and a clever tongue-in-cheek exponent of rhythmic rhyme, Flea began his entertainment career, along with his band, The Calypsonians, at local dancehalls during the late 1940s.
Those performances came while The Calypsonians did a few record releases for local businessmen, Alec Durie and Ken Khouri, and earned for the group a contract with Miami club owner, Bill Saxon, in 1954. Saxon had travelled to Jamaica in search of an authentic sound for his Florida venue
http://mobile.jamaica-gleaner.com/gl.../ent/ent10.php