Most famous as the composer of "Rum and Coca-Cola," Lord Invader was a popular calypso performer in both his native Trinidad and New York, recording from the late '30s through the early '60s. Born Rupert Westmore Grant, he made his recording debut for RCA Bluebird in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in 1937, with a song about boxer Joe Louis, and... [+] Read More

Most famous as the composer of "Rum and Coca-Cola," Lord Invader was a popular calypso performer in both his native Trinidad and New York, recording from the late '30s through the early '60s. Born Rupert Westmore Grant, he made his recording debut for RCA Bluebird in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in 1937, with a song about boxer Joe Louis, and continued to record (for both RCA and Decca) and place in the upper reaches of Trinidadian calypso competitions through the early '40s, when he also began to perform and make recordings in New York City. In Trinidad in September 1943, visiting American comedian Morey Amsterdam heard Lord Invader's "Rum and Coca-Cola" and made it known back in the US, where the Andrews Sisters had a huge hit with the song. Lord Invader sued for plagiarism, the case eventually getting decided in his favor in 1947, although he didn't receive money from the defendants for seven years.

"Rum and Coca-Cola," however, was but one of many songs that the singer performed and recorded. As with many other calypso singers of that and other eras, Lord Invader was skilled at devising songs with social and political commentary, as well as singing more conventional lyrics based on romantic situations, or based upon traditional folk songs. From the mid-'40s through the early '60s, he recorded off and on for Moe Asch of Folkways Records, and during that period he was performing and recording in New York, London, and Europe. A compilation of 26 tracks Lord Invader did for Asch -- some with his Calypso Group, some with full and somewhat jazzy bands -- was issued by Smithsonian Folkways in 2000. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

With his ultra-sweet vocals and lyrics that speak of romance and topical politics, Mighty Sparrow (born Slinger Francisco) has risen to the upper echelon of Trinidadian calypso. Best known for his hits "Jean And Dinah" in 1956 and "Carnival Boycott" in 1957, Sparrow is an 11-time winner of the calypso monarchy and an eight-time winner of... [+] Read More

With his ultra-sweet vocals and lyrics that speak of romance and topical politics, Mighty Sparrow (born Slinger Francisco) has risen to the upper echelon of Trinidadian calypso. Best known for his hits "Jean And Dinah" in 1956 and "Carnival Boycott" in 1957, Sparrow is an 11-time winner of the calypso monarchy and an eight-time winner of Trinidad and Tobago's Carnival Road March competition. Born to a poor working class family in Gran Roi, a small fishing village in Grenada, Sparrow moved to Trinidad at the age of one. Learning to sing in the boy's choir of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, he became the head choirboy. At the age of 14, he formed a steel band to perform at the Carnival, sparking his interest in calypso. Teaching himself to play guitar, Sparrow began to write his own songs. Winning the Carnival competition with "Jean And Dinah," he received a grand prize of 40 dollars. In protest, he wrote a scorching indictment of the Trinidadian music industry, "arnival Boycott." Despite his refusal to compete in the Carnival contests for the next three years, Sparrow became one of the Caribbean's most successful artists. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Few figures deserve greater credit for the preservation of America's folk music traditions than Alan Lomax. Scouring the backroads, honky tonks and work camps of the Deep South, he unearthed a treasure trove of songs and singers, documenting the music of the common man for future generations to discover; through Lomax's pioneering efforts,... [+] Read More

Few figures deserve greater credit for the preservation of America's folk music traditions than Alan Lomax. Scouring the backroads, honky tonks and work camps of the Deep South, he unearthed a treasure trove of songs and singers, documenting the music of the common man for future generations to discover; through Lomax's pioneering efforts, cultural traditions ranging from the Delta blues to Appalachian folk to field hollers continue to live on, with his invaluable recordings offering a compelling portrait of times and cultures otherwise long gone. The son of noted folklorist John A. Lomax, the nation's preeminent collector of cowboy songs, he was born January 15, 1915 in Austin, Texas; from childhood on he followed in his father's footsteps, assisting in song-gathering missions whenever possible. In 1932, John was contracted to assemble a book of folk songs, and soon he and Alan set out with a crude recording machine paid for by the Library of Congress; covering some 16,000 miles of the southeastern U.S. in just four months, they collected a wealth of African-American work songs, many of them recorded at various penitentiaries.

Among the musicians the Lomaxes encountered during their travels that summer was a Louisiana prisoner named Huddie Ledbetter; they helped obtain his release, employing him as a chauffeur and making his first recordings. Ledbetter went on to fame under the name Leadbelly, and remains one of the true legends of American folk and blues. Beginning in 1933 and lasting through to 1942, Alan -- working alone as well as in conjunction with his father, writer Zora Neale Hurston, musicologist John Work and others -- recorded folk and traditional music for the Library of Congress throughout the Deep South, as well as in New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and Ohio. He also recorded in Haiti and the Bahamas, pioneering the archival study of world music which increased in the decades to follow, and in the field made the first-ever recordings of Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters and Aunt Molly Jackson. Concurrently, the Lomaxes teamed on a number of books, including 1934's American Ballads and Folksongs, 1936's Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly, 1937's Cowboy Songs and 1938's Our Singing Country.

In 1938, Lomax turned to jazz, recording more than eight hours of vocals, instrumentals and spoken recollections from one of the founders of the form, Jelly Roll Morton. A year later, he premiered "American Folk Songs," a 26-week historical overview broadcast as part of the CBS radio series American School of the Air; Lomax also continued to write and direct special broadcasts promoting the war effort in the months ahead. In 1946, he sat down with Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Big Bill Broonzy to explore the origins and philosophy of the blues, issuing the sessions in 1959 as Blues in the Mississippi Night; he spent the remainder of the decade recording prison songs in the Mississippi area, and in 1948 became host and writer of the Mutual Broadcasting Network series On Top of Old Smokey. In 1950, Lomax relocated to England, where he remained for much of the decade; there he documented the traditional music of the British Isles, with his recordings becoming the basis of the ten-disc 1961 series Folksongs of Great Britain. During the same period, he also made extensive field recordings in Spain and Italy.

Lomax returned to the States in 1959, and immediately made another expedition into the South, where he discovered, among others, bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell. A year later, he published the book Folk Songs of North America; a six-month field trip to the West Indies followed in 1962, and there he recorded traditional musics from the English, French and Spanish-speaking people of the Caribbean, as well as the Hindu culture of Trinidad. In 1967, Lomax teamed with Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger for the book Hard Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People; Folk Song Style and Culture, the product of his years of world music study, followed in 1968. The advent of new technologies opened up new worlds for Lomax, and in the 1970s and 1980s he made a series of journeys back to the South to videotape traditional musical performances for the PBS series American Patchwork, completed and broadcast in 1990. At the same time he continued work on the Global Jukebox -- an "intelligent museum" interactive software project -- and put the finishing touches on 1993's The Land Where the Blues Began, which won a National Book Award. Throughout the 90s and into the twenty-first century, Rounder records steadily worked toward reissuing a 100-CD series showcasing Lomax' most legendary field recordings, generating a newfound audience for his scholarly efforts in ethnomusicology. Alan Lomax continued his work lecturing, writing, and working with the Association for Cultural Equity until his death at the age of 87 on the morning of July 19, 2002. Fortunately for archivists and music lovers everywhere, his painstaking documentation of the music and cultures of the world will be educating and enriching the lives of curious listeners for centuries to come. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

An actor, humanitarian and the acknowledged "King of Calypso," Harry Belafonte ranked among the most seminal performers of the postwar era. One of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, Belafonte's staggering talent, good looks and masterful assimilation of folk, jazz and worldbeat rhythms allowed him to achieve a level of... [+] Read More

An actor, humanitarian and the acknowledged "King of Calypso," Harry Belafonte ranked among the most seminal performers of the postwar era. One of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, Belafonte's staggering talent, good looks and masterful assimilation of folk, jazz and worldbeat rhythms allowed him to achieve a level of mainstream eminence and crossover popularity virtually unparalleled in the days before the advent of the civil rights movement -- a cultural uprising which he himself helped spearhead.

Harold George Belafonte, Jr. was born March 1, 1927 in Harlem, New York. The son of Caribbean-born immigrants, he returned with his mother to her native Jamaica at the age of eight, remaining there for the next five years. Upon returning to the U.S., Belafonte dropped out of high school to enlist in the U.S. Navy; after his discharge, he resettled in New York City to forge a career as an actor, performing with the American Negro Theatre while studying drama at Erwin Piscator's famed Dramatic Workshop alongside the likes of Marlon Brando and Tony Curtis.

A singing role resulted in a series of cabaret engagements, and eventually Belafonte even opened his own club. Initially, he put his clear, silky voice to work as a straight pop singer, launching his recording career on the Jubilee label in 1949; however, at the dawn of the 1950s he discovered folk music, learning material through the Library of Congress' American folk songs archives while also discovering West Indian music. With guitarist Millard Thomas, Belafonte soon made his debut at the legendary jazz club the Village Vanguard; in 1953, he made his film bow in Bright Road, winning a Tony Award the next year for his work in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.

With his lead role in Otto Preminger's film adaptation of Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones, Belafonte shot to stardom; after signing to the RCA label, he issued "Mark Twain" and Other Folk Favorites, which reached the number three slot on the Billboard charts in the early weeks of 1956. His next effort, titled simply Belafonte, reached number one, kickstarting a national craze for calypso music; Calypso, also issued in 1956, topped the charts for a staggering 31 weeks on the strength of hits like "Jamaica Farewell" and the immortal "Banana Boat (Day-O)."

Following the success of 1957's An Evening with Belafonte and its hit "Mary's Boy Child," Belafonte returned to film, using his now considerable clout to realize the controversial film Island in the Sun, in which his character contemplates an affair with a white woman portrayed by Joan Fontaine. Similarly, 1959's Odds Against Tomorrow cast him as a bank robber teamed with a racist accomplice. Also in 1959 he released the LP Belafonte at Carnegie Hall, a recording of a sold-out April performance which spent over three years on the charts; Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall followed in 1960 and featured appearances by Odetta, Miriam Makeba and the Chad Mitchell Trio.

At the turn of the 1960s, Belafonte became television's first black producer; his special Tonight with Harry Belafonte won an Emmy that same year. Although dissatisfied with filmmaking, he continued his prolific album output with 1961's Jump Up Calypso and 1962's The Midnight Special, which featured the first-ever recorded appearance by a young harmonica player named Bob Dylan. As the Beatles and other stars of the British Invasion began to dominate the pop charts, Belafonte's impact as a commercial force diminished; 1964's Belafonte at the Greek Theatre was his last Top 40 effort, and subsequent efforts like 1965's An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba and 1966's In My Quiet Room struggled even to crack the Top 100. 1969's Homeward Bound earned Belafonte his final Billboard chart appearance, although he continued to record. He then made his first film appearance in over a decade in 1970's The Angel Levine, and continued to focus on his work as a civil rights activist.

In addition to his continued work in recording (albeit less frequently after leaving RCA in the mid-'70s) and film (1972's Buck and the Preacher and 1974's Uptown Saturday Night), Belafonte spent an increasing amount of the 1970s and 1980s as a tireless humanitarian; most famously, he was a central figure of the USA for Africa effort, singing on the 1985 single "We Are the World." A year later, he replaced Danny Kaye as UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador. After a long absence from the screen, Belafonte resurfaced in the mid-1990s in a number of film roles, most notably in the reverse-racism drama White Man's Burden and Robert Altman's jazz-era period piece Kansas City. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

From Montserrat, Arrow got his start as a first-class calypsonian in the traditional Trinidadian style but soon began exploring ways to bring the music to an international level. Always an innovator, he played around with mixing elements of cadence, salsa, and American R&R guitar into his music. In 1983 he experienced his first pan-Caribbean... [+] Read More

From Montserrat, Arrow got his start as a first-class calypsonian in the traditional Trinidadian style but soon began exploring ways to bring the music to an international level. Always an innovator, he played around with mixing elements of cadence, salsa, and American R&R guitar into his music. In 1983 he experienced his first pan-Caribbean success, "Hot Hot Hot" (a song that later became an international hit). Since then he has branched out to include a wider array of world-music elements, from hip-hop to the sounds of various African nations, while concentrating on lyrics that act predominantly as a vehicle to drive the music to a higher frenzy. A late-'80s contract with Island/Mango Records has made him the soca artist most widely distributed and most easily available in the States. His 1992 release, Zombie Soca, was notable for including three songs with social commentary lyrics. Unlike those of most calypsonians, Arrow's early releases, including those preceding the Island/Mango albums, are still easily available. ~ Gene Scaramuzzo, All Music Guide [-] Hide

All of the material on this 26-song, 73-minute CD was recorded for Moe Asch of Folkways Records between 1946 and 1961; half of the tracks were previously unreleased. It may be that many of the arrangements he used were more accessible to American ears than those used by some of his calypso peers, or just that the fidelity on many of these... [+] Read More

All of the material on this 26-song, 73-minute CD was recorded for Moe Asch of Folkways Records between 1946 and 1961; half of the tracks were previously unreleased. It may be that many of the arrangements he used were more accessible to American ears than those used by some of his calypso peers, or just that the fidelity on many of these numbers (particularly those from the later 1950s and early 1960s) is superior to that heard on many vintage calypso recordings. But Lord Invader does seem more comfortable with full-band, slightly jazzed-up calypso arrangements than some other calypso performers, without compromising the verve and bite of his lyrics and vocal delivery. Occasionally these recordings have minimal backing, as on "Ten Thousand to Bar Me One," on which he's accompanied only by drum, bottle, spoon, and chorus; sometimes the songs are traditional, such as the arguably overdone "Brown Girl in the Ring," on which again he's backed only by percussion and chorus. More often he combines calypso with instrumentation reminiscent of pre-war jazz, especially on the cuts on which he's accompanied by Felix and His Internationals, featuring Gregory Felix on clarinet. The topicality of his songs actually isn't too overt, but it's there to hear on songs about taking the New York subway, his experiences in Chicago, and "Yankee Dollar" (about his frustration question for compensation in his "Rum and Coca-Cola" plagiarism suit). "God Made Us All," prefaced by a speech from the ubiquitous Pete Seeger (a staple of Smithsonian Folkways releases), is a gentle anti-racism admonition. Whatever he's singing about, however, Lord Invader conveys easygoing nobody's-fool charm, in a manner that's less strident than some other calypsoites of the time. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Digitally remastered in 2000, RCA's triple-disc package Greatest Hits is a stellar overview of Harry Belafonte's career, covering 53 tracks spanning the years 1952-1972. While Belafonte is, of course, best known for popularizing calypso music, Greatest Hits doesn't place a disproportionate emphasis on that aspect of his career; instead, the... [+] Read More

Digitally remastered in 2000, RCA's triple-disc package Greatest Hits is a stellar overview of Harry Belafonte's career, covering 53 tracks spanning the years 1952-1972. While Belafonte is, of course, best known for popularizing calypso music, Greatest Hits doesn't place a disproportionate emphasis on that aspect of his career; instead, the collection is a testament to Belafonte's eclecticism and versatility. His voice may have been tailor-made for straight-ahead pop, but Belafonte was most at home on folk material, and his sources ranged far and wide. Not only from standard American folk repertory and his beloved Caribbean, but jazz, blues, Appalachian folk, British folk, and slave spirituals and work songs, not to mention the wealth of material rediscovered during the 1960s folk revival. Greatest Hits isn't the ultimate word on Belafonte -- some of his individual albums remain important, essential works in their own right, particularly Calypso -- but as a thorough encapsulation of his career, it's richly rewarding and virtually flawless. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

[-] Hide

Arrow's latest exploration of Caribbean rhythms includes an excursion to Guadaloupe entitled "Zouk Me." ~ J. Poet, All Music Guide

Arrow's latest exploration of Caribbean rhythms includes an excursion to Guadaloupe entitled "Zouk Me." ~ J. Poet, All Music Guide [-] Hide

These radio transcripts capture a performance at the Town Hall in New York in 1946. The sound quality is good for the most part, and the performances by such greats as The Duke of Iron, Macbeth the Great and Lord Invader are terrific. Alan Lomax, the host for the evening, adds introductions that lend an air of ethnomusicology, but do not spoil... [+] Read More

These radio transcripts capture a performance at the Town Hall in New York in 1946. The sound quality is good for the most part, and the performances by such greats as The Duke of Iron, Macbeth the Great and Lord Invader are terrific. Alan Lomax, the host for the evening, adds introductions that lend an air of ethnomusicology, but do not spoil the recordings. Highlights include "Calypso Invasion," "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" and "Tie-Tongue Baby." There is a companion volume, Calypso After Midnight, containing the rest of the evening's performances. ~ Tim Sheridan, All Music Guide [-] Hide