Lionel Belasco - Goodnight Ladies and Gents

Belasco was the Scott Joplin of calypso:
he composed West Indian music from folk sources, which he found on his many travels throughout the islands, and was the first person to popularize calypso outside Trinidad. Piano player, band leader, composer, and entrepreneur, Belasco recorded more West Indian songs before World War II than any other performer.

For those of you who like calypso (or are interested in the roots of Carribean music), this is the real thing. Belasco is at the heart of the birth of calypso music, as its first important composer, arranger, and piano player. He crafted a style which incorporated such various influences as ragtime, dixieland jazz, Brazilian choro, Venezuelan folk, Trinidadian ritual music, classical parlor music, and the Spanish romantic tradition. Think a genteel Buena Vista Social Club via a trip through the slums of New Orleans and Brazil.

Port of Spain, Trinidad was in many ways the was the musical Mecca of the Carribean. It was "the most cosmopolitan place in the world for its size. It's like Hong Kong. You have every nationality in the world there… Syrians, Chinese, Portugese, East Indians, everything English, Jews Spaniards, there are still Carib Indians… I mean sometimes you walk in certain parts of Trinidad and you think that you are in a foreign country because you hear nothing else [but foreign languages]." --Lionel Belasco, from an interview 1961


Additionally, Belasco absorbed influences outside the city. As a teenager, he would go to out in the jungle to participate in stick fights and cock fights (once he got his hand broken by a cudgel). He witnessed a lot of native's songs, dances, and rituals, and brought this jungle music back to the city (much to the dismay of his mother). He also traveled extensively in Venezuela and Brazil, and was likely exposed to the similarly syncopated Choro music of Ernesto Nazareth, as well as South American folk melodies. He also lived and recorded in New York City for many years. His music was Creole; a true mix of cultures and races. Belasco's music inhabits a rare middle ground between the jungle and the parlor. It is both raw and refined.

Though there is quite a lot of nimble, quick playing on the part of the accompanists (check the Eddie Lang-esque guitar on Blow Wind Blow and Caroline), it never feels rushed. Belasco keeps to a stately pace throughout all the songs, never hurried and never lagging. It's a rhythm you could strut to, provided you also swung your hips and shoulders. This stately tempo allows for Belasco's infectious syncopation to work its magic. Through subtle polyrhythms, a simple melodic line becomes an complex and compelling tune without losing its simplicity.

Whether playing as an band-leader, accompanist to singers like the great Wilmouth Houdini, or solo, Belasco always played his music with grace and continuity. He never leaves you in the dark: every wayward melody finds its home, and each emotion is resolved before the next one begins. He can play an upbeat, joyous song that swings like you've never heard, and the next minute play a lilting waltz that becomes all the more mournful for its steady pulse and lack of dramatic flair. When the day is done, this music may seem old-fashioned, and in many ways it is. The lyrics, like most of calypso, are largely about the neighbors. It is gossip in song form. But the music also contains the gentle seed of something that we have forgotten. All art reflects the culture it is born in. With its gently prodding rhythm and loping melodies, this music gives us a glance to a world caught in between tradition and modernization: an impossible cusp where for a moment, the excitement of the dawning bustle of the city matched the regret for its drowning heritage.



get it here: part 1 and part 2 (re-re-re-posted May 10 2009)

my rip | mp3 192+vbr | 105 mb | cover included

see also the postings for Calypso Pioneers and Wilmouth Houdini at El Diablo Tun-Tun, and you'll find many more fine calypso, mento, afro-cuban, cajun, blues, old-time, etc. postings there too