The University of Toronto is holding a special webinar, A Rose Among Thorns: Calypso Rose’s Life, Music and Impact, as part of Calypso History Month celebrations, on October 22.
It’s scheduled to last three hours, with three singers each doing two classic Rose songs, and four short academic talks.
The event has been organised by actor, playwright and comedian Rhoma Spencer, who has been a stalwart in the Toronto Caribbean community for many years (though she returns to Trinidad to launch her first comedy album and headline an event to showcase at Kafe Blue, Port of Spain on October 19). 
Spencer was recently made an artist in residence at the Queer and Trans Research Lab at the university, and plans to create a musical on the life of Calypso Rose, to be given a staged reading next June. Last October she also organised a Calypso History Month online conference and when she approached the university about doing one to start her artist-in-residency term, it was very supportive.
The programme will begin with three experienced female calypsonians performing Rose classics. Two are based in Canada – Macomere Fifi, who is the six-time Canadian calypso monarch, and Susan Grogan, a singer from Barbados who is the leader of Neu Jenarashun, a soca band in Toronto.
The third is Stacey Sobers,the TT Calypso Queen in 2018, who will be the young Rose in Spencer’s forthcoming musical next June.
She also is the lead in the concert at the Central Bank Auditorium, We Love Kaiso Since We Small on October 29. This is the fifth in the series of annual kaiso concerts that she calls Crackers and Cheese. She was featured at the 2022 Taste of Carnival performing GB’s Legacy Lives, a tribute to Singing Sandra that Sobers commissioned GB to write.
Presenters of academic papers will include Dr Hope Munro who will look at the changing musical textures in Rose’s music. Munro’s book What She Go Do: Women in Afro-Trinidadian Music (2016) is a detailed study of women in calypso.


Andil Gosine, a York University professor and artist/curator, will discuss the new role that Rose has taken on in France over the last decade, with many live shows and working with her record label there, Because Music, with a new album scheduled to come out soon. Gosine has been in Trinidad for the launch of his new book, Nature’s Wild, at Medulla Gallery, and the first display of artist collaborations that grew out of it. Gosine also recently curated an exhibition at the Ford Foundation gallery in New York City which the New York Times praised as a “a lush introduction to an international and multigenerational group of female artists of Asian-Caribbean origin.”
Dr Alison McLetchie, who teaches at South Carolina State, and has been writing about calypso for years, says her talk will focus on “the complexity that is the life of Caribbean women and a female performer”.
​

The moderator for the event is writer Dr Ramabai Espinet.
Spencer had hoped to have Rose herself participate, but she is recovering from a recent knee operation. This event is a way to celebrate her long career and hope for her speedy recovery.

The webinar takes place on Zoom on October 22 from 2pm EDT/ TT time.
Registration is free and further details and the link to register are at:
https://sds.utoronto.ca/events/a-rose-among-thorns-calypso-rose-life-music-and-impact/
ing musical textures in Rose’s music. Munro’s book What She Go Do: Women in Afro-Trinidadian Music (2016) is a detailed study of women in calypso. (Source:Newsday, Oct 15, 2022)

HENRY Pereira will for­ever be lauded for bringing a local identity to parang music.
So exclaimed National Parang Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NPATT) public relations officer Joanne Briggs following the recent passing of the parang stalwart.
“What Henry did is bring a sense of ‘Trinidadianess’ to the music. Even though he kept the tradition of the parang music structure, he incorporated some of what we are in the music,” said Briggs, during a WhatsApp exchange with the Express yesterday.
That vision changed the course of the genre and gave parang the unique sound that is loved throughout the islands today, Briggs said. Pereira’s iconic parang hits “Parranda Fina”, “En El Corazon del Hombre”, “Andamos Buscando”, “Soca Sereno” and “Canta Noel” are all standards of the genre.
“For example, with ‘Parranda Fina’—which is a favourite of a lot of parangderos, and they perform it as part of their repertoire—that song has a calypso rhythm to it. And it also describes where we go to sing parang and what we do for parang. It’s basically a tribute or love song for what parang is for us as parangderos,” Brings added.
Pereira, 76, passed away on September 25. The Los Reyes parang band lead singer had suffered “a long illness” and was buried on September 29, following a service at St Anthony’s RC Church, Tabaquite.
NPATT president Alicia Jaggasar expressed condolences to both the Pereira family and Los Reyes yesterday. Jaggasar, lead singer of Los Alumnos de San Juan, said Pereira’s contribution will live on for decades to come.
“Mr Pereira will be missed. Many parang bands play his music, and his contribution to the artform would live in the hearts of all parranderos and parang lovers forever,” Jaggasar said.
Briggs, meanwhile, said while parang music has lost another formidable act, they are still privileged to call on the experience and wisdom of veterans like Clarita Rivas, Michael Lezama and the surviving members of the famous Santa Cruz-based Lara Brothers band.
“We still have people like Clarita Rivas around. We still have some members of the Lara Brothers still there—for example, Pink Eye. Even though he hasn’t been in the frontline as the Lara Brothers were, he is still part of the foundation of parang here. Yuh have people around. Our foundation members like Michael Lezama from San Jose are still here to learn from,” Briggs said.
The Spanish teacher from Tabaquite
In life, sharing knowledge is what Pereira did best. He was fondly known as the Spanish teacher from Tabaquite, having taught at the only secondary school in the area, Taba­quite Composite, after starting his teaching career at Rio Claro Government Secondary School.
Pereira’s big break in music came unexpectedly after joining his first band, Los Muchachos del Agua, in 1973.
The guitarist for the band, a young Pereira, found himself thrust into the spotlight and asked to do a solo one night when the original lead singer failed to show.
“That performance won him the prize for best lead singer. He went on to win this title numerous times,” Briggs recalled.
Jaggasar, meanwhile, says the passing of legends like Pereira leaves immense spaces in parang that must be filled by those next in line. It’s up to the more experienced parranderos on the island to set the pace anew for the next generation, she said.
“Henry Pereira has influenced the lives of all parranderos in Trinidad and Tobago. During his earthly presence [he] ensured that his legacy would live on through the knowledge and skills imparted to us parranderos. On a personal note, Mr Pereira has been instrumental in me being the writer and parrandera I am today. I am writing and my eyes and heart are filled,” Jaggasar concluded. {source:  The Daily Express, Oct 5, 2022}

Trinidadian calypsonian, David Rudder was among four Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nationals who were conferred with the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC) at the opening ceremony of the recent 43rd Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, in Paramaribo, Suriname.
The other honorees were: Former CARICOM Secretary-General, Amb. Irwin LaRocque; cricketer extraordinaire Sir Vivian Richards; and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbados, Dame Billie Miller.
The Georgetown, Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said the honorees joined a cadre of distinguished persons who are honored for making outstanding contributions to the development of the Community.
The award is given to “Caribbean nationals whose legacy in the economic, political, social and cultural metamorphoses of Caribbean society is phenomenal,” said the Secretariat in a statement.
“I’m deeply humbled,” said Rudder after receiving the award. “Thank you, Caribbean Community.”
Later, he told the Canadian-based Caribbean Camera from his home in Ajax, Ontario, Canada that he was very surprised by the award.
“It felt like a dream,” Caribbean Camera quoted Rudder as saying. “It also felt great. You know, you always want to know how much of an impact your work, your art, is having beyond your normal sphere of living. This gives me a sense of how far I’ve progressed in life.”
Rudder, who was born on May 6, 1953, is renowned by his rallying cry for Caribbean fans to support the West Indies cricket team, with “Rally ‘Round the West Indies,” which has become the team’s anthem.
He is said to be “one of the most successful calypsonians of all time,” according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
It said Rudder performed as lead singer for the brass band Charlie’s Roots, and that, nine years later, he “stepped outside the band, entering the calypso tent as a solo calypsonian in 1986, which was followed by an unprecedented rise to fame.”
“Almost overnight, he became a national hero of the order of Marley in Jamaica, Fela in Nigeria and Springsteen in New Jersey,” wrote Daisann McClane, American journalist and Worldbeat correspondent for Rolling Stone Magazine.
Wikipedia said Rudder’s music quickly became the subject of music critics around the world: “From New York to London to Tokyo, where the Japanese have released a CD of Rudder’s greatest hits complete with lyrics translated into Japanese, Rudder has been described as modern calypso’s most innovative songwriter.”
The CARICOM Secretariat said the OCC was first conferred in 1992. The first awardees were Dr. William Demas, former CARICOM Secretary-General; Sir Shridath Ramphal, former chief negotiator of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, chairman of the West Indian Commission and former Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI); and Derek Walcott, distinguished and internationally-acclaimed poet and playwright, and 1992 Nobel Prize recipient for literature.
Over the years, the Secretariat said the list has expanded to encompass a range of other persons, including former Heads of Government, sports personalities, regional creatives, representatives of the legal fraternity, members of academia, economists and members of the medical profession.
Rudder told Caribbean Camera that he was awed to be in such “august company,” stating that the award “means a lot to me.”
“I sometimes feel that the arts do not get the respect it deserves,” he said. “I feel that this allows me to feel that it [my award] represents all those who have something to say. So, I accept it on their behalf.
“You know, I reached a point where I was getting a bit jaded and not as eager to produce at the same level to which I’m accustomed,” Rudder added. “But this award tells me that I should go on.” (Source: Caribbean Life, July 27, 2022)

The Mighty Sparrow, the undisputed Calypso King of the World, was baptized on Saturday at Far Rockaway Beach in Queens.
According to the Searchlight newspaper in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sparrow, 87, whose real name is Slinger Francisco, was “taken into the water of Holy Baptism by Vincentian Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Claudius Morgan.” Morgan, a former calypsonian, carried the sobriquet “Samaritan Singer.”
The paper said that Sparrow, who now resides in Queens, was “dressed in all white” for his water baptism.
“He is now known as Brother Francisco (and is) a member of the Linden Seventh Day Adventist Church in New York,” the Searchlight said.
While celebrating his 87th birthday in July, the legendary Mighty Sparrow told the Trinidad Express newspaper that the felt “wonderful.”
The publication said that Sparrow, who was born on Jul. 9, 1935, was expected to spend his special day listening to a radio i95.5 FM tribute, dubbed “Sparrow Day.”
The Express said the musical buffet, hosted by presenters John Gill and John Wayne, featured “a slew of (Sparrow) classics,” like “Jean and Dinah”, “Sa Sa Yea,” “Both Of Them,” “Drunk and Disorderly,” “Survival, Capitalism Gone Mad” and “Education.”
Sparrow, who grew up in Port-of-Spain, the Trinidad capital, was born in the fishing village of Grand Roy, Grenada.
He moved to Trinidad and Tobago as a one-year-old with his mother. His father had relocated there in 1937.
Sparrow, who is also a songwriter and guitarist, is regarded as one of the most renowned and most successful calypsonians.
He has won Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival Road March competition eight times, Calypso King/Monarch eight times, and has twice won the Calypso King of Kings title.
In reflecting on his life and career, during his 87th birthday celebration in July, Sparrow told the Trinidad Express: “Everybody gone (passed on) and left me. Winsford Devine (celebrated songwriter who wrote some of his megahits).
“I was just looking at a video with Kitch (short for Kitchener, whose real name was Aldwyn Roberts) and I. We were dancing and carrying on on stage,” Sparrow said. “Now he’s gone.
“I was looking at another video, ‘We Are The World’. It has a host of performers like Shadow (Winston Bailey). Now he’s gone,” Sparrow added. “Guitarist George Victory, and artistes like De Fosto, Rootsman, Brigo and Penguin passed on.
“Sugar Aloes and Cro Cro are in the video. They are still here,” Sparrow continued. “It was a beautiful experience to work with all of them.”
In July 2010, the United States Congress listed Sparrow in its Congressional Record.
As the Caribbean community in New York, on Jul. 9, 2010 celebrated Sparrow’s 75th birthday, Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke said that she ensured that Sparrow was listed in the Record.
“It is important that the entire nation know what the Mighty Sparrow has done for us,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, told an honor ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall, downtown Brooklyn, organized the entertainment company, Dee Vee International Productions, owned by Grenadian-born, Brooklyn resident Derek Ventour.
“So, we have entered him in the Congressional Record,” added Clarke, representative for the then 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn. She now represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn.
Reading from the Record, Clarke said then that Sparrow had entertained audiences “from the Caribbean to Asia and all points in between,” in a career spanning over 50 years.
The Congressional Record states that “The Birdie,” as Sparrow is also called, had found success early with his hit, “Jean and Dinah,” at the age of 20.
“Not satisfied with early success, he followed up with a rapid succession of hits, including ‘Carnival Boycott,’ ‘P.A.Y.E.,’ ‘Russian Satellite,’ ‘Theresa,’ ‘Good Citizen,’ ‘Salt Fish’ and ‘Penny Commission,’ just to name a few,” it says.
The Record says that Sparrow’s songs cover a “broad range of socially conscious topics, including education, tyranny in Africa, animal cruelty and the welfare of his home of Trinidad and Tobago.”
The Mighty Sparrow’s accomplishments include multiple Trinidad and Tobago Road March Competition titles; multiple Calypso Monarch titles; an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies; and general contributions to music and society, with then New York City Mayor Ed Koch, proclaiming Mar. 18, 1986 “The Mighty Sparrow Day,” the Congressional Record notes.
In presenting a citation, then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sparrow “touched the lives of countless listeners.”
Former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said, in jest, that he became a “Trini,” short for Trinidadian, from Tunapuna, because of the Mighty Sparrow, stating that Sparrow’s “Congo Man” was one of his favorite songs.
“It is wonderful that you can understand his music and his words,” said Markowitz, declaring Jul. 10, 2010 “The Mighty Sparrow Celebration Day,” before presenting a citation to Sparrow’s daughter, Nicole Robinson.
Former New York State Assemblyman Nick Perry – the Jamaican-born, ex-representative for the 58th Assembly District in Brooklyn, currently United States Ambassador to Jamaica – said Sparrow’s history, as the Calypso King of the World, is “unchallenged and undisputed.”
Perry, who also presented a citation, during the celebration, described Sparrow’s achievements as “extraordinary” and “unique.”
In saluting the calypso maestro, erstwhile Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas said very few artistes from anywhere can boast of an on-going career that has spanned in excess of five decades.
“Indeed, you have made significant contributions to Caribbean and world culture, politics and story-telling, through your tremendous wit, extensive breadth of topics covered and unsurpassed propensity to build on, innovate and capture new rhythms across genres,” said Thomas at the time in a statement.
With his baptism Saturday as a Seventh Day Adventist, it is uncertain if the legendary Mighty Sparrow will ever again sing calypsos to his legions of fans worldwide. (Source: Caribbean Life, Sept 8, 2022)

Calypso icon David Rudder was conferred with the Order of the Caribbean Community, considered the highest award in the region.
The Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs said in a statement that Rudder received the Order at a ceremony at the Diplomatic Centre in Port of Spain on Wednesday (August 10), following a decision taken by CARICOM Heads of Government at the 43rd CARICOM Heads of Government Conference held in Paramaribo, Suriname in July 2022.
The Ministry said Rudder had been unavailable to attend that event and so the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, together with the CARICOM Secretariat, conferred the award at a special function on Wednesday.
Allison Drayton, Assistant Secretary General of Human and Social Development of the Caribbean Community praised Rudder for raising the spirits of the region. She noted that everyone felt Trini to the Bone as a result of his music.
In a pre-recorded address, Surinamese president and Chair of the Caribbean Community Chandrikapersad Santokhi thanked Rudder for his sterling contribution to calypso and to the region.
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne presented  Rudder with the award and delivered from the podium a detailed Citation that praised his stellar contribution as a "cultural icon to the social fabric of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean as a whole".
The Minister lauded the wide span and longevity of  Rudder’s work, and included specific reflections on the profound impact of  Rudder’s seminal work in 1986 when his album “The Hammer” broke into the consciousness of Trinidad and Tobago and the world.
Dr Browne’s presentation also highlighted that the clarion call of  Rudder to Rally Round the West Indies remains cemented as an emotional anthem for West Indies cricket to this day.
In accepting the award, Rudder sincerely thanked the Caribbean Community and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for the honour and admonished young people to continue to learn and never to give up.
Background on the Order of the Caribbean Community
Initiated in 1987 during the Eighth (8th) Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, the Order of the Caribbean Community is conferred upon nationals of the Caribbean whose contributions to the development of the region are considered to be outstanding.
At the 43rd Conference of the Heads of Government held in Paramaribo, Suriname, three other awardees were conferred the Order of the Caribbean Community, namely, Irwin LaRocque, former Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community; Sir Vivian Richards, cricketer; and Dame Billie Miller, former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Barbados.
The Order of the Caribbean Community represents the highest award in the region and is bestowed with great pride and joy. The award can only be held by 15 living awardees at any time. Prior to 2022, the OCC had not been conferred in 10 years.
Privileges and Entitlements:

• The Members of the Order of the Caribbean Community enjoy the following privileges and entitlements, amongst others:
• The award confers the styling The Honourable upon the recipient and Post-nominals OCC.
• Members of the Order are accorded the privilege of free movement among Member States of the Community and are issued with a travel document which is assigned similar status to a diplomatic passport.
• The right to reside in and be gainfully employed in any Member State, as well as the right to acquire and dispose of property, as would citizens of Member States. 

(Source: The Loop, August 11, 2022)

Born in Trinidad on June 21, 1928, Mona Baptiste became a popular singer and actress in London and Germany.
She migrated to England in 1948, one of the few women on the Empire Windrush which docked at Tilbury the day after her 20th birthday.
Within six weeks she was already appearing on the BBC’s Light programme.
Baptiste was largely popular for songs like 'Calypso Blues' and 'There’s Something in the Air'.
In Germany, she gained recognition for songs such as 'There’s Something in the Air' and movie appearances in films like 'Tanz in der Sonne' and 'An jedem Finger zehn' in 1954.
After suffering a stroke, Baptiste died on June 25, 1993, in Dublin, Ireland.
Video via German Music Channel
(I don’t not own the copyright)  (Source: Dominic Kalipersad, June 23, 2022)

In 1992, David was given the Trinidad and Tobago Humming Bird Medal Silver (for culture) award in recognition of his unfailing contributions to uplift the roots of Calypsonian culture as evident in his compositions. In 1996, he was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Development Programme. He was also able to expand his music by going into soca music (a style of music which also originated from calypso and American soul which has a pounding beat). In 2008, Rudder collaborated with fellow Trinidadian, Machel Montano in his 2007 album Flame on.
Still, many albums and citations followed. He has been featured in various famous magazines, journals and websites such as British Sunday Observer and Guardian, the Barbados Nation and the Gleaner in Jamaica, Germany’s Berliner Morgenpost and Stern Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Billboard, Class Magazine, Ebony Magazine and Newsweek Magazine.
Aside from having won prestigious awards and being featured in several shows and print media, another thing he should be proud of is that he has been studied by music critics and academics alike, something which only a music icon can achieve.
David Rudder has performed in many well-known places in North America, Europe, Japan and all over the Caribbean. He has also starred in a television drama entitled Sugar Cane Arrows which was his first Trinidadian drama aired in the USA. He was given a citation in the University of West Indies, Saint Augustine Campus in August 2015 where they honored his outstanding works and contributions to society, conferring him with the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa. He was also given positive reviews from fellow musicians and even those who distinguished names in the music industry, which proves that he has earned their admiration and respect.
David Michael Rudder has indeed made a mark in the hearts and minds of the people through his music. (Source: ​http://www.davidmichaelrudder.com/category/blogging/)