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Calypsonian
A calypsonian,Definition of CALYPSO
merriam-webster.com originally known as a '''', is a musician from the anglophone Caribbean who sings songs of the calypso genre. Calypsos are musical renditions having their origins in the West African tradition. Originally called "Kaiso" in , these song ...
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Calypso Music
Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century. It is characterized by highly rhythmic and harmonic vocals, and was historically most often sung in a French creole and led by a griot. As calypso developed, the role of the griot became known as a ''chantuelle'' and eventually, ''calypsonian''. As English replaced "patois" (Antillean creole) as the dominant language, calypso migrated into English, and in so doing it attracted more attention from the government. It allowed the masses to challenge the doings of the unelected Governor and Legislative Council, and the elected town councils of Port of Spain and San Fernando. Calypso continued to play an important role in politic ...
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Attila The Hun (calypsonian)
Raymond Quevedo (24 March 1892 – 22 February 1962), better known as Atilla the Hun, was a calypsonian from Trinidad. He began singing in 1911 and was at his most prominent in the 1930s and 1940s. He was one of the pioneers in spreading awareness of calypso beyond its birthplace in Trinidad and Tobago. Together with the Roaring Lion ( Rafael de Leon) he brought calypso to the United States for the first time in 1934. One of his popular calypsos was "FDR in Trinidad", commemorating U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1936 trip to Trinidad. Atilla competed in the first Calypso King contest in 1939, and won the title in both 1946 and 1947.Thompson, p. 5, 59 Known as a defender of the poor, Atilla was able to transition to a political career. When several of his records were censored he composed "The Banning of Records", which was itself banned. Atilla was the first calypsonian to hold elected public office; he was elected to the Port of Spain City Council in 1946 and was ...
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Chantwell
Kaiso is folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music. As early as the 1780s, the word kaiso was used to describe a French-based creole languages, French creole song and, in Trinidad, kaiso seems to have been perfected by the chantwells (singers, mostly female) during the first half of the 19th centurThe chantwells, assisted by alternating in call-and-response style with a chorus, were a central component of the practice called Calinda (stick-fighting). Calinda was a central component of early carnival celebrations in Trinidad, and after emancipation (1834), Afro-Creole peoples, Creoles essentially took over the streets during carnival. Elite French Creole revellers, for their part, moved their carnival celebrations indoors and to private parties. Kaiso used satirical and insulting lyrics, and is related to the picong tradition. Kaiso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in French-based creole languages, French creole. Chantwells The "chantwell" is another incar ...
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Calypso Monarch
The Calypso Monarch (originally Calypso King) contest is one of the two major annual calypso competitions held in Trinidad as part of the annual carnival celebrations. History While Trinidad's carnival has its origins in the 18th century, a singing contest was first held in 1911, when the Jubilee Establishment offered a prize for "the most original song on a local topic".Thompson, Dave (2002) ''Reggae & Caribbean Music'', Backbeat Books, , pp. 4-5 Further competitions were held after World War I, and the Calypso King contest was first held in 1939. The first winner was Growling Tiger with "Trade Union", followed by Roaring Lion in 1940 and Mighty Destroyer in 1941.Winer, Lise (2009) ''Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad and Tobago'', McGill-Queen's University Press, , p. 159 After a break during World War II, it resumed in 1946, with Atilla the Hun winning the first of two consecutive titles. Mighty Spoiler won the first of three titles in 1948, and Lord Melody the first ...
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Chantwell
Kaiso is folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music. As early as the 1780s, the word kaiso was used to describe a French-based creole languages, French creole song and, in Trinidad, kaiso seems to have been perfected by the chantwells (singers, mostly female) during the first half of the 19th centurThe chantwells, assisted by alternating in call-and-response style with a chorus, were a central component of the practice called Calinda (stick-fighting). Calinda was a central component of early carnival celebrations in Trinidad, and after emancipation (1834), Afro-Creole peoples, Creoles essentially took over the streets during carnival. Elite French Creole revellers, for their part, moved their carnival celebrations indoors and to private parties. Kaiso used satirical and insulting lyrics, and is related to the picong tradition. Kaiso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in French-based creole languages, French creole. Chantwells The "chantwell" is another incar ...
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Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, and several small islands which lie to the north of the main island and are a part of the Grenadines. It is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Its size is , and it had an estimated population of 112,523 in July 2020. Its capital is St. George's. Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its production of nutmeg and mace crops. Before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, Grenada was inhabited by the indigenous peoples from South America. Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 during his third voyage to the Americas. Following several unsuccessful attempts by Europeans to colonise the island due to resistance from res ...
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Rap Battle
Battle rap (also known as rap battling)Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 25. is a type of rapping performed between two or more performers that incorporates boasts, insults and wordplay. Battle rap is often performed or freestyled spontaneously in live battles, "where MCs will perform on the same stage to see who has the better verses", although it can also appear on studio albums.Edwards, Paul, 2009, p. 27. Although never a battler himself, battle rap was loosely described by 40 Cal, previously a member of American hip hop collective The Diplomats, in the book ''How to Rap'' (2009) as an "extracurricular" display of skill, comparing it to the dunk contest in the NBA. Battle rap has since developed into highly organized league events drawing in significant revenue and attention, with events for battles usually being "sold out." Mainstream artists such as Diddy, Busta Rhymes, Drake, Joe Budden and Cassidy have attended or participated in battles to help increase their popularity. Rap ...
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Trinidad And Tobago Carnival
The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is an annual event held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. This event is well known for participants' colorful costumes and exuberant celebrations. There are numerous cultural events such as "band launch fetes" running in the lead up to the street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. It is said that if the islanders are not celebrating it, then they are preparing for it, while reminiscing about the past year's festival. Traditionally, the festival is associated with calypso music, with its origins formulated in the midst of hardship for enslaved West and Central Africans; however, recently Soca music has replaced calypso as the most celebrated type of music. Costumes (sometimes called " mas"), stick-fighting and limbo competitions are also important components of the festival. Carnival, as it is celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago, is also celebrated in several cities worldwide. These celebrations include Toront ...
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Extempo
Extempo (also extempo calypso) is a lyrically improvised form of calypso and is most notably practiced in Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago. It consists of performers improvising in song or in rhythmic speech on a given theme before an audience, which take turns to perform. It is inherently competitive, and success is judged by the wit and the ingenuity of the performance. It is similar in form to what has been defined as traditional African song: "a recitative or chants with a short chorus. The soloist gives the melody while a chorus sings a refrain. As the melody is given out, they turn to one another, each improvising in turn. Extempo tends to comprise topics from current events treated with mockery, ridicule and sarcasm, or with flattery or praise.” Art of extempo It is characterised either by the “single tone”, consisting of four-line stanzas or the “double tone”, which has eight-line stanzas. There are four basic melodies common to extempo: “Sans Humanite” ...
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Stick Fighting
Stick-fighting, stickfighting, or stick fighting is a variety of martial arts which use simple long, slender, blunt, hand-held, generally wooden "sticks" for fighting, such as a gun staff, bō, jō, walking stick, baston, arnis sticks or similar weapons. Some techniques can also be used with a sturdy umbrella or even with a sword or dagger in its scabbard. Thicker and/or heavier blunt weapons such as clubs or the mace are outside the scope of "stick-fighting" (since they cannot be wielded with such precision, so sheer force of impact is more important), as are more formed weapons such as the ''taiaha'' used by the Māori people of New Zealand, and the ''macuahuitl'' used by the Aztec people of Mesoamerica in warfare. Although many systems are defensive combat techniques intended for use if attacked while lightly armed, others such as ''kendo'', ''arnis'', and ''gatka'' were developed as safe training methods for dangerous weapons. Whatever their history, many stick-fighting t ...
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Call-and-response
Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of antiphony. African cultures In some African cultures, call-and-response is a widespread pattern of democratic participation—in public gatherings, in the discussion of civic affairs, in religious rituals, as well as in vocal and instrumental musical expression (see call and response in music). African bondsmen and bondswomen in the Americas continued this practice over the centuries in various forms of expression—in religious observance; public gatherings; even in children's rhymes; and, most notably, in music in its multiple forms: blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, hip-hop and go-go. Many work songs sung on plantations by enslaved men and women also incorporate the call and response format. African-American Women Work Son ...
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Canboulay
Canboulay (from the French ''cannes brulées'', meaning burnt cane) is a precursor to Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The festival is also where calypso music has its roots. It was originally a harvest festival, at which drums, singing, dancing and chanting were an integral part. After Emancipation (1834), it developed into an outlet and a festival for former indentured laborers and freed slaves who were banned from participating in the masquerade carnival events – derived from European Christian traditions – of the colonial elite, and whose drums and religious observances were also outlawed in the late 19th century. Consequently, Canboulay has played an important role in the development of the music of Trinidad and Tobago, for it was the banning of percussion instruments in the 1880s that led to the surreptitious innovations that gave birth to steelpan music. It is re-enacted in Port of Spain each Carnival Friday in Trinidad. See also * Canboulay riots The Canboulay riots were ...
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