calypso

A mento quartet from Port Antonio, Jamaica, formed 1955. They perform with bongos, banjo, rhumba box & kalimba / finger-piano. In the 50s, they were popular at The Trident Hotel & parties for 'the rich'n'famous', e.g. at Errol Flynn's residence. During the late 80s, they received renewed interest, when Jules Shear heard them playing at the Trident - he returned later & produced Pop 'N' Mento & other albums. A new album - Great Expectation - is slated for release, late 2010. http://Furious.com/perfect/JollyBoys.

Banda Calypso was assembled in Belém, the state capital of Pará in Brazil, in late 90s by the couple Chimbinha and Joelma. Restricted to Brazil's northern musical circuit in their early days, Calypso today enjoys great success countrywide. Well known for catchy and simplistic lyrics mixed up with highly danceable music, Calypso is the latest fever in Brazil, attracting hundreds of people to their shows, wherever they play (and also attracting the rage of more intellectualized music listeners, who refute their songs as annoying, repetitive, futile and empty).

McArtha Lewis, better known as Calypso Rose (born April 27, 1940 in Bethel, Tobago) is a Tobagonian calypsonian. Named after the American general Douglas MacArthur, Rose's earliest years were a crowded environment - 19 people in a one-bedroom house. When she was 9, she moved to live with an uncle in Barataria She began writing songs at the age of 15, and has written over 800 songs. In 1966 she wrote the song Fire in Me Wire, which has since become a calypso anthem. Rose was the first female to win the Trinidad Road March Competition, in 1977 with her song Tempo.

Toronto-based band Kobo Town is named after the historic neighborhood in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where traditional calypso (kaiso) was born amid the boastful, humourous and militant chants of the roaming stickfighters. Situated near the fishermen's wharf, the area was a site of constant defiance and conflict, a place where sticks and stones, songs and verses clashed with the bayonets and batons of colonial rule. For the members of the eight-piece outfit, the name suggests an origin as well as a destination.