y Raffique Shah
December 22, 2013
Just when it seemed that we would end 2013 with only memories of macabre murders, of innocent children being battered and slaughtered by barbaric adults, two Caribbean singers rescue us with their vocal and musical prowess, with the food of love that transcends the pettiness of insularity, lifts our spirits and maybe even our souls.
Continue reading The singers…and the songs
Selwyn Ryan – March 26, 2013
www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-03-25/ryan-crime-report-soca-music-breeding-criminals
Soca, dancehall and hip-hop music are said to be influencing youths into criminal behaviour. This is according to a report by the Ryan Committee on Youth at Risk. The report was laid in Parliament by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday. The committee’s report said while it was impossible to draw a definitive correlation between violence or explicitness of lyrics and the level of criminality among youth, the lyrics of 2012 soca hits “tend to support the idea of a contemporary youth culture that is very consistent with the rebellious behaviour of previous generations of youth.”
Continue reading Ryan crime report: Soca music breeding criminals
From the article below (the bottom of the first page and continuing onto the second page), it appears that Machel Montano did perform at the “Nine Mile Music Festival 2013” which was held in Florida, Miami on March 02, 2013. There were concerns that his U.S. visa would have been revoked following his conviction last year for assaulting four persons in 2007 outside Zen night club in Port-of-Spain and for using obscene language. Montano was fined on February 25, 2013.
Continue reading Machel Montano Performed in Miami After All
By Corey Gilkes
March 04, 2013 – trinicenter.com
I had planned to make my first contribution for 2013 to be on the series of important film documentaries on Trinidad Carnival put on by the TT Film Festival, not least of which were the two on Minshall and the presentation given by Ray Funk. Some were poorly attended but they were all priceless in the way each of them opened a little more of that portal on ourselves more of us need to see. Minsh used the streets as his canvass to express his philosophy in the traditions of Bailey, Saldenah and the legions of largely (tragically) nameless persons who used the Midnight Robber, the Minstrel, the Baby Doll, the Dame Lorraine, the Burrokeet, the Jab Molassie to hold up the mirror of society and all its hypocrisy and excesses to show us what many of us really are. That aspect of our Mas, the use of the open space as a gigantic participatory (before the advent of security, ropes and the word “exclusive”) political and social theatre, is perhaps the most important message that needs to be kept firmly in the minds of those who wish to take over the Mas – specifically those who have reduced it to empty, expressionless displays of bikinis, bras and feathers as if here is Las Vegas.
Continue reading The “Pontificat”: Akilah Holder’s ‘Carnival’ Article
Commenting after Zoanette Johnson’s rendition of “Circle of Life”, Nicki Minaj said:
“I’m proud that this place right here gives people like you and me, that came from absolutely nothing, from a country that we didn’t probably think we’d make it out alive, it gives us a shot. Thank you, Thank you. …”
Listen to Nicki Minaj after 5:17 on the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=SxoW_oXs2jw
Continue reading Did Nicki Minaj Sell T&T Short on American Idol?
SLAP ON WRIST
By Laurel V Williams
February 26 2013 – newsday.co.tt
HAVING been convicted last year of assaulting four persons outside a Port-of-Spain nightclub in 2007 and for using obscene language, soca superstar Machel Montano got a virtual “slap on the wrist” when he was fined $13,700.
Continue reading Machel Montano Fined for Night Club Brawl
By Raffique Shah
February 10, 2013
WHATEVER our differing views on Carnival, one thing we can agree on is the heights of happiness that the festival engenders at all levels of the society. There is hardly a sourpuss left scowling as the music, the visuals and the spirit take possession of our beings, commanding us to listen, to look, to sing along, to dance and, most of all, to laugh and be happy.
Continue reading Carnival is happiness, harmony
Mistah Shak – D Blueprint – Calypso Fiesta Skinner Park 2012
Continue reading Mistah Shak vs Chalkdust
By Raffique Shah
February 25, 2012
ON Ash Wednesday, two articles in the Express perked me up. In the first, Planning and Development Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie, interviewed in the Grand Stand, told reporter Anna Ramdass that soca star Machel Montano “should be leading the charge in selling Trinidad and Tobago internationally”. Vowing to pursue this quest at Cabinet level, Dr Tewarie added, “…I think Machel is in a class by himself… we should try to support an external thrust led by Machel in the world outside…”
Continue reading Marketing our music
By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 22, 2012
I was stuck by Michael Narine’s post, “Culture is a ploy for more state money” and Newsday’s headline “Calypso gets $1M.” With that came a justification from Dr. Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool: “This is good for calypso. Calypso is the father of all different genres of music, so they must ensure that calypso gets a good prize. All these other genres of music: chutney, soca, they came out of calypso, so it’s only fair that calypsonians get a good prize.” I will not argue with the doctor’s thesis except to say that at the beginning of the 21st century we may have to revise our accepted concepts of the genre, its influences and the musical forms it has spewed.
Continue reading Carnival and Culture
