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Master of Trinidadian music who introduced the calypso to Britain By Peter Mason, The Guardian |
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The arrival, in 1948 at Tilbury docks, of "Lord Kitchener", who has died aged 77, is preserved on film. He had his guitar with him, and Kitchener, one of the great calypsonians - and the trailblazer responsible for the growth of Trinidadian music's popularity in Britain - appears as one of those dignified representatives of first-generation Caribbean immigrants. He was exotic, immaculately dressed and, as is the calypsonian's wont, ready with a line in topical verse. Kitchener arrived on the Empire Windrush, the vessel that brought the first substantial group of postwar West Indian immigrants to Britain. He was one of the few Trinidadians on the ship - the majority were Jamaican - and he stayed for 14 years. In 1951 he was on film again, leading the pitch invasion at Lords which followed the West Indies cricket team's first victory over England. By then, he was a chronicler of the Caribbean experience in Britain. There were calypsos like I Can't Stand The Cold In Winter, If You're Brown, My Landlady, and, more positively, London Is The Place For Me. Calypso was shaped in Trinidad, where its blend of Latin American and African rhythms has long been a hugely popular vehicle for social and political commentary, witty insult, sexual innuendo and - as "the people's newspaper" - a way of analysing topical events. Kitchener's first weeks in England were spent singing to bemused audiences in pubs, but within six months he had broken into the London nightclub circuit with his own band. The key to his success was an ability to reach beyond the Caribbean diaspora - indeed, Princess Margaret reputedly bought 100 copies of his Ah Bernice to send to friends. With his earnings, he opened his own club in Manchester in 1958. But he retained his links with home. Throughout his stay, he sent songs back to Trinidad for its annual carnival; and, in London, he was part of the milieu which gave birth to the Notting Hill carnival in the late 1960s. By the time he moved back to Trinidad in late 1962 - after that country's independence - he had become a revered link with the prewar calypsonian tradition. He took his homeland by storm. Aldwyn Roberts had taken the stage name "Kitchener" as a teenager. Born in Arima, he had resolved that, despite a lifelong stammer, he was going to make his fortune as a calypso singer. "Lord" was a title awarded by his fans. Back home after England, he won Trinidad's road march title - awarded to the singer whose calypso is most played on the streets at each year's carnival - a staggering 10 times between 1963 and 1976, more than anyone else ever achieved. Crowned "Road March King of the World", he dominated the carnival: "Somebody going to frighten bad/ Because Kitchener come back to Trinidad." Thus wrote Tiny Terror in his Tribute To Kitchener calypso. Mighty Sparrow was his only rival. In 1975, after Kitch won the carnival's annual calypso monarch competition, he and Sparrow retired from the event to open the field for other contenders. Kitch recorded up to his death, performing with a vitality that put younger calypsonians to shame. He ran his own calypso tent for more than 30 years in Port of Spain, nurturing talent such as David Rudder and Black Stallion. He also composed for steel bands, having loved the steel pan since its emergence in the 1940s. His style, concentrating on humour, double entendre and the quirks of everyday life, was sometimes criticised for its frivolity. But he did contribute to calypso's tradition of political commentary - speaking out against the government when other calypsonians kept quiet during Trinidad's 1970 black-power revolution. He supported pan-Africanism with his song Africa My Home (1957), and some of his early songs, including Yankee Sufferers (1945), were banned by the British colonial authorities. Twice married, Kitch only left Trinidad for occasional tours in later life, cultivating a lifestyle that fitted his essential shyness. The people of Trinidad loved him. Latterly, his face appeared on a postage stamp, and there is a statue of him outside Port of Spain. He turned down a Chaconia medal, insulted that he was not thought worthy of Trinidad's highest honour, the Trinity Cross. Kitch proclaimed himself the "grandmaster of calypso". He was. Aldwyn Roberts, 'Lord Kitchener', calypsonian, born April 18 1922; died February 11 2000 |