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Andy Narell Calypso Giant Relator Team Up

Posted by CaribShout on August 11, 2009 at 7:00pm

`The University of Calypso’ on Heads Up International, a division of the Concorde Music Group, is the CD just released that celebrates the marriage of steel pan and calypso in a major way. Andy Narell is the musician who has spent more than a quarter century exploring the complexities of steel pan and steering it into a jazz idiom. He is known as one of the few steel pan players in the world who are playing jazz, to create the new music for the pan in the jazz arena. Narell joined forces with calypso master Relator to explore the role of jazz in vintage calypso. CLASSIC CALYPSOS To achieve their goal, which resulted in this remarkable new CD, the duo performed 15 classic compositions by the world’s best vintage calypsonians. Lord Melody, Mighty Terror, Lord Kitchener, Roaring Lion, Spider and Relator are supported by world renowned Latin-jazz musicians like Pedro Martinez, Paquito Rivera, Dario Eskenazi, Mark Walker and Gregory Jones. This CD is cause for celebration in that it has been over 50 years since a major calypsonian went into the studio with a bunch of jazz players. RELATOR THE MASTER OF EXTEMPO “Oddly enough, there has been very little interaction between calypsonians and small jazz bands since the ’50s. Relator and I are drawing a lot of inspiration from the idea of picking up where Kitchener left off 50 years ago,” noted Narell. Relator, whose real name is Willard Harris is one of Trinidad’s finest calypso singers. He’s also an accomplished singer, songwriter, with a long series of outstanding compositions to his credit. He is also one of the greatest living masters of extempo - an improvised calypso cutting contest in which, like hip-hop freestyle competitions, two singers attempt to blow each other away. Relator has been featured in two recent films about Trinidad music; `Calypso at Dirty Jim’s’ and `Calypso Dreams.’ CALYPSO YEAR ROUND “Is a tradition we upholdin’. We know what standards are set, what values, and what we stay true to that. We are true servants to det’ing. We are not mocking’ pretenders or exploiters or opportunists looking’ to be popular an t’ing. We believe that vintage calypso must be preserved, and that is the line that we are on,” said Relator. More recently, Relator has been advocating a year-round focus on calypso music in Trinidad, as opposed to the traditional model in which calypso disappears when Carnival is over. “I’m not catering to someone who tells me that after Carnival my thing is finished. I did 25 years of that. Every week I write calypso, but you don’t get the coverage because it is not Carnival season. We have to get into an area where we can write a song any time in the year and they play it on the radio.” LORD KITCHENER INSPIRATION Andy Narell has always focused on bringing the steelpan out of the steelband and into the jazz band. In 2007, Narell flew to Trinidad to present a concert of his steelband music at the Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan Festival, playing with the great Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra. While there he sat in with Relator at a tribute to Lord Kitchener. Narell recalled: “There were four different sets, ranging from solo piano to big band and steelband, and everybody played Kitch’s music. Relator did a beautiful set with just guitar and a precussionist, and at one point I heard him say that he had gone to the University of Kitch, and was proud to be one of its best students. I knew that Relator has sung in Kitcherer’s tent for 17 years, and that they were very close, and that he has a deep understanding of Kitchener’s music. I’ve been playing Kitche­ner’s since I was a little kid, so the `University of Kitch’ really resonated with me. When we decided to record together, I proposed that we call the project the `University of Calypso’ to capture that feeling that we share.” SEVERAL MUSICAL ELEMENTS Hopefully, The University of Calypso will help Andy Narell and Relator bring this music to a new audience, all year round. “I believe this project has great potential to reach people,” Says Narell. “The music is so acce­ssible, people can latch on to so many different things, the beautiful melodies, the groove for dancing, the stories told in the lyrics, the humor, the jazz elements, how the band plays together and interact, the soloing - and on top of it all, we’ve got an incredible dynamic guy out front singing these songs, a real storyteller in the great calypso tradition. I wanted to record some of this music right away in order to breathe life into the project and get it off the ground, but the real goal in my mind is to get in front of people and play it live.” GREAT CONCEPT Narell acknowledges that there are many great calypsonians but praises Relator’s experience in making this CD memorable. “Relator’s knowledge of it all os so vast that we could make a dozen albums right now and still have plenty of great material to work with. But 15 tunes is a good first outing. With this concept, we have for the University of Calypso, and with our possibilities of this beautiful art form.” By: Walter Greene

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