Happy Birthday, Lord Kitchener |
A Tribute to Kitchener, our Beloved Griot Pan, Calypso and Calypsonian New York: April 18, 2005 is the Grand Master’s birthday. When Kitch left for London, Africa was demanding their Independence from the colonial powers. When Ghana received their Independence in 1956 the new Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah invited Kitchener to come to Ghana and sing for the new Prime Minister and his new nation. He sang a calypso on Ghana’s Independence that demonstrated his silent Pan Africanism. Although he was not open about it like Stalin, Valentino or Chalkdust (three top calypsonians) he was a strong believer in the Blackman’s freedom. Again, in the 1970s he sang ‘Freedom’ asking where was ‘our’ freedom. In 1970, the Black Power revolt resulted in the late Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams, calling a curfew and then a State of Emergency. |
It is a celebration of ‘Pan Birthday’ which is the last calypso Kitchener composed for the steelpan. From the beginning, Kitchener had a symbiotic relationship with the steelpan instrument. He was the first to compose music specifically for the instrument. Every year, from 1963 with ‘The Road’ he traveled through the Big Yard (Queen’s Park Savannah) until 1997 with ‘Guitar Pan’ as steelbands played his tunes for the Panorama competition. I heard him explain in an interview that his love for the instrument developed when he resided at La Cou Harpe next to Bar 20 steelband in the days of their infamous fights. No, he did not play the steelpan but played the conventional bass while he resided in London during the 40s and early 60s. Kitch left Trinbago in the early 1940s and journeyed first to Jamaica where he spent a few years but it was enough for Jamaicans to fall in love with him and to this day he is known throughout Jamaica as the greatest calypsonian. You need to be a member of When Steel Talks to add comments!
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