...no compromise from veteran calypsonian
For this Carnival season, Anthony Phillip, better known in the Calypso arena as Brother Valentino, is lighting up Kaiso House (at what used to be the Globe Cinema on St Vincent Street) with his vintage classics such as Life Is A Stage, Change The Formula and Stay Up Zimbabwe.
Kaiso has been good to the 76-year-old bard; he lives with his wife, Peggy Castanada, at their extensive stonework house in Adventist Street, Sangre Grande and their children have their own families now. The house is filled with mementos, photographs and awards, including his Humming Bird gold medal, he has collected over the more than half-century he has been in calypso.
Kaiso has allowed Phillip to travel the world and meet people from presidents, performers and fans.
They include Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Grenadian President Keith Mitchell, former Grenadian president Maurice Bishop, US singer Roberta Flack and the Jamaican “posse”—Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Freddie McGregor and he performed with Peter Tosh, Big Youth and Knowledge at Reggae Sunsplash in Trinidad.
Despite the accolades, putting out eight CDs and having two books by Zeno Obi Constance written about him, “The Man Behind the Music,” and “The Man And His Music,” the outspoken Phillip is still rankled how he has been treated and sidelined by judges in calypso competitions over the years.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian at his home on Tuesday, Phillip said, “Kaiso has been good to me, but not the judges. I’ve been singing conscious songs on behalf of the poor and downtrodden long time, since “No Revolution” back in 1971.
“Since then, it’s blatant discrimination and victimisation by judges to my songs through 2005 with “Where Kaiso Went” up to today.
“Kaisonians also are too political, once you on a political side, they sing a certain tune. I am not like that, I don’t compromise, I sing for the people and that’s why they call me the people’s calypsonian. I don’t sing for the judges to like me.”
Phillip said, “It’s sad to say, from that high from the “Rum and Coca-Cola” golden era of the Andrews Sisters and Harry Belafonte in the 40s and 50s kaiso has dropped to its lowest depth.
“I wonder if kaiso will ever catch itself again, the music that was there before many genres—from jazz, rock and roll and meringue.”
He said the stakes were so much higher in the Calypso Monarch competition now compared to when Sparrow won his first crown in 1956 with “Jean and Dinah”—the first prize was $40, a cup and a bottle of Carmen Jones, another name for Fernandes Black Label Rum.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/life-lead/2018-01-14/valentino-still-fiery
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