Allen takes local music to virgin soil
Published: Sun, 2011-06-26 22:11
By: Sean Nero
http://www.guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2011/06/26/allen-takes-local-music-virgin-soil-0
T&T’s calypso music is reverberating at mainstream music festivals across the United States and former National Calypso monarch, Kurt Allen is the cultural champion on the frontline of this effort. He has a lucrative six-month deal secured by his US booking agent called Simon Says to do 75 shows in that part of North America. Apart from festivals, Allen would also perform at signature nightclubs, colleges and other civic performances and would take part in meet and greet sessions with influential record label executives from Warner Bros and Electra Records. Scores of A&R professionals would be in attendance, too. Last Sunday he was expected to perform at Disc Jam 2011 at Hyland Orchard located on 199 Arnold Road, Fiskdale (Sturbridge). It was the 12th engagement since his maiden gig on May 27, at Strange Creek Campout, Greenfield, MA. Allen won the contract following a successful audition-styled tour last year, during his reign as this country’s National Calypso Monarch. He’s now part of a Caribbean cast that included his daughter Choc’late, Denroy Morgan (Father of Morgan Heritage), Gramps Morgan and The Alchemystics. Allen’s excited about his ambassadorial assignment, in lieu that it’s the first time in close to five decades that this genre of T&T’s indigenous music was making a return to the North American entertainment circuit. There, he said, calypso music was still very much untapped. His performance roster, however, will not take him to the venues within the diaspora, but rather, to markets where calypso music was still a virgin sound.
Looking for new music
He’s convinced that this was a unique opportunity, citing that reggae legend Bob Marley also tapped into this market during the course of his career. It was widely acknowledged that this market extended his (Marley’s) fan base and increased his popularity, while creating other opportunities for the breakthrough of reggae music in the US. But all the former International Soca (Power) Monarch and National Calypso Monarch wanted the people of T&T to know was: “I’m more than ready…All my life. I’m familiar with what it takes. I’m familiar with the type of crowds. I’m familiar with the expectations. They are very open minded. You’re talking about people who (are) looking for new music. They are also interested in understanding who you are and understanding your pulse, your music, your culture. The music festival circuit is about people who travel. They follow you around. That happened with Bob Marley. That’s who we are targeting.” He added: “This opportunity did not happen overnight. This has been probably ten years in the making, in terms of trying to get that particular market which has been elusive to the calypsonians. It was about contacting the right people and keeping in touch with them over a period of time.”
Cultural assignment
Allen toured the US music festival circuit 21 years ago, with Roy Cape All Stars, but that outing was not as extensive as this contract demanded, and the focus music was soca. In 1994 and again in 1995 Allen and his band Caribbean Vision played the circuit, too. “I did a similar project in 1995, in Europe. I had almost 60 performances and it was every night. I’m more than prepared for this one physically and mentally. I would not be performing everyday.” There’s an educational component to Allen’s cultural assignment. While in the US, he will visit universities to lecture on T&T Carnival with a special focus on calypso. The tour would allow him to develop his craft further citing that it encompassed artistes’ development opportunities that covered areas such as vocal refinement and marketing. Allen said: “Even though it’s going to be beneficial to me in the short term, I can guarantee that within the next two years, the door will be opened wide for almost every calypsonian or soca artistes. I’m looking at people like Aaron Duncan and the younger ones, who I believe could make the breakthrough. It’s all about understanding that the past is the mother of now. What we are reaping now is a result of the past actions of our ancestors.”
Schooled in Roaring Lion’s traditions
He added: “I have been schooled in the traditions of Roaring Lion (Rafael de Leon), Growling Tiger (Neville Marcano), Atilla the Hun (Raymond Quevedo) and these greats. And when I look at their legacy, basically, they were able to infiltrate the US market with calypso music. As we all know, calypso was the in thing; the popular music of the time. And I’m just seeing this as a continuation of that legacy. Yes! There was a lapse period—the 1950 to now—where the music has not been able to penetrate the American market. This is just an opportunity to continue the legacy of those guys. People would not even know what is calypso had it not been for (the) Roaring Lion and those guys.” This golden opportunity for Allen was happening just around the time when scores of local entertainers were centre-stage at regional and international staging of T&T-styled Carnivals. But Allen said he no longer enjoyed preaching to the converted. He had been in a fixture in the foreign-based West Indian festival market and desired to seek out new challenges. He said: “You see them every year. When you get tired of seeing them you see their children and eventually you see their grandchildren. This opportunity is (in) virgin territory. It comes like I’m going to do pioneer work. I am very aware that whatever I am going to sell to the people they are going to see that as calypso. So I have to be very careful about what I sell…the image I project, because that is the image they are going to be holding on to for calypso.”
For Aaron Duncan
Allen continued: “Hence the reason I’m doing this for Aaron Duncan. I call his name because he’s the (National) Junior Monarch, but in every junior competition there are at least 11 finalists. That is who I’m doing this for, because I know, it would not be of much benefit in the long term for me, because of my age. Where I want to see this go, is not where I have to take it.” Promoters from all over the world attend these carefully woven string productions that constitute the music festival circuit. They seek out the best, in their estimation, for future engagements that took artistes as far as Russia. Allen said he was proof of that and was poised to leave an indelible mark on the concert circuit. “Now that we have one foot in the market, I am really hopeful that we can send up at least four different T&T acts to cover the circuit, because I could not be in two places at the same time,” he said. While he had never shared the stage with the Morgans, his daughter Choc’late got the opportunity to do so, having performed at almost every major concert in Jamaica. She even shared the spotlight with the Marley’s. Allen said his daughter was a hit on the college circuit of the tour, too, as witnessed from her previous appearances and that’s the segment of the tour she’d command. Allen had received confirmation of his bookings and itinerary long before his departure, but remained tight-lipped about the project. Why? He said he was not the type to talk about things before they happened. He said many times artistes disclosed the potential for big opportunities and then the public would hear nothing after them. “I’m just hoping for the best. I’m representing T&T, all the young ones in the art form and I thank T&T for giving me that opportunity, because had I not been crowned (National) Calypso Monarch last year, I don’t think this opportunity would have been available. This opened the door where I was able to say that I am the calypso King of T&T,” said Allen.
Looking for new music
He’s convinced that this was a unique opportunity, citing that reggae legend Bob Marley also tapped into this market during the course of his career. It was widely acknowledged that this market extended his (Marley’s) fan base and increased his popularity, while creating other opportunities for the breakthrough of reggae music in the US. But all the former International Soca (Power) Monarch and National Calypso Monarch wanted the people of T&T to know was: “I’m more than ready…All my life. I’m familiar with what it takes. I’m familiar with the type of crowds. I’m familiar with the expectations. They are very open minded. You’re talking about people who (are) looking for new music. They are also interested in understanding who you are and understanding your pulse, your music, your culture. The music festival circuit is about people who travel. They follow you around. That happened with Bob Marley. That’s who we are targeting.” He added: “This opportunity did not happen overnight. This has been probably ten years in the making, in terms of trying to get that particular market which has been elusive to the calypsonians. It was about contacting the right people and keeping in touch with them over a period of time.”
Cultural assignment
Allen toured the US music festival circuit 21 years ago, with Roy Cape All Stars, but that outing was not as extensive as this contract demanded, and the focus music was soca. In 1994 and again in 1995 Allen and his band Caribbean Vision played the circuit, too. “I did a similar project in 1995, in Europe. I had almost 60 performances and it was every night. I’m more than prepared for this one physically and mentally. I would not be performing everyday.” There’s an educational component to Allen’s cultural assignment. While in the US, he will visit universities to lecture on T&T Carnival with a special focus on calypso. The tour would allow him to develop his craft further citing that it encompassed artistes’ development opportunities that covered areas such as vocal refinement and marketing. Allen said: “Even though it’s going to be beneficial to me in the short term, I can guarantee that within the next two years, the door will be opened wide for almost every calypsonian or soca artistes. I’m looking at people like Aaron Duncan and the younger ones, who I believe could make the breakthrough. It’s all about understanding that the past is the mother of now. What we are reaping now is a result of the past actions of our ancestors.”
Schooled in Roaring Lion’s traditions
He added: “I have been schooled in the traditions of Roaring Lion (Rafael de Leon), Growling Tiger (Neville Marcano), Atilla the Hun (Raymond Quevedo) and these greats. And when I look at their legacy, basically, they were able to infiltrate the US market with calypso music. As we all know, calypso was the in thing; the popular music of the time. And I’m just seeing this as a continuation of that legacy. Yes! There was a lapse period—the 1950 to now—where the music has not been able to penetrate the American market. This is just an opportunity to continue the legacy of those guys. People would not even know what is calypso had it not been for (the) Roaring Lion and those guys.” This golden opportunity for Allen was happening just around the time when scores of local entertainers were centre-stage at regional and international staging of T&T-styled Carnivals. But Allen said he no longer enjoyed preaching to the converted. He had been in a fixture in the foreign-based West Indian festival market and desired to seek out new challenges. He said: “You see them every year. When you get tired of seeing them you see their children and eventually you see their grandchildren. This opportunity is (in) virgin territory. It comes like I’m going to do pioneer work. I am very aware that whatever I am going to sell to the people they are going to see that as calypso. So I have to be very careful about what I sell…the image I project, because that is the image they are going to be holding on to for calypso.”
For Aaron Duncan
Allen continued: “Hence the reason I’m doing this for Aaron Duncan. I call his name because he’s the (National) Junior Monarch, but in every junior competition there are at least 11 finalists. That is who I’m doing this for, because I know, it would not be of much benefit in the long term for me, because of my age. Where I want to see this go, is not where I have to take it.” Promoters from all over the world attend these carefully woven string productions that constitute the music festival circuit. They seek out the best, in their estimation, for future engagements that took artistes as far as Russia. Allen said he was proof of that and was poised to leave an indelible mark on the concert circuit. “Now that we have one foot in the market, I am really hopeful that we can send up at least four different T&T acts to cover the circuit, because I could not be in two places at the same time,” he said. While he had never shared the stage with the Morgans, his daughter Choc’late got the opportunity to do so, having performed at almost every major concert in Jamaica. She even shared the spotlight with the Marley’s. Allen said his daughter was a hit on the college circuit of the tour, too, as witnessed from her previous appearances and that’s the segment of the tour she’d command. Allen had received confirmation of his bookings and itinerary long before his departure, but remained tight-lipped about the project. Why? He said he was not the type to talk about things before they happened. He said many times artistes disclosed the potential for big opportunities and then the public would hear nothing after them. “I’m just hoping for the best. I’m representing T&T, all the young ones in the art form and I thank T&T for giving me that opportunity, because had I not been crowned (National) Calypso Monarch last year, I don’t think this opportunity would have been available. This opened the door where I was able to say that I am the calypso King of T&T,” said Allen.
