- (Zeno Obi Constance is by far the best in the Caribbean and beyond. This article is part of an attempt to reach, teach and increase our knowledge and commitment of our development.)
By Tony Deyal
From what the experts say, all three of them, “Jammett,” “Jamming,” and “Calypso,” started in Trinidad. But, even more interesting, a Barbadian lady, Singing Francine (Francine Edwards), came to Trinidad and, as one of my friends in the Trinidad Carnival told me, “she dropped it on all of us!”
This is the Chorus of her song “Runaway”:
Child does run away,
Fowl does run away,
Cat does runaway when me treating them bad,
Cow does run away,
Dog does run away,
What happen to you,
You should run away too,
Don’t sit down and screel,
Woman put two wheels on your heels.
Dr Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, who has been singing calypso since 1967 and has recorded more than 300 calypsos, is already 85 years old and more than ready to give us a sense of where all this came from. Moreover, he has a reason to reach, teach, and even though he is “Chalkdust” he is as great as the calypsonian “Explain.”
First, at the top of all, is the “jamette”. This is anyone who participated in African Carnival danced, wined, drummed, sang calypso, or took part in stickfights and kalenda delights. As Dr “Chalkdust” said, “As long as you were black and chose to take part in Carnival dances, drum beating, masquerades, or songs, to the whites of the time, you were a jamette.” This then was the background for dealing with an issue between the present prime minister, Dr Persad-Bissessar, and the previous, Dr (Keith) Rowley.
Dr “Chalkdust” made it clear: “Three men and women who threw their foul-smelling handkerchiefs and pieces of cloth into the face and lips of women, as well as those who played the masquerade ‘wet the bed.’” Additionally, those who stained their outfits with red in and roucou were considered higher than the lower-lowers. On that basis, Dr Chalkdust made it clear, “Since no one had evidence that Persad-Bissessar has done these foul practices, Dr Rowley cannot associate or put her into that class.”
According to Brother Valentino (a.k.a. Anthony Phillip from Grenada), he was upset with something that the great Lord Kitchener had made as a statement, which he thought was out of line.
On that basis, Brother Valentino commented, “Because anything that happens inside a steelband/ Is a man who does get a bad name. But I want the Lord Kitchener to understand. Is all them jamette women to blame.”
The Mighty Duke, a National Calypso King, however, put Kitchener into a slightly different context, and then went with what was considered as a “same thing” but different. He started with: “I say Dracula, you say Vampire/ And if you should mention Lord Kitchener. Is the same thing. Is the same thing…” Then he added: “I say prostitute you call me wahbeen…” This word “wahbeen” was also initially a “Trini” word meaning “a freshwater fish known for its sharp dog-like teeth.” Then from the fish brother Valentino went to, “And if you say jamette, what do you mean?”
And of course, this led them all to the great Sparrow, a Grenadian born as well as a Trinidadian calypso vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. Known as the “Calypso King of the World,” and with whom I sang some calypsoes together (but not this one), “Ah know they does be grinding/ When ah passing in meh big time limousine/ Always polish and shining/ And Ah hugging up a beautiful wahbeen…”
Actually, there are jokes about “Jamettes” and “Calypsonians.” For example, a man asked a woman in Port-of-Spain, “Why are you always trying to start bacchanal?” She replied, “Darling, if I don’t bring the noise, the calypso would be boring!” Another was asked: “Why did the jamette take a ladder to the fete?” She replied, “Because she heard the music was on a higher level!” Then there was a Trini “Bacchanal” joke, “A woman walked into a bar and said, ‘Give me a rum and coke, and a drink for my enemy over there- she looks like she needs to draw her sorrows.”
In this case, I figured that we should go back to the calypsonians. One of the greats was The Mighty Spitfire (Carlton Gumbs). He was a pioneering Trinidadian calypsonian who won the first two Road March titles in 1952 and 1953 with “Post Another Letter for Thelma” and “Bow Bow Bow.” He sang the “Dance Hall Distressers” which started, “If you want to meet schemers is when you float in a dance to meet female distressers. Talking about moppers is when you reach in a dance to meet female distressers. For when they will eat you and drink you out. Believe me, friends, when you hear the shout/ When your pocket run amok. And you think you going home with them you bad luck…”
Then the lady, supposedly “shemer” or “mopper”, made it clear:
Ah go see you, we going to ketch up,
Pardner what your name again?
Doh forget to pass home where ah living,
Up at 29 Port of Spain.
Actually and eventually, it did not matter where. In fact, from “29 Port-of-Spain” or “Trinidad”, it has reached the Caribbean and elsewhere. In fact, one expert said that while “ground zero” for the term and specific “Jamette Carnival” in Trinidad and Tobago, the cultural practices associated with it- rebellion through masquerade, calypso and the underworld- spread to other Caribbean islands with similar French and British colonial influences.
This was the kind of calypso that most of us, regardless of where we were, loved and sang. For example, there is a calypso by the great Melody, the Trinidadian calypsonian, best known for singles such as “Boo Boo Man” and “Creature From The Black Lagoon.” He called it, “Jamette Young Woman.” This was the chorus: “She said my honour, he kick me up. They told him he would not stop, murder ah start to bawl. The man would not stop kicking me at all.”
And to end, let’s go with “Jean and Diner” by the Mighty Sparrow. It went: “Well the girls in town feeling bad/ No more Yankees in Trinidad. They going to close down the base for good. Them girls have to make out how they could/ Is now they park up in town/ In for a penny and in for a pound. Yes is competition for so/ Trouble in the town when the price drop low…” Then the Sparrow made it very, very clear for Trinis and others, “And if you catch them broken/ You can get them all for nothing/ Doh make a row/ The Yankees gone and Sparrow take over now.”
While we have gone with the ladies as the leaders, it is best to end with King Radio and his “Many smart and woman smarter.” It starts, “Let us put man and woman together/ And see which one is smarter/ Some say men but I say no/ Women got we men like lababo (Means a kitchen or bathroom sink).” What follows is the “Chorus”, “But not me, is some people who say/ That the men leading the women astray/ But I say, that the women of today/ Smarter than men in every way.”
*Tony Deyal was last heard singing, “I was treating a girl up at Siparee/ Listen how she used up her brains on me/ Ah was giving her meh money all the time/ And she was giving me shot with a friend of mine.”
