Calypso Curator

Who or what is a Calypso Curator? Now that is an interesting question because I am sure there are many institutions and persons around the world that have a collection of Calypso music. As a matter of fact many of the radio stations back home should have an invaluable collection of Calypso’s stack away somewhere. Most of the old classical stuff is on vinyl records and may have been put away in preference to that which is available on compact discs. Now we have Mr. Kenny Phillips of WACK radio and his WACK foundation which plans to document the history of the art form with a new website. His goal is to present discographies and biographies of the calypso world. This is an interesting development since this gentleman is considered to be the 'culture krazy' driving force of the south land and maybe of the the country presently.  We wish him only success in this endeavor. You can link to the site here:
 http://www.wackfoundation.org/

I remember listening to Sprangalang's discourse on WACK radio 90.1 FM that broadcasts out of San Fernando; he was speaking about the vast volume of music that he possesses. Wack radio had a show that talked about all aspects of the Calypso culture; the show was wonderful since it was conducted like a casual Trini Lime but with serious issues discussed - 'calypso collections' was a topic of discussion for part of a show - they need to bring back that show. He also mentioned losing music that was saved on hard drives that went bad. However, I am certain that he too has a collection of vinyl and compact discs. So is Sprangalang a Calypso Curator? Who knows, that is a question that only Sprang could answer.

The discussion now turns to Mr. George Maharaj, a collector of Calypso music of our beloved land. Mr. Maharaj has written two books, Volumes 1 and 2 carrying the name “The Roots of Calypso”. Mr. Maharaj also has his own website that can be accessed at
 http://www.rootsofcalypso.com/ww.rootsofcalypso.com.
As a continuation of the discussion, he created two study groups, “Calypso College” and another one called “The Kaiso Breakfast Lime”. I am unaware of when these groups met/still meet or the topics of discussion and what was/is done with the information derived from those discussions.

Anyone can tell that Mr. Maharaj is very fond of the calypso culture of Trinidad and Tobago and as a result one would be curious in knowing what kind of collection he possesses. He claims to have a collection that is over 5,000 strong with a large segment of 78 rpm vinyl records. Whom do you know with such a vast collection of music and more importantly a collection of vinyl records similar to Mr. Maharaj’s? I don’t know of anyone but I do remember visiting the University of Upsala radio station that was located in Orange NJ, USA and was surprised to see the collection of Calypso records there. I saw records by Sparrow and Kitchener that I never knew existed. So yes, there are many people with a vast collection of Calypso music but how many persons with a similar collection in Trinidad and Tobago do you know? Maybe no one.

I don’t know of any entity in Trinidad and Tobago that is preserving the music and culture. Maybe Mr. Maharaj’s collection could be a good start. This collection should be digitized and the original vinyl recording put away. By the way, what about the recording companies that put out the original music? The master recordings must be stored some and probably that place is in the US. The government should act now and compile a national archive of our music. Mr. Maharaj is willing to deal with the government to ensure that his collection is protected and saved for future generations.