Neal-Marshall exhibit examines calypso craze, discusses origins

It was the craze that, for a short time, almost killed rock 'n' roll.\nCalypso, that is.\nStudents can discover calypso music at the Calypso Music in Postwar America exhibit's opening reception at 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Grand Hall, 275 N. Jordan Ave.\nThe exhibit focuses on the changes that calypso music underwent as it experienced feverish popularity, especially in the United States. The public is invited to tour the exhibit, enjoy Caribbean food and enjoy calypso music from the Indianapolis band Caribbean Consort. \nThe exhibit will feature photographed illustrations of calypso performers, movie posters, records and illustrations from the entertainment industry during calypso's American heyday, said Grace Jackson-Brown, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library. \nCalypso music traces it origins to African slaves on the sugar plantations of Trinidad and Tobago, islands in the Caribbean, according to the press release from the library.\nThe slaves used calypso music as a form of communication as well as a way to poke fun at the slave masters.\nLater, the music evolved into political and social commentary with ties to Carnival, a two-week period leading up to Mardi Gras. \n"It's a mix of European old-world carnival with African traditions blended in complex ways," said Raymond Funk, co-curator of the event.\nCarnival music and bands developed in the 19th century. The bands would parade through the streets before Lent, in a similar fashion of New Orleans' Mardi Gras bands. People from Trinidad would set up tents during Carnival and perform music as social and political commentary, Funk said.\nThe exhibit, he said, is not to give the history of the calypso art form, but to talk about what happens when the type of world music leaves its country of origin .\nCalypso began to gain popularity through a few artists such as Roaring Lion and Attila the Hun and turned into a full-blown pop-culture obsession with Harry Belafonte's million-selling album, "Calypso," Funk said.\n"It's hard for anyone to remember 50 years ago in the spring of 1950; the whole entertainment industry thought that calypso would kill rock and roll," Funk said. "It was an amazing thing." \nIn the 1950s and '60s, Jackson-Brown said, the music Americans knew as calypso was really pop, including the incredibly popular Belafonte album. With the success of Belafonte, the entertainment industry jumped to satisfy the public's thirst for all things calypso.\n"There was an enormous move by different ends of the entertainment industry to decide, 'This was it,'" Funk said. "So there were dozens and dozens of singles issued and writers trying to write kind of pseudo-calypsos. Night clubs all put in palm trees and calypso was real popular in Miami. ... There were records, movies, calypso mystery novels -- it was just a big pyramid where everybody thought this was the new thing."\nHowever, within six months, the industry realized it was not making the sales it had expected.\n"It was suddenly something that was everywhere, and then six months later, it was like, 'Never mind,'" Funk said. "The whole effort to have it take over from rock and roll kind of disappeared, but the music itself has not disappeared."\nThe exhibit will also feature a series of presentations Jan. 19 and 20. \nFrom noon to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Funk will give a presentation called "Introduction to the Global Spread of Calypso"; from 3 to 4:30 p.m. he will present "Sir Lancelot, Calypso Pioneer."\nFrom 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, he will present "Steel Drums and Calypso" and from 7 to 8:30 p.m., "The Roots of Jamaican Folk Music and Mento."\nThe traveling exhibit, from the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, will stay at the Neal-Marshall library through April 30. \nFor more information, visit the exhibit's accompanying online exhibit at www.calypsoworld.org.