Musical interconnection and Exchange have been most noticeable among the islands in the Caribbean speaking the same language, but inter-island migration has led to a great degree of contact across language barriers, Jamaican agricultural workers traveled to Cuba., Panama and Costa Rica in the early and middle years of this century. Within the England-speaking islands, Trinidadian calypso, up until fairly recently, was the most popular sound. This position has now been captured by Jamaican reggae.
Each island has it s own particular blend of African and European music. In Cuba, the influence is Spanish. Since the Cha-cha and the revolution of 1959. Cuba has had a more quietly pervasive influence than that which accompanied the brassy volume of former years. Think of the durable Latin Jazz stream that sprang from the Afro Cuban jazz of the ‘40s. The use particular brass arrangements, the Spanish guitar sound as used in many guitar solos, the popularity of the conga drums and the bongos and the linked timbales and maracas in many Caribbean bands testifies to the power of Cuban soul.
In the ‘20s and ‘30s, the Cuban rhumba swept the cities of North America and Europe. In Jamaican , the radio eventually provided this “gringo Latino” kind of music, but contact was not to be limited to Xavier Cugat, Edmundo Roos and Perez Prado* the highly successful bands of the ‘50s, The more authentic rhumba and mambo versions still managed to filter through.
In spirit t of the circuitous route much island music took to reach Jamaica, it would still be true to say that a fairly large number of Jamaicans, especially the patrons of urban nightclubs, were familiar with the Cuban bananera, the Argentinian tango, the Dominican meringue, and many Trinidadian calypsos.
While it is possible that calypso is an inter-island style, the nod must be given to Port-of-Spain in Trinidad as the place where than is commonly known; by the middle of the 19th century something similar to the popular form known today had already developed. As in Jamaica, we can speak of an African foundation as evidenced in Trinidad by the widespread reliance on choral refrain call-and-response song structure and the dancing chorus.
These provide “… striking parallels in form between the calypso and indigenous songs of the old Guinea Coast. Even the word calypso (Ka’iso) has been traced to a West African source”
The annual Carnival festivities in Trinidad which preceded Lent actually began as a white affair patterned on the French Mardi Gras, until it was taken over by the blacks soon after Emancipation. The earliest reports make mention of the “wild Guinea songs” sung by the blacks when they practsed “Cannes Brulées” or Canboulay as it was popularly pronounced. The Majority of these Kalinda songs were composed in patois or French creole, the language of the majority. By the 1870s calypsos were being sung in English and the music had become highly eclectic.
Carnival festivities provided the main stimulus for calypso, but the form, even while being festive, drew heavily from other sources within Trinidad. The African people of Trinidad and Tobago had, as elsewhere in the Americas, a literal fight to be free. In the face of official antagonisms the developing forms alternative strategies. For example, when official society forced the stick-fighters underground the “tamboo-tamboo” and “croix-croix” emerged. When these in turn were beset by official condemnation, the steel-band was cread. And even this which may yet prove to be one of Trinidad’s most valuable and enduring contributions to the stream of human culture, was at first disdained by officialdom.
Prado’s 1955 hit “Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White” outsold even “ Rock Around the Clock” in the E.U.A.
For whatever reasons, not the least of which was the resourcefulness of the black Trinidadian calypso refused to be suppressed. In Jamaica the satirical wit of most calypsonians, the Afro-Spanish rhythm and strong percussion were readily appreciated. As we have noted, calypso even came to be confused with Jamaican mento music in the minds of some people. The international record companies at this time were bent on promoting “ Island Music” and calypso came to be generic term for all the music of the English-speaking territories. As a boy, Bob Maley sang calypso.

Mento

Talking Drums, Sound Systems

The Jamaican mobile disco, or sound system, is many ways the most vital element in the development of reggae. Often downplayed and misunderstood outside of Jamaica, the dances serviced by these sound systems are the most significant outlet for reggae music in Jamaica itself and have deeply influenced the music. The recordings and stage performances of reggae musicians, by which reggae is best known outside Jamaica, are themselves strongly influenced by the requirements of the discos, and many otherwise puzzling facets of reggae make better sense when the role of the dances is better comprehended.
The sound systems also provide a fascinating study of how a developing culture can adapt exterior technological development to its own needs. And in purely social terms, the dances provide a unique and unusually democratic from of personal and class-identified artistic expression through the unique institution of the Jamaican disc jockey or deejay.
Urban and country sound systems first appeared in Jamaica in the late 1940s, but really emerged as a cultural force with independence from Britain in 1962. This coincided with a decline in quality of music imported from the US and the subsequent invention of Jamaican pop and dance music in the eras of Ska and rock steady. At sound system dances the deejay was always the center of attention. His rapping intros and interjections derived from the styles of the southern US rock & roll disc jockeys of the ‘50s. The deejay also humanized for Jamaicans the potentially dry experience of dancing to recorded music. With the quasi-accidental development of dub music around 1965, the deejay’s importance was greatly increased.
By the late 1960s, all the important elements of modern sound systems had been developed: the custom of dancing to portable recorded music; the development of records specifically tailored to the needs of the disco; and a new rolew for the deejays as the focus of the music rather than a mere announcer.
At another point along the perimeter the “control tower” is set up, consisting of power amplifiers, crossovers, turntables, tape records, mixers, echo units and microphones. The control tower always attracts a crowd curious to observe is mysterious, high-tech operation; many hold portable cassette recorders to capture their acts a literal talking drum. He chants rhythmically along with the record, generally entering on anticipatory beats and keying his phrases to rhythms and syncopations based on sixteenth notes. He rhymes as much as possible, and often repeats a phrase twice before rhyming it, a device which may derive from blues phrasing.

SKA & ROCK STEADY - Mento to Ska: the Sound of the City.

It isn't surprising that the Jamaican people enjoyed swing music. Popular during and after World War II, swing music derived from black American Bands like those of Eckstine, Basie and Duke Ellington. The white bands in the United States that came to be identified as the big names in swing, example; Woody Herman and Benny Goodman, had really taken over a black music and commercialized it for their own large audience. Although the white "King of Swing" softened the music considerably is usually retained its rhythmic "swing" and exhibited a more than casual flirtation with Jazz. These swing tunes were heard in Jamaica on the radio, and through the activity of the big road bands of the era. Some of the bands served a middle-class audience almost exclusively. Other bands played in working- class locations or places to which black people could gain access. They were then given the opportunity of appreciating swing, jazz, rhumba, and ballads of Tin Pan Alley alongside their mento. The so-called "society bands" played only token mento numbers, but the road bands that catered to the masses would be more liberal in the spicing of their repertory with mento. The number pf practicing mento musicians declined notably, particularly in the urban areas. In Kingston these "Princess Street" ( Where they could usually be found hanging out in bars) musicians found only occasionanal employment. Even in the rural areas, demand for their services had lessened. By 1965 the heaviest demand for mento was coming from the growing tourit industry centered on the North Coast. The mento, however, did not die. With the growth of international enterest in calypso, some local entrepreneurs decidied to give mento a try on record. While the efforts of producers Ken Khouri, Stanley Motta and Chin in this regard were admittedly sporadic, they did give birth to the modern Jamaican recording industry. Mento musicians, who formerly Had been personally involved with their audience, could now be heard on record. Paradoxically, just as mento went into decline, it became more national. Performers like Count Lasher, Lorde Flea and Lorde Fly, among others, made national hits with humourous topical songs that were played on the radio. Their raunchier material was heard on the sound systems. Considering that mento rurally spawned, it is a most resilient traditional music. But neither mento, nor the swing music of the society bands, was fully adequate to meet the needs of Jamaican city dwellers. They were turning more and moreto the rhythm and blues of North American black culture.