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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Relator, Narrel take the University of Calypso to Grenada

by

20140517

Vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian Re­la­tor (Willard Har­ris) and US-based pan­nist Andy Narell will be ap­pear­ing at the Caribbean Jazz Sa­fari in Grena­da on June 1 for a show­case of their Uni­ver­si­ty of Ca­lyp­so.These days, in many in­stances, jazz artistes in­cor­po­rate oth­er styles in­to their mu­sic, whether it is blues, R&B, pop, clas­si­cal or Latin. Half a cen­tu­ry ago, jazz and ca­lyp­so were fused to­geth­er for the first time, and in 2009 Narell and Re­la­tor re­vis­it­ed that re­la­tion­ship with the re­lease of the CD Uni­ver­si­ty of Ca­lyp­so.

Most di­ver­sein re­cent times

The two have been play­ing to­geth­er for years, and de­cid­ed to em­bark on the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ca­lyp­so project in the spir­it of the ca­lyp­so pi­o­neers of the 1950s. Narell as­sem­bled a group of Latin jazz all stars in New York, and in­vit­ed mae­stro Paquito D'Rivera to join the en­sem­ble. The en­su­ing re­sult is doc­u­ment­ed on the CD, ar­guably one of the most di­verse con­cept record­ings of re­cent times. Front and cen­tre is the Ca­lyp­so as it was meant to be, strong on lyrics and melody but suit­able for lis­ten­ing and danc­ing with hy­brid jazz/ca­lyp­so mu­si­cal arrange­ments. Still for all, Uni­ver­si­ty is an ex­pos� of how the Ca­lyp­so works in the con­text of re­lat­ing cur­rent events as well as be­ing a con­duit for hu­mour, ex­ag­ger­at­ed or raunchy.To­geth­er, they per­form 15 clas­sic com­po­si­tions by Lord Kitch­en­er, Lord Melody, Mighty Ter­ror, Roar­ing Li­on, Spi­der, and Re­la­tor. Tracks in­clude: Gavaskar; Love in the Ceme­tery; Food Prices; Pan in Har­mo­ny; Eat­ing Com­pe­ti­tion; Steel Band Mu­sic; My Pussin; Sug­ar for Pan; Hold On­to Your Man; Pedd­lars; Bot­tle and Spoon; Take Yuh Meat Out Meh Rice; Pan on Sesame Street; Ug­ly Woman; My Broth­er Your Sis­ter.

Per­son­nel are: Andy Narell: steel pan; Re­la­tor: vo­cals, gui­tar; Dar­lo Es­ke­na­zl: pi­ano; Dario Es­ke­nazi: pi­ano; Gre­go­ry Jones: bass in­stru­ment, bass gui­tar; Mark Walk­er: drums; Mar­co Araya-Cor­rea: cu­a­tro; Paquito D'Rivera: clar­inet, al­to sax­o­phone; Pe­dro Mar­tinez: con­gas, bon­gos, tim­bales; and In­or So­to­lon­go: per­cus­sion."Andy and I have been do­ing live per­for­mances of the record­ing all over the world," said Re­la­tor. "The re­spons­es have been over­whelm­ing, and have jus­ti­fied the hard work that went in­to the project. This up­com­ing ap­pear­ance in Grena­da presents yet an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case the Ca­lyp­so art form be­fore the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.""I be­lieve this project has great po­ten­tial to reach peo­ple," said Narell.

Fit for all lis­ten­ers

"The mu­sic is so ac­ces­si­ble, peo­ple can latch on to so many dif­fer­ent things–the beau­ti­ful melodies, the groove for danc­ing, the sto­ries told in the lyrics, the hu­mor, the jazz el­e­ments, how the band plays to­geth­er and in­ter­acts, the solo­ing–and on top of it all, we've got an in­cred­i­bly dy­nam­ic guy out front singing these songs, a re­al sto­ry­teller in the great ca­lyp­so tra­di­tion."

The Caribbean Jazz Sa­fari in­au­gur­al mu­si­cal ride was staged be­tween Jan­u­ary 17 and 21, 2013 in Bar­ba­dos. The shows treat jazz fans to both Caribbean and in­ter­na­tion­al per­form­ers of the high­est cal­iber in ex­ot­ic set­tings.

It is the brain­child of Tom Hinds, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Damal In­vest­ments and well-known pro­mot­er of high-qual­i­ty jazz events at his scenic Nani­ki Restau­rant and Lush Life Re­sort in St Joseph, Bar­ba­dos. The unique event is un­der the aegis of Damal In­vest­ments, the Caribbean Tourism Or­ga­ni­za­tion and the Tourism Au­thor­i­ties of Bar­ba­dos, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Grena­da and St Vin­cent & the Grenadines.The Sa­fari fea­tures an­oth­er first for jazz ed­u­ca­tion in the Caribbean with the Trav­el­ing Gui­tar Foun­da­tion in­ter­ac­tive work­shops for sec­ondary schools. This re­gion­al out­reach with its fun­da­men­tals in qual­i­ty jazz per­for­mance, ed­u­ca­tion and tourism is a great boost for as­pir­ing Caribbean artistes.


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