Elsworth James is wearing a new hat as radio host at WACK Radio 90.1FM these days. The show, called Calypso Cook-up, is the brain child of James and is aired 11 am to 2 pm every day, from Monday to Friday. James, who lives in Cascade, Port-of-Spain, travels each day to San Fernando, and it's a labour of love...love of calypso and soca. He presents quite an entertaining menu of music, interview and chatter. This music troubadour teams up with Ken "The Juice" Parris, and together they make sweet music. The Calypso Cook-up is going guns and it is the top show on WACK Radio, the southern community radio frequency, in terms of listenership. "WACK Radio leads in the promotion of calypso and soca music 24/7," say James. And he credits this to the shrewd leadership of founder Kenny Phillips.
This year, James, who has been one of the country's top entertainers for decades, reawakened his presence on T&T's cultural landscape kicking down the door, announcing his return to the stage, having lived abroad for several years. The song Ah Taking Back The Stage is Elsworth James redirecting his illustrious career, focusing his energies on the stage. This distinguished son of the soil, promoter entrepreneur, ambassador and calypsonian has a long list of achievements that will take a whole book to mention.
But, there are many highlights, the chief of which is the timely meeting with Louis Farrakhan, the American Muslim leader; the taking of a Caribana delegation from Toronto, Canada, to the Chinese New Year Festival in Hong Kong; and, the run (for five years) of the calypso show Bacchanal on Canadian TV.
James is all gung-ho about the Calypso Cook-up and is re-energised about his relocation to T&T after 27 years. Maybe the Tourism Development Company (TDC) may want to tap into James' ideas about events tourism and other matters? (Keith Anderson)