Projexx International Jazz Day celebration
in well with the upbeat production
to form his latest track.
According to the Brooklyn
based, Haitian-American
entertainment publicity guru
Marie Driven, Projexx’s “name
reaches around far parts of the
globe, not just the islands.
“’Nuh Leff It’ blends in the
best of both of his worlds,”
Driven told Caribbean Life,
adding that this latest single
is “as versatile” as Projexx’s life
experiences.
As a teenager, she said Projexx
traveled back and forth
between Jamaica and Brampton,
Canada, where his aunt
resided.
“The more he was exposed to
a new culture and lifestyle the
more his adaptation abilities
and desire to keep his music
as diverse, as his upbringing
expanded through his work,”
said Driven, managing partner
of the Brooklyn-based PlaybookMG.
While spending some of his
youth overseas, she said Bakersteez
was introduced to the
hip-hop culture, “which influenced
Caribbean L 28 ife, May 8-14, 2020
his own unique persona.
“While some people call
his music ‘Jamcian trap’, he
embraces his own sound as his
own sound,” Driven said. “His
genre-less approach to music
blends with Projexx’s.”
With a sound that is impossible
to pigeonhole, she said
Projexx and Bakersteez’s
“genre-less approach to music
manifests itself as a multifaceted
fusion of pop, dancehall
and hip hop, unique to Projexx
himself.”
Driven said Projexx’s influences
span from Drake to Dennis
Brown “and everything in
between.”
Asked how much longer
she plans to continue singing,
Rose said: “Until the Lord says
it is done, and is ready for me.
I’ll be on the road.
“I’ll be back in Europe to
do my shows, hopefully, before
year’s end,” she said. “Today is
May 1, Labor Day in France. I
was there last year.
“It reminds me also about
my song ‘May Day Mas,’ which
I wrote long time ago, which
brought carnival to Barbados,”
added Rose, stating that she
anticipated celebrating a minimum
of 15 more birthdays
(laughing).
“And, I may see 100,” she
continued. “Look, my mother
left (died) at 95, her mother
(at) 99 and my great-grand
mother from Africa in her 90s.
“To all artistes — calypsonians,
reggae, jazz, blues, etc.
— think about a tree, build a
tree in your mind and give it
water every day,” she advised.
“And repeat night and day, ‘I
want to be singer, etc., ‘I want
to be at the top’. It’ s all in your
mind.”
Calypso Rose — whose relatives
are the Sandys in Happy
Hill, St. George’s Grenada –
was born on April 27, 1940 in
Bethel, a small village in Tobago,
Trinidad’s sister island.
When she was 15, she began
singing calypso in contests
during the carnival season in
Trinidad and Tobago.
Born Linda McCartha Monica
Sandy-Lewis, Rose said her
father was a preacher and a
leader of the Spiritual Shouter
Baptists.
She said her family was
“very traditional” and opposed
her singing in carnival tents.
She said, however, that she
composed her first calypso in
1955 “after seeing a man steal
the show from two women performing
on a stage.”
“This was the earliest calypso
written on gender inequality,”
Rose said.
Travelling outside of Trinidad
and Tobago for the first
time in 1963, Rose covered
the Caribbean islands – from
Grenada to St. Thomas. She
won the Calypso King contest
in St. Thomas with her first
recording, “’Cooperation”. This
was the first time a woman
was ever awarded the title, she
said.
In 1964, Rose said she decided
to fully dedicate her life to a
career in music.
Though originally known as
“Crusoe Kid,” she said she was
given the name Calypso Rose
Calypso Queen of the World, Calypso Rose.
by calypsonian Mighty Spoiler
and fellow carnival tent members.
In 1966, Rose wrote “Fire in
Me Wire”, the first calypso to
ever run two years in a row in
Trinidad Carnival.
A year later, she performed
with the legendary Bob Marley
& the Wailers at the Grand
Ballroom in New York City.
But though she had garnered
a number of regional hits
throughout the years, including
her most famous, “Fire in
Me Wire,” Calypso Rose did not
win any of the major calypso
contests until 1977.
That year, she was the first
woman ever to win the Trinidad
and Tobago Road March
Competition with “Tempo.”
A year later, she won the
National Calypso King Competition
– which prompted a
name change (it’s now called
the National Calypso Monarch
Competition) – with “I Thank
Thee” and “Her Majesty.”
That same year, Rose won
the Trinidad Road March Competition
for the second year
successive year, with “Gimme
More Tempo.”
Calypso Rose has headlined
at major venues and festivals
throughout the US, Europe
and Australia.
As of 2011, she is the most
decorated calypsonian in Trinidad
and Tobago’s history, and
was awarded the Trinidad and
Tobago Gold Humming Bird
Medal, an award given to Trinidadians
“for loyal and devoted
service beneficial to the state
in any field, or acts of gallantry.”
Though Calypso Rose moved
to Jamaica, Queens in 1983,
she returns to Trinidad and
Tobago for carnival every year.
In October 1996, Rose
underwent surgery for breast
cancer and, in 1998, undertook
therapy for a malignancy
in her stomach.
She continues to tour regularly
on multiple continents,
and records music.
To date, Calypso Rose said
she has written “well over 800
songs.”
In 2011, a feature-length
documentary, “Calypso Rose:
The Lioness of the Jungle,”
was released at Cannes Film
Festival.
Continued from Page 27
Music maven Bakersteez.
Continued from Page 27
— and indeed, of all the arts
— in our lives,” she said in a
statement for the day.
Legendary American pianist
Herbie Hancock, UNESCO
Goodwill Ambassador for
Intercultural Dialogue, hosted
the all-star concert, which featured
artistes from across the
globe.
He said International Jazz
Day embodied values such as
freedom of expression, peace
and human dignity.
“Keep these values alive as
you play your music in your
home or on your balcony,
share your music through
digital platforms, enjoy jazz
recordings, or watch one of
our past Jazz Day global concerts,”
he said in a video message.
This year’s commemoration
of the international day also
had a sombre tone, as it served
as a tribute to saxophonist
Manu Dibango, who died from
COVID-19 on March 24.
UNESCO said the Cameroon
born force behind the
1972 international hit “Soul
Makossa” – sampled, remixed
and cited in songs such as
“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”
by Michael Jackson –
had been a UNESCO Artist for
Peace since 2004.
“Manu Dibango believed
deeply in the power of music
to bring peoples and cultures
together because, as he said in
a UNESCO Courier article in
March 1991, music is ‘the most
spontaneous, natural form of
contact between one person
and another’”, Azoulay said.
At a time of physical distancing
and other measures
to halt further spread of the
novel coronavirus, music is,
indeed, uniting people, according
to Hancock.
“Jazz artists and the jazz
community are resilient,” he
said. “There is hope and solidarity
in jazz music – something
we all need right now.”
Continued from Page 27
Audrey Azoulay, head of
the UN cultural organization
UNESCO.
U.S. musician Herbie Hancock
greets fans before
performing at the Jazzaldia
Festival in San Sebastian,
Spain, July 24, 2017.
REUTERS / Vincent West
HAPPY BIRTHDAY