Jouvay.com: Calypso Rose Interview

Calypso Rose inteviewed by Maya Trotz for Jouvay.com, July 27th, 2003.

"I broke all of the barriers down to bring equality to the field of music with calypso and also steelband. Years gone by you never see a woman beating pan and once I break the barrier down all women start coming forth and there we are standing predominantly today."

Calypso Rose
San Francisco, July 2003

Calypso Rose, the perfect sobriquet for this Tobagonian woman born McArtha Linda Sandy-Lewis in 1940. Calypso Rose, the legend, the first woman to win a road march in Trinidad and Tobago (1977 with Tempo) and the first person to win both the road and calypso titles simultaneously in Trinidad, has written over 800 songs to date and shows no signs of stopping what she has been doing for decades. After her energetic performance at the Caribbean Summerfest 2003, we found her drinking vodka with Calypso Dreams movie director Geoffrey Dunn and briefly chatted with her. One day soon a full interview will come, for now, enjoy this teaser much of which discusses the movie.

Calypso Rose: I live in NY, but for carnival season I am in Trinidad working and Geoff they came down to do the production for Calypso Dreams and we stayed at the same hotel. I could tell you something, these guys are to me Trinidadian and Tobagonian. They get up early in the morning and go all day and come in just to shower and back out in the street again. When you see them the next morning they like nothing happened. They stepping lightly and politely. It was nice having them with us this year.

Jouvay.com: What do you think of Calypso Dreams?

CR: It is a fantastic project. Very nice movie. I laughed my head off. You’ve got to see it to believe it. It is great. There are so many things happening in that movie. They’ve got a man they call Crazy...

J: Yeah, he lives out here in San Jose (California).

CR: We went back to the old days with Superior and Sparrow. I tell you all something I don't care if you record it or not, when Sparrow sang the calypso "Ten to One is Murder." And Sparrow say, "I hear pot a pow and the crowd start to scatter." You know who was the man who pulled the trigger? I won't say it on tape. In the 50’s, those were the years. It’s amazing that Geoff could have brought back these legends on this project that is called Calypso Dreams. It is really great.

Geoffrey Dunn: We've got a great duet with Sparrow and Rose in the Mas Camp. They were unbelievable.

CR: Yes, that was a day at Mas Camp where we did a picong .That is like spur of the moment where I would sing and you would sing and it would flow. It was great and it's on tape.

Trini Man: You still have the recording?

GD: Oh yes, it's on Calypso Dreams. It will be out later this Fall. Are you on the Jouvay.com email list?

TM: No, but I could go on there to find out.

GD: She also did an acoustic set for us.

Calypso Rose: Oh yes with my guitar. Oooh that part is fantastic. Crazy spoke about it the other day in NY. He said, “Rose you could play a bad guitar.” I learn from since I was 12. I used to play the cuatro and then elevated to the guitar. I had never been to any musical school, but by watching musicians play I picked up guitar and I liked the sound of it. I play my guitar, cuatro and keyboard.

Geoffrey Dunn: I used to tease her. She did this song that the American singer did....Bonnie Raitt did.

CR: ‘What she go do”, was one of my compositions that Bonnie Raitt recorded with Warner Brothers years ago. “I could understand why a woman must have an outside man. I could understand why a woman must have an outside man. A man does like to run like rat. And have his wife to abide by that. And every night he having a ball and when he reach home he ain’t kissing his wife at all. And if the woman say she feeling sexy, what she go do? And de man say he feeling sleepy tell me, what she go do? And she balling come on doo doo, but dis time he soft like soft candle. No satisfaction. So you see a woman must have an outside man.”

J: I second that.

GD: And I always tease Rose that I no soft like soft candle. I've got kids from 24 down to five .

J: Are you the only woman in the movie?

G: No. There's also Singing Sandra.

CR: The monarch for 2003. She was also the monarch a few years ago.

GD: Only three women. Then there is Denyse Plummer.

CR: I have visualized Denyse when she gets on stage like Calypso Rose. She's crazy. I used to always say that the next woman to win a roadmarch would be Denyse. I had given her a song called "Carnival Baby. I want to be your carnival baby," but that song never took off with her. She is a diva on stage. I used to categorize Singing Sandra, she is going to win the monarech in her own right. But Denyse, man, Idon't know how come she never won a road march. I am going to make sure if I have to continue writing road march songs until she wins. Oh she won the monarch with "Heroes", but she never won the road.

J: How was the recording with Machel?

CR: Oh darling I had a fantastic time with those young guys last year. There were three young guys that did my tunes. Double D with Fire in your wire. He transformed it to the youth ear. And then Machel Montano with "What you want? I want a man that is younger. I want a man that is stronger, who's going to love me all night long." And then there was a young kid from San Fernando called Ghetto Flex who did "I going down San Fernando." They changed it to " I born near San Fernando." Three tunes of Calypso Rose were jamming. Now two females have called me. Destra wants to do one of my tunes; "The pudding. Every morning every evening the pudding man passing and I only eating." And this guy, Roy Cape they want to do "Palette". So I have two tunes that will be bouncing again next year.

Farmer Nappy, Calypso Rose, Sparrow & Machel. Trinidad 2K3, photo provided by Ilandfantasy, Islandmix.com.

Jouvay.com: So you write and produce?

CR: I have been writing since I was fifteen years old darling. Over eight hundred tunes.

GD: She was not the first woman of calypso.

Calypso Rose: Oh no there were Lord and Lady Iree. I broke all of the barriers down to bring equality to the field of music with calypso and also steelband. Years gone by you never see a woman beating pan and once I break the barrier down all women start coming forth and there we are standing predominantly today.

Jouvay.com: Oh oh, Scrunter has just taken the stage at Caribbean Summer Fest 2003, he's singing "Wining Up in a Band". Calypso Rose, can we get a shout out for Jouvay.com please before I go back to the show?

Calypso Rose: Hi Jouvay.com, this is yours truly the legend Calypso Rose. Every morning, every evening the pudding man passing and I only eating. If you see the man with the pudding in he hand, pudding around the waist is de sweetest I ever taste."

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