Customer Reviews

High Priest of Mi Minor: Knockdown Calypsos

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This man has a voice of unearthly beauty. His themes are soulful and he sings them with exquisite feeling. Many of them are protest songs in one sense or another (as true calypso often is)and what I love about this man is that he was an original, rebellious spirit who understood history in a very profound way.

Consider the time - not the 60s or the 70s but the 40s. Imagine this man singing at that politically charged time, with all the labor unrest and the slowly growing movement for independence - about going to a Shango ceremony! (That by the way is THE most beautiful song on the album.) And the song is so respectful - he does not sing of Shango as something savage and creepy, which would have been the dominant racist attitude at the time - (I couldn't help comparing it to Sparrow's 'Congo Man', which, catchy as it is, perpetuates racist stereotypes about African-ness) but simply by integrating a Shango melody within his song, communicates something of the beauty and spirit of Shango to us. I am amazed by the extent to which his melodies are 'rootsy' - very un-European, full of African retentions. African melodies including the phrase 'Going back to Africa' permeate many of these songs in a much more obvious way than with other calypsonians of the time. And none of this is self-conscious borrowing in the way you see people do it post 60's. I think he had a genuine respect for what he heard being sung among his elders and did not try to erase its rootsiness or embellish it for Western tastes. This album is a treasure not just for lovers of calypso but for for labor historians and those studying African retentions among the diaspora.

You have never heard anything like this album. Growling Tiger is a boxer, turned singer, who is one of the giants of the Trinidad Calypso genre of the 1930's and 1940s. Combining island rhythms and social commentary the music is infectious. Buy the disc. Impress your friends.

I actually bought this copy as a gift, but this album remains a favorite from my rather large collection. It is one of the few where I bought a CD for myself when I already owned the vinyl version.

Obviously, I like early Calypso a lot. There also isn't much recorded of it.

This particular album was recorded with the Tiger backed up by NY session musicians. It is really good (and very very well recorded), but it does sound like a studio album, because it misses the tightness one gets with a band that has played together a lot (like the Skatalites). There is an old Smithsonian era "Tiger" recording with a tighter band, but not such great recording quallity. And there is another one that is pretty sloppy all the way around. Unfortuantely, this artist has not been recorded often. I would say that taking everything into account this is the best album to listen to. Of course, if you are into this artist, you want to track down all of his recordings.