Soca Creator Caribbean Cook Up Controversy


A Soca creator Caribbean Cook Up controversy recently aired on Wack Radio901fm.com. The program hosted by Ellsworth James had King Wellington as the special guest. King Wellington vehemently disassociated Shorty as the creator of Soca and stated that it was a combination of Soul and Calypso music and not  the infusion of East Indian music with calypso music  that Shorty termed 'the soul of calypso'. 

Just recently, I  posted an article on the creation of Soca music that is very biased regarding the role of Shorty aka Ras Shorty I (Garfield Blackman) as the creator of the music genre "Soca".  There is an article by Dimitri Subotsky  (owner of the Calypso Archive website) supporting King Wellington's claim to his Rusofunk being the core/birthing ground of Soca. My problem with all of this is that during the early years when Shorty was alive no one came forth and said "this is all propaganda a fabrication of the press". Yes Shorty named his music Sokah that was misprinted in the Punch newspaper as Soca (journalist Ivor Ferreira). Shorty was interviewed by GBTV and in that 1995 interview he explained how he created his music. It should also be noted that  just about every article written by people during that period of creation support Shorty as the originator of the music genre we know today as Soca.

I have no doubt that King Wellington and others have greatly impacted the music that continues to change today. Whether or not it is the 'Soul of Calypso' or 'Soul and Calypso' will forever be discussed and debated. There is presently a heated debate going on for years now on islandmix.com  and  no one is giving ground.

I recently came across a Wikipedia posting on Soca that makes complete sense in my humble opinion. I think the short discourse on the subject clears the air and gives credit to all who claim to have affected or even change the music. The problem is that everyone wants to be 'first'. It may be a better thing to have the claim of being Soca's greatest innovator and leave it there. If your body of work left its' mark on the music it will stand the test of time. The article is posted below and I have italicized and put in bold text that which I consider important. We have a misunderstanding at home between Trinidadians regarding who did what and this has led to people from the other islands to say "we had a hand in the creation of the music genre". See what a mess this has come to.  These are the very same people that Chalkdust and deceased Duke had to teach how to compose and sing calypsos - what a shame!

Soca Music:
"Soca is said to have been invented in 1963 (see 1963 in music) by Ras Shorty I's "Clock and Dagger". Shorty added Indian instruments, including the dholak, tabla and dhantal and soon rivaled reggae as the most popular form of Caribbean music.

Soca reached its modern form by the early 1970s under the influence of American soul, disco and funk music, which reached Trinidadian artists when they began recording in New York City; by this time, most of the Indian-derived elements had been removed from the genre. 

Shorty's 1974 Endless Vibrations and Soul of Calypso brought soca to its peak of international fame. Less lyrically revolutionary than traditional calypso, soca has remained mostly focused on good times throughout its history, though artists like Gypsy (whose 1986 "The Sinking Ship" helped remove the People's National Movement from the Trinidadian government) continued calypso's socially-aware traditions.

Soca's popularity grew through the 70s and early 1980s, finally becoming an international chart-topper after "Hot! Hot! Hot!", a 1983 release by Arrow, who hailed from Montserrat and not Trinidad. Arrow soon proved himself to be one of the most innovative soca artists of the 80s, incorporating zouk and other influences into a series of best-selling singles. Other artists of the 80s put new islands on the soca map, especially Shadow who was born in Tobago, as well as Anguilla with (Swallow) and from Barbados, the band (Square One), and added influences from African spirituals (Superblue), gospel (Lord Shorty, under his new name Ras Shorty I), reggae (Byron Lee & the Dragonaires), Indian music (Mungal Patasar) and funk (Lord Nelson). An important fusion was ragga-soca, which combined Jamaican ragga with soca. Bunji Garlin, KMC, Maximus Dan and Machel Montano & Xtatik were the most popular of the ragga-soca acts of the 1990s."
See wiki link here: Music of Trinidad and Tobago

Now let's get Machel's take on the music:

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