Earlier today, I listened to an interview on WACK radio that celebrated the life and music of the late and great singer Cecil Hume better known as the Maestro. The show was co-hosted by singer Ellsworth James and Kent "The Juice" Paris. They discussed the impact of Maesto during the formative years of Soca music and touched on his relationship with the late Ras Shory I as Lord Shorty. Lord Shorty is credited with the creation of the music genre known as Soca. However, they noted that it was Maestro who changed the pace of the music and added other dimensions before he was 'taken from us'. This short post will simply point out some of the information from that session today.
Many persons called in with information about the early years when Maestro came on the scene. However, I was interested in a call from a calypsonian named Kinte. I believe his name is Carey Stephens. 'Kinte' had a unique perspective because he was there during the early period when Lord Shorty and Maestro met and worked together making sweet music.
He said that there was steel band that Shorty was associated with in the area and Maestro used to visit. They (Shorty and Maestro) collaborated a lot. Shorty was a musician, a guitarist but not a writer... Maestro was the writer!
Shorty became a song writer later and was a collaborator with Maestro. He said if Shorty had an album with ten songs, as an example, six (of the songs) were written by Maestro and four (of the songs) by Shorty. He said that when Shorty performed in the tents he would sing his (Shorty's) compositions not Maestro's making his writings/songs the popular ones during the season.
Moving along ... he said that Maestro was a 'bulk song writer' with people coming for songs all the time... Kinte indicated that Maestro would write over 50 songs a season!
The man said he was a personal friend of both Maestro and Lord Shorty - they lived in the same area close to Lengua. The show moved along quickly and I can't recall all the information. Wack plans to bring Kinte to the studio to interview him... this was a phone conversation today.
He also stated that Maestro wrote Cloak and Dagger and Ten Commandments and many others even though he is not credited for the songs. The show celebrated the talents of Duke, Maestro and Dr. Stalin. However, today it was "Fire on de Mountain" a trademark of the late Maestro. It should be noted that whenever 'The Original De Fosto' says 'Fire On De Mountain' he is paying tribute to this great calypsonian known as Cecil Hume, the late and great 'Maestro'!