(L to R) Fashion designer Robert Young of The Cloth with Wendell Manwarren and Roger Roberts of Trinidad and Tobago rapso band 3canal. Wendell and Roger are wearing jackets Robert designed for their upcoming tour of India.

Caribbean Free Radio #51 is a command performance of sorts recorded at Little House, home of 2/3 of my house band 3canal. I was summoned there last night to talk with Wendell Manwarren and Roger Roberts about their upcoming tour of India.

Also discussed: Roger’s participation in the New York City Marathon (bib #18722, in case you’re interested) this coming Sunday! I’ve just signed up with the Marathon’s Athlete Alert service so I can track Roger’s progress on race day.

Because cell phones mics are optimised for capturing the human voice, the files Audioboo records are of pretty good quality. The app’s truly winning feature, however, is its simplicity: hit “record” —> put phone to ear and speak —> garnish with optional title, metadata, image —> hit “publish”. The other audio microblogging services I’ve played with all involved dialing in to phone numbers (that were usually international long distance for me) and other rigmaroles.

The downside to Audioboo is that in order to record a “boo” you need an iPhone, at least for now. (Another downside is that the recordings are called “boos”, though who would ever have dreamt that the word “tweet” would come to roll off the tongue in as it does today?)

Will Audioboo rekindle the podcasting fire in me? Hard to tell. But here are my first two boos, and two images to illustrate them. If I decide to boo further, you’ll find the lot archived here.

Episode #6 arrives a day late courtesy of the carnival week frenzy, which is not to say the show is without substance. Au contraire: in the final episode in the cut+clear carnival 2009 series, the members of 3canal and I visit with photographer, carnival connoisseur and Belmont native Jeffrey Chock at his home on Clifford Street for a chat about the carnival of yesteryear, the philosophical underpinnings of the changes taking place in today’s version of the festival, and—naturally—the experience of photographing one of the world’s most visually spectacular events.

This week’s 3canal track: “Paradise” remixed by Keshav Chandradath Singh

LINKS

Trust the cut+clear carnival podcast’s most freewheeling and raucous show to date to be the one featuring women (it’s also the first CFR episode to feature explicit language!). In episode #5 the members of 3canal and I sit down backstage at Queen’s Hall with Cecilia Salazar, Dionne McNicol and Elisha Bartels, three key members of the 3canal Show, and discuss matters ranging from performing while pregnant to the banning of songs featuring “daggerin’” from the Jamaican airwaves. We also remember the late, great John Isaacs, the fourth member of 3canal, on the ninth anniversary of his passing.

Previews of this year’s edition of the 3canal Show begin on Thursday 12 February, 2009 at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain, Trinidad. The full run begins on Monday 16 February.

This week’s 3canal track: “Where Do We Go From Here” from the album “Joy+Fire”

LINKS

Roger Roberts, Glendon Morris, Stanton Kewley and Wendell Manwarren with part of a bee costume at the Belmont Jewels mas' camp, Belmont, Trinidad

cut+clear carnival episode #4 takes us to Belmont, a community rich in carnival history, where we visit with Glendon Morris at the Belmont Jewels mas’ camp for a chat about the ups and downs of making traditional, hand-crafted mas’ in an age of mass production, the allure of playing fancy sailor and working with his late father, the legendary master metal craftsman, designer and bandleader, Ken Morris.

Belmont Jewels mas' camp, Belmont Trinidad

Wendell Manwarren, Glendon Morris, Stanton Kewley and Roger Roberts at the Belmont Jewels mas' camp, Belmont, Trinidad

In cut+clear carnival episode #3 we visit veteran producer and steel orchestra arranger, Pelham Goddard, at his home in St. James for a chat about the evolution of music for steel orchestras and 3canal’s foray into the steel band arena with Pelham and the Exodus Steel Orchestra. In addition, Wendell treats us to a series of audio vignettes explaining certain aspects of the steel band scene in Trinidad and Tobago.

This week’s 3canal track: “Festival Time”

LINKS

On episode #2 of the cut+clear carnival podcast 3canal and I chat with Curtis “C*POP” Popplewell and Walt Lovelace, the men behind the Beach House Carnival fête and some of the country’s most original music video work.

Tune in to hear Curtis and Walt hold forth on why they prefer not to be referred to as fête promoters and the state of music video production in the country.

This week’s 3canal track: “Joy+Fire”, from the album of the same name.

LINKS

For the 2009 carnival season I’ve teamed up with 3canal to produce a series of down and dirty (dutty?) podcasts called cut+clear carnival. We’re keeping it deliberately simple and free-flowing: the plan is for us to meet on Mondays, riff for 15 or so minutes on things carnival-related, preferably with a guest, then have the show edited and uploaded by Tuesday.

In this pilot episode Roger Roberts and Wendell Manwarren of 3canal shoot the breeze with MPC wizard Keshav Chandradath Singh of the cut+clear crew and Canboulay.

See you at the launch of 3canal’s 2009 release, Joy+Fire, on Sunday 19 January at 6pm at the Queen’s Hall Courtyard, Port of Spain, Trinidad!

3canal’s web site
3canal at Trinidadtunes.com
3canal on iTunes
3canal on Facebook
3canal on Twitter

Nearly four years later, CFR finally hits the half-century. For show #50 I return to the place where it all began—cut+clear productions, headquarters of CFR’s “house band”, 3canal, for a leisurely chat with Wendell, Roger and Stanton about “Boom Up History“, the music track they’re giving away for free on Trinidadtunes.com, life on the road and the making of Joy + Fire, their 2009 release.

And here’s the Boom Up History video, filmed and directed by Walt Lovelace.

Boom Up History from 3canal on Vimeo (Director: Walt Lovelace)

In this long overdue show, which was recorded way back in June, I interview Lisa Allen-Agostini, co-editor, with Jeanne Mason, of Trinidad Noir, the latest in the Noir series published by Akashic Books.

Lisa Allen-Agostini, writer and co-editor of Trinidad Noir

Apologies to Chris Abani and Yusef Komunyakaa for omitting mention of their fine readings on Friday night. At the time of the recording we were still recovering from Derek Walcott‘s unforgettable premiere reading of “The Mongoose”, a “tribute” to V S Naipaul that begins with the choice lines, “I have been bitten/I must avoid infection/Or else I’ll be dead as Naipaul’s fiction,” and goes either downhill or uphill from there, depending on your point of view. Being good bacchanal-loving Caribbeans, we naturally devote a section of our review to discussion of that episode.

Thomas Glave at Calabash 2008

Following our review is a far more coherent interview with Jamaican writer Thomas Glave, who talks about his latest work, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles. Thomas was also kind enough to send me a copy of the statement with which he prefaced his reading at Calabash on opening night:

"I want to say a special thanks to the Calabash organisers – Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes, and Justine Henzell – for inviting me back to Calabash, this being my second reading at the festival, and for their unceasing generosity to, and support of, writers from around the world. And so, mindful of that generosity and kindness, my conscience will not permit me to begin reading from this book in particular before I say that as a gay man of Jamaican background I am appalled and outraged by the Prime Minister’s having said only three days ago on BBC-TV that homosexuals will not have any place in his Cabinet and, implicitly, by extension, in Jamaica. I guess this means that there will never be any room in Mr Golding’s Cabinet for me and for the many, many other men and women in Jamaica who are homosexual. And so I now feel moved to say directly to Mr Golding that it is exactly this kind of bigotry and narrow-mindedness that Jamaica does not need any more of, and that you, Mr Golding, should be ashamed of yourself for providing such an example of how not to lead Jamaica into the future. And so, Mr Golding, think about how much you are not helping Jamaica the next time you decide to stand up and say that only some Jamaicans – heterosexuals, in this case – have the right to live in their country as full citizens with full human rights, while others – homosexuals – do not. That is not democracy. That is not humane leadership. That is simply the stupidity and cruelty of bigotry."

In episode #47 I drop in on CFR’s house band, 3canal, to chat with Roger Roberts and Wendell Manwarren about last week’s ReThePublic concert; the band’s upcoming appearance at the WOMEX world music festival in Seville, Spain; and how 3canal learned to stop worrying and love Facebook.

Links

In the pages of CFR she’s known as “the Dread”, but to most other people Atillah Springer is a Trinidadian journalist, activist and blogger and a member of a protest movement which, earlier this year, succeeded in driving the aluminium industry giant Alcoa out of a community in rural Trinidad where they had proposed to establish a smelter under somewhat dubious circumstances.

In this podcast I talk with Atillah about the movement’s use of the Internet in their organising activities.

Some useful links:

No Smelters in T&T web site
Rights Action Group blog
Smelta Karavan web site
Saving Iceland – web site of anti-smelter allies in Iceland

Portrait of Atillah by caribbeanfreephoto
Other images courtesy Attillah Springer

For episode #46 CFR joins forces with Antilles, the weblog of The Caribbean Review of Books (CRB), to bring you Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller in conversation with CRB editor Nicholas Laughlin. You’ll also have a chance to hear Kei read two poems from his upcoming collection, There Is an Anger That Moves, which is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.

Also available at Amazon is New Caribbean Poetry, an anthology edited by Kei. Purchase Kei’s short story collection, Fear of Stones, from Macmillan Caribbean or Amazon.co.uk, and read a review by Edward Baugh at The Caribbean Review of Books.

Listen to the podcast by using the player at the bottom of the post or access it using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | iTunes

Technorati Tags: kei miller, jamaica, caribbean, literature, poetry

Dare we say that CFR the podcast is back? Episode #45 arrives complete with cheap gimmickry and, fortunately, a bit of substance provided by the members of CFR’s house band, 3canal, whom we visit during a rehearsal of the repeat performance of this year’s edition of The 3canal Show at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Listen to the podcast by using the player at the bottom of the post or access it using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | iTunes

Purchase your 3canal CDs at CDBaby or at the iTunes Music Store.

And see some recent photos of 3canal and their show at this Flickr collection.

Technorati Tags: 3canal trinidad rapso caribbean music theatre theater podcast

Over the weekend I listened to a few old episodes of CFR (I know what you’re saying: who is she trying to kid? All CFR episodes are old) and started thinking about which ones might be my favourites. And so I figured I’d throw the question out to you: Which are your favourite episodes of CFR? And why?

For your convenience I’ve embedded a little flash player in this post so you can scroll through from the early cringeworthies to the later ones where I sound like I know a little more about what I’m doing, all without leaving the page.

Here it is anyway, warts and all (and show notes here).

- MP3 (15:12 min; 10.5MB)

- Enhanced AAC (15:12 min; 7.7MB) with embedded images and links. For iTunes and owners of later model iPods

- Mono MP3 (15:12 min; 3.5MB) – smaller file suitable for low-bandwidth users

“It’s quite an exciting little thing,” Wendell Manwarren of 3canal told me over the phone yesterday as we discussed “Caribeana Imperia“, the show the band has been preparing over the past few weeks in Washington DC. That’s almost certainly an understatement. “Caribeana Imperia” opened on Thursday 13 July and from all reports audiences had no difficulty getting into the groove.

In CFR #44 the three members of 3canal — Wendell, Roger and Stanton — and choreographer Dave Williams fill me in on the details over the telephone from their DC headquarters.

“Caribeana Imperia” runs at the Gala Hispanic Theatre in Washington DC from Thursday-Sunday until July 30. The show is directed by Hugo Medrano and Wendell Manwarren.

Mentioned in the episode are the Caribbean writers Martin Carter, V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott and Earl Lovelace.

The song played in the episode is “Imperia” by 3canal. Purchase your 3canal CDs at CDBaby.

Listen to the podcast by using the player at the top of the post or access it using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

You can listen to both versions (MP3 and Enhanced AAC) of the show by using the embedded player above, but for show notes and links please check out the post over at Global Voices. (Hint: the AAC version is smaller and prettier).

Then yesterday evening it hit us: what better way to demonstrate the potential of the Internet than by opening with a podcast composed of the voices of some the people [we hope will be] in the audience? In other words, by putting our audience on the Internet, even before they’ve become our audience. So yesterday morning found us down at the Crowne Plaza hotel, getting as as many conference delegates as we could pin down to answer the question: “What does the term “Caribbean” mean to you?”

And here is the result: CFR #43, roundtable opener in the guise of a CFR podcast. Hope you enjoy what our audience has to say.

Play the podcast using this nifty little online player:

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Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

The song played on this show is “Now Is the Time” (Ronaldinho Remix) by 3canal: the original version of the song is from the album Jab Jab Say, which can be purchased at CDBaby, along with 3canal’s 2006 release, 3canal Vibes. And while you’re at it, now would also be a great time to purchase a Limited Edition Commemorative World Cup Warriors t-shirt from 3canal’s 3line t-shirt collection.

CFR is back! And what better way to celebrate my return to podcasting than by paying a visit to cut+clear productions, headquarters of 3canal, CFR’s “house band”.

This time the topic isn’t the band but rather band member Wendell Manwarren, who was in Germany a few weeks ago appearing in a soon-to-be-released television documentary which aims to “capture the vibe” in the FIFA World Cup 2006 host country ahead of the arrival of the Soca Warriors (Trinidad & Tobago’s football team) and the legions of Trini fans in June. Wendell shares with us the highlights of his whirlwind tour (seven cities in 2 1/2 weeks!) and explains why there’s now a pink rhino covered in blue devils gracing the streets of Dortmund. We also play two tracks from 3canal Vibes, the group’s 2006 album, which you can purchase online at CDBaby.

Play the podcast using this link:
Or access it using any of these methods:
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Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

And while you’re at it, now would also be a great time to purchase one of these Limited Edition Commemorative World Cup Warriors t-shirts from 3canal’s 3line t-shirt collection:

And get the latest Soca Warriors news and analysis at the Soca Warriors Forum and the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog.

It’s not quite a podcast, but here’s an audio clip with sounds of the bush fire which is raging as I write on the mountain which sits behind my street — plus a few words from yours truly. The dry season has truly arrived.

Play this clip using this link:

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Inspired by a line from David Rudder‘s “Bahia Girl” about the affinities between Trinidad and Brazil, I get on Skype with my friend Gillian Marcelle during her sojourn in the enchanting Bahian capital, Salvador, and learn a bit about the land of capoeira and Carnaval (and caipirinhas!).

Play this episode using this link:

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Links:
Bahia Online | Flickr Bahia cluster

Music played in this show:
“Bahia Girl” by David Rudder from the CD No Restrictions | “Ilê que fala de amor” by Margareth Menezes from the CD Gente de Festa | “Maria Caipirinha” by Carlinhos Brown from the CD Candyall Beat | “Tarde em Itapua” by Quarteto em Cy from the CD Canta Brasil

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Play this episode using this link:

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Or access CFR using any of these methods:
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Links:
3Canal’s web site | Download “web mixes” of “Rise” and “Vibes It Up”.

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

When the Christmas season rolls around, English-speaking Trinidad starts singing in Spanish. Episode #39 explains – briefly – the whys and wherefores of the musical form known as parang and offers a sampling of parang tunes by Los Parranderos de UWI.

Play this episode using this link:

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Links:
“The Sound of Christmas” – 1997 Article on parang by yours truly (PDF format (1.8 MB) – first published in Caribbean Beat) | Buy Los Parranderos de UWI’s Mi Parranda at Rhyner’s Caribbean Music Online Store

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you’re an Amazon.com shopper, you can also support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Happy Holidays!

Dominique Le Gendre with Royal Opera House accompanist Chris Willis

CFR gets classical in episode #38, as I visit with Trinidad-born composer Dominique Le Gendre at her home in London. I chat with Dominique about her early musical influences, about Caribbeanness and the classical tradition, her experiences as a Associate Artist at the Royal Opera House and her chamber opera “Bird of Night”, which is set to debut at the Royal Opera House in October 2006.

Play this episode using this link:

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Or access CFR using any of these methods:
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Links:
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare: 38 Fully-Dramatized Plays – audio version of the Bard’s complete works, scored by Dominique | Royal Opera House

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you plan on doing any of your holiday shopping at Amazon.com, do support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, classical music, derek walcott, music, opera, dominique le gendre, royal opera house, trinidad + tobago

Dropped in at 3canal headquarters this afternoon and next thing I knew a mini-podcast was in the offing! In down-and-dirty episode #37, CFR’s “house band” premieres “Rise”, their first single for the 2006 Carnival season, and talks about drawing inspiration from the Trinidad & Tobago football team’s recent qualification for the 2006 World Cup, their 2006 Carnival show, and other matters.

Play this episode using this link:

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Or access CFR using any of these methods:
Download MP3 | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Buy 3canal’s 2005 album Jab Jab Say at CD Baby.

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt, and if you plan on doing any of your holiday shopping at Amazon.com, do support CFR by initating your purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, music, rapso, trinidad, trinidad + tobago

Here, at last, is CFR’s new promo. (In fact, it’s part PSA-part promo).

Play it using this link:

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Or subscribe to CFR using any of these methods:
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Let me know what you think, and by all means, heed its message.

Update (7:24pm): I seem to be living a day ahead of myself. Just realised I said in the podcast that the match took place on November 17 and that today is November 18. The match in fact took place on November 16, and today is of course November 17. This means I also mislabelled the audio file, but too late to change that now. Having your national team reach the World Cup can addle your brain.

Update (8:50pm): Did not want to be responsible for any confusion down the road as to the date of the match which took T&T to the World Cup (you never know if this will be the one episode of CFR that gets chosen for inclusion in a time capsule), so I’ve re-recorded the intro with the correct dates. My apologies to early downloaders.

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:
MP3 | Online Player | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Links:
Soca Warriors web site | Nicholas’s eyewitness account of yesterday evening | great Flickr photoset by Sanjiva on the happenings in T&T | on the article on Caribbean particpation in the World Cup

Music played on this show:
“Good News” by 3canal from The Best of 3canal

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt or by initiating your Amazon.com purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We’re always tickled as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast, or put yourself on our Frappr map.

Technorati Tags: caribbean, football, music, podcast, soca warriors, soccer, trinidad, trinidad tobago, world cup 2006

CFR #35 finds me babbling about football (the soccer kind) and other matters on the evening of the Trinidad & Tobago vs. Bahrain World Cup qualifier match. And what would make people think I could possibly behave like Simon Cowell?

You can listen to this podcast in any of the following ways:
MP3 | Online Player | RSS | Subscribe via iTunes | Subscribe via Odeo

Links:
Omar Sosa’s web site | Soca Warriors web site | Nicholas Laughlin’s blog | Evil Genius Chronicles | Portable Media Expo | Global Voices | Chris Yee Mon’s blog

Music played on this show:
“Angustia with Tumbao” by Omar Sosa from the album Omar Omar | “Power Music” by 3canal

Please consider supporting us by buying a CFR t-shirt or by initiating your Amazon.com purchases by clicking on any of the Amazon.com links on the site.

We always appreciate it as well when you check out Caribbean Free Photo, our photoblog, and Caribbean Free Video, our vidcast.

(Show title courtesy Wim Wenders.)

Technorati Tags: caribbean, football, music, podcast, soca warriors, soccer, trinidad, trinidad tobago, world cup 2006