Errol Peru’s Tribute to The Grandmaster

The text is, first of all, an invitation, not a command. It says, “Let us” which is a circumstance to which we could, if we wish, respond negatively. We could say “Let us not”. But there can be few in this country who would say no to an invitation to honor Aldwyn Roberts, Lord Kitchener, The Grandmaster of Calypso, Road March King of the World. It deals with the idea of praising famous men. In a sense, this begs the question that if a man is already famous, is there need for further praise? To answer that, we must make a distinction between praise and fame. Praise may make a person famous. A famous person is certainly well known. But being well known does not necessarily mean that the familiarity is based on achievement. Much fame is in fact infamy or notoriety and this occurs when people are well known because they do outrageous things. No praise accrues to them, but there is no doubt that they are well known.

In the case of Aldwyn Roberts, The Grandmaster we praise achievement. In the matter of fame, decades of writing and singing the songs of Carnival have made him a household name, well beyond our own local boundaries.

As we praise this famous man, we acknowledge formally and in a public way, that we recognize and appreciate what he has done, and want the country and the world at large to know. Kitchener could not have done this for himself, since as all children know “self praise is no praise”. We all, from time to time, look at something which we have done, or made, or performed, and feel a sense of personal satisfaction. But we also know how hollow that satisfaction can become if it is not recognized and remarked upon by others. More than that, Kitchener worked in a sphere of artistic activity which requires its practitioners to do well every year. As a singer of Carnival songs he was obliged as all Carnival people to produce something new, something different every year, the ritual both absurd and preposterous. Art ought not to be compelled to appear on demand. But that is the nature of a person who is outstandingly talented and admired. That is the nature of a star.

What it means therefore is today’s hit guarantees you fame and possibly praise only for one year. Next year you have to start all over again. It is unfortunate that nobody deals with the work of Carnival artistes. Nobody takes a long view of it. And if for no other reason, the fact that Kitchener was a Carnival artiste obliges us to evaluate his work, so that its quality is fixed and recognized in such a way that it can never again be denied. In any other genre the masterpiece demands and receives a longer life so that since Carnival is the way it is we must make the appropriate arrangements to honor the singer, given the vulnerability of the song. We must honor the artiste, given the fragility of the artifact. Some of the saddest stories are those of painters, who couldn’t sell a painting while they lived, but as soon as they die the price of their work rises significantly.

Poor Vincent Van Gogh! He couldn’t sell a sunflower for love nor money, I wonder how he must feel when they fall to the auctioneer’s hammer for millions. So that a critical aspect of the unease which the idea of honor engenders is the fact that many of our artistes who are indeed the glory of our times, giving luster to our society and making us by their efforts a particular and special people, remain poor. And as they grow old, they become anxious, because they made no provision. So we therefore have a responsibility to protect and sustain those who give the country and by extension themselves some quality which speaks to the possibilities of our human condition. Don’t they send and call us to sing, play and dance when a dignitary comes? Don’t they tell tourists that they should come and see us? I am here to tell you that nobody will want to come here because we’ve been good little boys and girls and have paid of our debts. They never wonder where we rehearse, nor do they ask about the conditions under which we think, write and perform. They never wonder how we survive! Indeed, this society so often disregards its artistes that we are made strangers in our own land.

I am happy in my own little way, with the kind assistance of Christian Torry then marketing manager at Hi-Lo food Stores to erect a statue of Lord Kitchener at the Harvard Round Roundabout, Woodbrook and a Bust in Arima. Kitchener, I believe was as independent a calypsonian as one can be. His tunes are his and so as are his lyrics. They have been topical, witty, profound and what is more, I’ve not heard a Kitchener song in which the words and music did not suit each other, he composed calypsoes that covered every imaginable human experience and social and political events.