| Main Performers | Ben John and His Negro Dancers,
Boscoe Holder and His Troupe,
Emal Daye [Zulu Dancer),
Lord Kitchener [Crowned King of Calypso],
Sammy Wilde and The Kari-Kari Sisters,
Vivian Jack and Co.,
Horace Jeremie and Co.,
Doreen Skinner and Co.,
Marjorie Blackman and Co.
Benny Nightingale [Jamaica's 'Al Jolson'],
Edric Connor [Star from 'The Jazz Train'],
Marion Ryan - vocal,
Eddie Calvert - trumpet |
| Orchestra or Band | George Browne and His Calypso-Mambo Band,
Ray Ellington Quartet,
Trinidad Southern All Stars Steel Orchestra,
Hermanos Deniz Cuban Rhythm Band |
| Choirs | The Southlanders [Jamaica's Close Harmony Quartet] |
| Set List | 1. Jour Overt (Trinidad Carnical Troupe),
2. Shango Dances (Ben John and His Negro Dancers),
3. George Browne and His Calypso-Mambo Band,
4. Jazz to Jitterbug (Ben Johnson and His Negro Dancers),
5. Benny Nightingale,
6. Emal Daye,
7. The Southlanders,
8. Cuban Mambo: Mambo No.8 (Ben Johnson and His Negro Dancers),
9. Edric Connor,
10. Ray Ellington Quartet with Marion Ryan
INTERVAL
11. George Browne and His Calypso-Mambo Band,
12. Trinidad Southern All Stars Steel Orchestra,
13. Lord Kitchener,
14. Hermano Deniz Cuban Rhythm Band,
15. Eddie Calvert
16. Trinidad Carnival [A Replica of the Trinidad Carnival Display]:
a. Sammy Wilde and the Kari-Kari Sisters,
b. The Ju Ju Witch Doctor in Jungle Dance (Vivian Jack and Co.),
c. Fish Gods (Horace Jeremie and Co.),
d. King Sailor (Vivian Jack and Co.),
e. Sammy Wilde and His Fabulous Dancers,
f. Caribbran Market Women (Marjorie Blckman and Co.),
g. Finale - Road March,
'God Save the Queen' (The National Anthem) |
| Performance Notes | Before the annual Notting Hill Carnival was started in London in 1966 had begun, this concert was staged at the Hall and sponsored by Hugh Scotland, a Jamaican entrepreneur. Was this the first Caribbean Carnival as the programme boldly proclaims? It was just a concert, not an outdoor procession on the streets but it boldly offered many of the elements of Trinidadian Carnival with calypso, pan, limbo, bongo, staged stick fighting and featured many of the most important Trinidadian artists in England at the time. As a result, it deserves to be considered as an important precursor to later Carnival celebrations in England.
Programme states Boscoe Holder and His Troupe deputised for Ben Johnson before the interval.
Trinidad Southern All Stars Steel Orchestra are listed as winners of the 1954 Musical Award, Winners of Trinidad Musical Festival.
Taken from the back page of the programme:
"Caribbean Carnival
This represents a history of the negro in music, song and dance in the West Indies. In the bad old days of slavery, Music, Song and Dance were the only means of giving expression to grief, sadness and even self-created happiness.
The so-called Speakers of Leaders we know as Calypsoneans would relate all their grievances, sufferings, events and intigues - in songs set to a dance rhythm.
The quality of this practce remains to-day, but the celbration is not confined to the Negroes alone, but extends to all and sundry races of mankind who settle in the West Indies, forming a new nation.
Spanish and French culture, like the English, has certainly left its mark, as evidenced by the French and Spanish sentences, the rhythm of the latter being frequently employed in mosy Calypsoes.
Here, this evening, we preent a miniature Carnival similar to that held in Trinidad, but also embracing the whole Caribbean area.
We feel sure you will go away extremely satisfied and will book this annual event in your 1956 diary.
Produced and directed by High Scotland." |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1955/100) |