Franklyn McIntosh (born 1946) is a St Vincent-born pianist and arranger of calypso and soca music. He is recognized as one of the pioneer music arrangers who helped usher in the soca style of West Indian popular music in the 1970s and 1980s. [1] [2] [3]
As a calypso/soca arranger, McIntosh scored out the music parts for the band that accompanies the calypso or soca singer. Melodic lines for horns (saxophone, trumpet, and sometimes trombone) and bass, as well as charts for guitars and keyboards, were written out for use by musicians at recording sessions and on the bandstand for live performances. [4]
Frankie McIntosh was born and reared in Kingstown, the capitol city of the Caribbean nation St Vincent and the Grenadines. As a youngster he received musical instruction from his father, saxophonist and band leader Arthur McIntosh, and later classical piano lessons. At the age of ten he began playing in his father’s calypso dance orchestra, the Melotones. He established his own band at the age of fourteen. After graduating from high school and a year’s teaching English literature in a local intermediate secondary school, he relocated to Antigua in 1967 where he played piano for the popular Laviscount Combo. In 1968 McIntosh joined the wave of Caribbean immigrants who landed in Brooklyn, where he studied and earned a BA degree in classical piano from Brooklyn College (1978) and an MA in Jazz Studies from NYU (1988). [1] [3] [5]
While studying at Brooklyn College McIntosh made a living by playing with Brooklyn calypso dance orchestras led by Lio Smith and Syd Joe, and small jazz ensembles led by Jimmy Tyler, Snug Mosley, and Donald Maynard. [6]
In 1977 he began his serious arranging career with calypsonian Alston “Becket” Cyrus. Their album, Disco Calypso, included one of Becket’s biggest hits, “Coming High." Amsterdam News cultural critic Dawad Philip praised the song and McIntosh for his forward thinking "talent and musical Wizardy." [7] A second song on the album, “Calypso Disco” made it onto the sound track of the 1977 Hollywood film The Deep. [7]
In 1978 McIntosh joined forces with fellow St Vincent expatriate and record producer Granville Straker. Serving as musical director and leader of the studio band the Equitables, McIntosh composed musical arrangements and oversaw the recordings of hundreds of calypso/soca albums for Straker’s Records as well as Brooklyn’s two other calypso labels, Charlie’s Records, and B’s Records. [8] [9]
Over the next two decades McIntosh arranged for nearly every leading calypso/soca singer from the West Indies who came to New York to record and perform. Among his most notable collaborators from Trinidad were Mighty Sparrow , Lord Kitchener, Calypso Rose, Shadow, Chalk Dust, Duke, and Explainer. [3] [8] [10] He also arranged for a number of so-called "small island" singers including Becket and Winston Soso [11] from St Vincent and Short Shirt and Swallow [12] from Antigua. Regarding Frankie's impact on the music, Nelson King, culture critic for the Vincentian and Caribbean Life, noted: "As the music moved into the 1980s, McIntosh emerged in the forefront of the new soca style, with arrangements famous for their innovative horn lines, catchy synthesizer figures, and sophisticated harmonic settings," [1] Reviewing over a decade of work by McIntosh, critic Les Slater concluded: "McIntosh stands, along with Leston Paul, as the first among equals in the business of arranging calypso music which, as of the later 1970s, became a much bigger deal than it used to be. [2]
In recent years McIntosh has returned to his jazz interests, playing in a small ensemble with steel panist Garvin Blake. [3] He arranged Blake’s 2014 CD, Parallel Overtones, a recording that Les Slater noted: “exudes top-tier quality and finesse….It certainly is fine testament to Blake on both counts that the great Frankie McIntosh has been a collaborative presence for years on Blake’s music ventures." [13]
During his Honorary Doctorate award ceremony, an official from the University of the West Indies summed up Frankie's accomplishments, proclaiming he had "an indestructible mark on authentic Caribbean music and ipso facto, bona fide Caribbean Culture. He was not constrained by nationality of other parochial interests in the deployment of his talent. With a totally Pan-Caribbean and Diasporic sensibility, he found time for teaching and assisting younger performers, arrangers, and musicians, not just the big popular names." [14]
Source: [15]
Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the "Soul of Calypso", which has influences of African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelled "sokah" by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper when reporting on the new music it was erroneously spelled "soca"; Lord Shorty confirmed the error but chose to leave it that way to avoid confusion. It is a genre of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s and developed into a range of styles during the 1980s and after. Soca was initially developed by Lord Shorty in an effort to revive traditional calypso, the popularity of which had been flagging amongst younger generations in Trinidad due to the rise in popularity of reggae from Jamaica and soul and funk from the United States. Soca is an offshoot of calypso/kaiso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks.
Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to West African Kaiso and the arrival of French planters and their slaves from the French Antilles in the 18th century.
Aldwyn Roberts HBM DA, better known by the stage name Lord Kitchener, was a Trinidadian calypsonian. He has been described as "the grand master of calypso" and "the greatest calypsonian of the post-war age".
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The music of the Lesser Antilles encompasses the music of this chain of small islands making up the eastern and southern portion of the West Indies. Lesser Antillean music is part of the broader category of Caribbean music; much of the folk and popular music is also a part of the Afro-American musical complex, being a mixture of African, European and indigenous American elements. The Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be musically divided based on which nation colonized them.
The Carnival Road March is the musical composition played most often at the "judging points" along the parade route during a Caribbean Carnival. Originating as part of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the term has been applied to other Caribbean carnivals. There it was and is still viewed as a musical genre.
The music of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines includes thriving music scenes based on Big Drum, calypso, soca, steelpan and also reggae. String band music, quadrille, bélé music and traditional storytelling are also popular.
The culture of Trinidad and Tobago reflects the influence of Indian-South Asian, African, Indigenous, European, Chinese, North American, Latino, and Arab cultures. The histories of Trinidad and Tobago are different. There are differences in the cultural influences which have shaped each island. Trinidad and Tobago is an English-speaking country with strong links to the United Kingdom.
Destra Garcia is a Trinidadian musician, singer and songwriter of soca music. She is also known by the mononym Destra. She is one of the most popular female soca artists in the world.
The West Indian Day Parade Carnival is an annual celebration of West Indian culture, held annually on around the first Monday of September in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It is organized by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA).
In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, chutney soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating soca and calypso elements and English, Hindustani, and Hinglish lyrics, chutney music, with Western instruments such as the guitar, piano, drum set, and Indian instruments such as the dholak, harmonium, tabla, and dhantal.
Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool, better known as Chalkdust or Chalkie, is a leading calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago. He has been singing calypso since 1967 and has recorded more than 300 calypsos.
The Calypso Monarch contest is one of the two major annual calypso competitions held in Trinidad and all English speaking Caribbean islands, as part of the annual carnival celebrations.
Machel Montano is a Trinidadian soca recording artist and record producer. Known for his high energy, fast-paced, and often unpredictable on-stage performances, he is one of the genre's most popular artists.
Kelvin Pope, better known as The Mighty Duke was a Trinidadian calypsonian. He was born in Point Fortin.
Roy Francis Cape is a calypso saxophonist from Trinidad and Tobago who has been active as a band musician for more than 50 years. He has been featured on hundreds of recordings and has released eight albums with the Roy Cape All Stars.
Granville Straker is a Saint Vincent-born American music businessman and record producer specializing in calypso music. He is known for his Brooklyn, New York-based record label Straker's Records, which he founded in 1971, as well as his production work for many of the artists signed to it. According to Mark Romano of AllMusic, Straker's Records "...defined major calypso and soca artists starting in the early '70s." Straker told record producer and researcher and Bill Nowlin that over a thirty year span his label released 600 to 700 albums, an excess of 1000 twelve inch records, and several thousand singles.
Trevor Winston Lockhart, known professionally as Winston Soso, was a soca singer from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He was known among musicians as the "Rolls-Royce of Calypso".
Kenwrick Joseph, known professionally as Kenny J, was a Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian and Assistant Superintendent of Police who was best known for his soca parang hits including The Paint Brush.