The BAMBOO BAND play calypsos from the "Golden Age" of calypso, approximately 1925-1955. We start at the point where calypsos were regularly recorded, and end at the time when steel pan started to rise in popularity.
You can contact us on info@bambooband.com. Alternatively call 01903 734 426 and ask for Jennifer.
The Bamboo Band is: James Fryer (vocals, guitars); Jennifer Mercer (vocals, hand percussion); Paul Hotton (flute) and John Douche (drums).
A "bamboo band" or "tamboo bamboo" consisted of people playing bamboo percussion of various sizes, from small hand-played "chandlers" to huge "booms" which were pounded on the ground as the band marched along. "Clear the Way When the Bamboo Play" is a song that was originally played on tamboo bamboo.
Tamboo Bamboo bands existed because drums had been banned in Trinidad by the British colonial authorities in the late 19th century. The carnival revellers responded with ingenious new instruments: bottle-and-spoon bands, the tamboo bamboo, then the "biscuit tin bands" of the late 1930s, which evolved into steel pan soon after the war years.
After this time the steel bands were so loud that other acoustic instruments could not be heard and most other kinds of band disappeared from the streets. The calypsonian Mighty Terror laments this in his song "Steelband Jamboree" when he says, "Jazz men struggling for food"!
Despite our name, we are not a tamboo bamboo band. Our sound is meant to evoke a small carnival band from the pre-war period using guitar, cuatro (a four-string guitar from Venezuela), flute, drum, bottle-and-spoon and of course vocals. In the carnival a large chorus would sing with the band.
Our set includes songs from the 1920s ("Uncle Joe", by Wilmouth Houdini) and 1930s ("Man Smart, Woman Smarter" by Duke of Iron and "Money is King" by Growling Tiger). We include some topical songs such as "Edward VIII" by Caresser, now topical once more with the release of the film "The King's Speech".
Calypsonians (writers and performers of calypsos) took on important-sounding names such as Roaring Lion and Lord Executor. This practise continues today.
In the WWII years Trinidad was home to several US Army bases and this is reflected in songs such as "Rum and Coca Cola" by Lord Invader, best known as a hit for the Andrews Sisters, and "Donkey City".
After the war, Mighty Sparrow celebrated the departure of the US forces with his song "Yankee Gone", better known as "Jean and Dinah". These were the years of the "Calypso Craze" in the US (and to a lesser extent the UK) and we perform some of these songs such as "Boo Boo Man", by Lord Melody, popularised by Harry Belafonte. We also perform some erzatz calypsos such as "Since Me Man Done Gone and Went", a Tin Pan Alley tune sung by Maya Angelou who was a nightclub singer before becoming a well-known poet and author. In addition we perform some mentos, a Jamaican musical form similar to calypso, such as “Hold 'im Joe”.
That reaches the end of our period, although we are also performing "Portrait of Trinidad" by Mighty Sniper, which is from 1966 and points in the direction which modern calypso would later take.
The Bamboo Band revive the calypsos of the Golden Age, approximately 1925-1955. We play at festivals and venues across the South Coast of England. We play songs like Lord Invader's Rum and Coca-cola, Mighty Tiger's Money is King and Lord Melody's Boo Boo Man made popular by Harry Belafonte. Read more...