Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the Soul of Calypso, African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelt Sokah by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper when reporting on the new music it was erroneously spelt 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 USA. Soca is an offshoot of Kaiso/Calypso, with influences from East Indian rhythms and hooks.

Soca has evolved since the 1980s primarily through musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries, not only from its birthplace Trinidad and Tobago but also from Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, the US and British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Guyana and Belize. There have also been significant productions from artists in Venezuela, Canada, Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Soca began its development in the early 1970s and grew in popularity throughout that decade. Soca's development as a musical genre included its fusion with Calypso, Chutney, Reggae, Zouk, Latin, Cadence and traditional West African rhythms.

Lord Shorty

The "father" of Soca was a Trinidadian named Garfield Blackman, who rose to fame as "Lord Shorty" with his 1964 hit "Cloak and Dagger" and who adopted the name "Ras Shorty I" in the early 1980s. He started out writing songs and performing in the Calypso genre. A prolific musician, composer and innovator, Shorty experimented with fusing Calypso and elements of Indo-Caribbean music after 1965 before debuting "the Soul of Calypso", Soca music, in the early 1970s.

Shorty was the first to define his music as "Soca" during 1975 when his hit song "Endless Vibrations" caused musical waves on radio stations and at parties and clubs - not just in his native Trinidad and Tobago, but also in cities like New York, Toronto and London. Soca was originally spelled Sokah, which stood for the "Soul of Calypso" with the "kah" part being taken from the first letter in the Sanskrit alphabet, representing the power of movement as well as the East Indian rhythmic influence that helped to inspire the new beat. Shorty stated in a number of interviews that the idea for the new Soca beat originated with the fusion of Calypso with East Indian rhythms that he used in his 1972 hit "Indrani". Soca solidified its position as the popular new beat adopted by most Trinidadian Calypso musicians by the time Shorty recorded his crossover hit "Endless Vibrations" in 1974.

In 1975, Shorty recorded an album entitled "Love in the Caribbean" that contained a number of crossover Soca tracks. During the subsequent promotional tour, Shorty stopped at the isle of Dominica and saw the top band there, Exile One, perform at the Fort Young Hotel. Shorty was inspired to compose and record a Soca and Cadence-lypso fusion track titled "E Pete" or "Ou Petit", which was the first in that particular Soca style. Shorty consulted on the Creole lyrics he used in the chorus of his "E Pete" song with Dominica's 1969 Calypso King, Lord Tokyo, and two Creole lyricists, Chris Seraphine and Pat Aaron.

I wrote a text about Circular Dimensions, an exhibition of sculptural ceramics and paintings and drawings by Ontario-based artists Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn. The goal was to bridge these two independent practices through echoing experiences and moments in the artists’ lives. Here is the text in full. Circular Dimensions – Heidi McKenzie & Maya Foltyn February 7 – March 1, 2020 Opening reception: February 7th from 7:30 – 9:30pmMeet the artists: February 23 at 2:00pm  Circular Dimensions merges two distinct and individual practices, taking inspiration from personal experiences and collective histories from all over the world. Artists Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn bridge and cross disciplines, roles, trajectories, and aesthetic languages in this ceramics and painting exhibition founded on circular movement. Join the artists at the vernissage on Friday, February 7th from 7:30 – 9:30pm at Carnegie Gallery (10 King Street West, Dundas, Ontario) and meet the artists at a special conversational event on February 23rd at 2:00pm. A look into, around, and within Circular Dimensions, a ceramic and painting exhibition by Heidi McKenzie & Maya Foltyn Text by Agnieszka Foltyn  “Everything is a balance between control and gesture,” Maya starts. This simple statement echoes a conscious act of negotiation of change or perhaps tensions in flux within our rhythms, our perceptions, and our responses to the world. It is a negotiation of the stimuli of phenomena that makes up our understanding of the world around us: its politics, its people, where we are, who we are, but importantly, how we are together.   The practices of Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn touch and separate, intersect and cross over, flow in parallel, and divide in separate directions. These are not linear trajectories but rather circular or cyclical meanderings, stimulated and affected by the machinations of society throughout time. They are dreams, thoughts, extensions of a willingness to understand or to come into contact with the unknown. They are meditative, rhythmic techniques tailored to the individual lives of the artists. They express a subtle hope.   “Everything is in flux. That we see something as static is a form of abstraction,” Foltyn states. And in this exhibition, abstraction is key. Perhaps what draws us to this concept is a negation of the direct messaging of a qualified truth. In this present of fake everything, scripted bias, and media monopolies, what abstraction does is make space. It makes room for the viewer to determine their own position – through their movement within the gallery space, peering from one work to the other, from one artist to the other and back again. The viewer has the freedom to exercise their agency, their will to decide or not to decide, to determine or to not, to look, to question, to relate, to feel wonder. Making room for agency is a powerful political act. It creates space for a diversity of voices to be heard. The artists make space through the use of a minimal visual language, the round shape, the circular trajectory becoming a symbol of a journey – their own intersecting with many others.   Heidi McKenzie’s ceramic sculptures flow, grow, shape, twist, and turn as “soul sketches”, moments of her personal journey capturing a specific moment of her own development but at the same time resonating within the entire sum of her experiences. It is a moment, but one that points to the future. McKenzie’s practice brings her all over the world, connecting to people, places, skills, and techniques. Her background traces its roots across continents and her inspirations delve even further. “As an artist, it’s important to speak in your own voice – play in your own sandbox,” she begins. “Speaking in my own voice speaks to a lot of people.” The global movements of humanity over time have shaped our cultures and our viewpoints. Values and meanings have risen and changed. These intersections, moments of meeting, create a certain effect that resonates in other people’s lives. Paisley is a recurring motif in McKenzie’s work. “It represents both sides of my cultural heritage,” she states, referencing her Indo-Caribbean, Anglo/Irish roots. She draws a simple outline of its journey, originating as an almond shape in South Asia before making its way into the Scottish textile industry. While at a residency in Australia, she found herself exploring a particular shape. “That form came out of me in Australia,” she states, her arms outstretched. “There is a humanity that is connected to this shape.” The word excavate appears several times. To excavate: to dig something out, to expose something that is made meaningful in a new time. These works trace stories, identities through time and place, affected by meetings with other people, their cultures, and their traditions. These narratives are assertions of identity. But they stay away from appropriation, rather they comment on how interconnections with the unknown or the Other impact the ways we live now – and also how we move into the future.  Aesthetics are visual languages laden with symbols and meanings from the past and the present. They advance certain ideas, certain markings through moments in time and history. These languages have been used, appropriated, and redefined. “And why shouldn’t I?” McKenzie counters, when asked about this choice of visual language. Specifically the languages of minimalism and modernism have historically championed the division of the sexes and a Eurocentric viewpoint, erasing particularly women and people of colour from the annals of art history. But these movements originated in functionality, forms of categorization, and a use-function with the person in mind. “The fact that I am a woman of colour, it never made me repulsed by this aesthetic.” She continues, “What am I going to do that makes it different? And how am I going to invite a broader more pluralist audience to engage with these genres?”  A position is easy to betray or contradict. But a presence brings something completely different to the table – a seat. If we see the table as a place in which dialogue, community or exchange can happen, then taking a seat at this table is the most important act of all. It is a willingness to meet with the Other, a gift in a way, where the artist takes the first steps in reaching out, saying something of themselves with the hope of a response, a beginning. We assert our positions in this world through presence by bearing witness. In an age of increasing turbulence and concerns about our collective future, being visible is important. Being visible together is an act of solidarity.  “It’s important to have ideas and to make artwork,” Foltyn states. Art is a dynamic bodily happening. It is an expression of a specific spatio-temporal context. The phenomena of the surrounding environment, the thoughts and dreams and lived or imagined experiences are understood and come out through the actions of the body. Foltyn describes her work as a combination of interior and exterior landscapes, stemming from the junction of the mind and the body. It is a blend of memories and experiences, reacting into the moment through bursts of gestural movement and controlled, skilled technique. “I was never good at or drawn to react to the world realistically,” Foltyn states. She describes the teaching approach of professors in Poland in the 1980’s, which focused on the development of a specific individual style and on the mastery of technical skill within it. But for Foltyn this instruction was limiting. Education is for experimentation, with a freedom to try, to innovate, and to make mistakes. “Sometimes a mistake brings forth a new experiment.” She continues, “Art speaks to your perspective and point of view. It is what draws people in and what pushes them away. Those who are left are to be nurtured and grown from.”  Working across multiple pieces and compositions at once is an approach Foltyn uses to moderate between these two elements. “What is most important are the ideas that rise to the surface, that come out.,” she states. They come after a night’s rest, in the shower the next morning. Intensity and repose is also a rhythm. We often find that ideas come at moments of rest, during which the mind is free to dream. “It is the collection of different elements coming together,” she continues. “You pull them out, they come in. Sometimes it’s so intense you cannot sleep.” Abstractions don’t come from nowhere. She describes an intensification of many stimuli, phenomena, and emotions that are processed during moments of rest. “It’s not that it all comes from an experimentation of different gestural forms,” she says. But this is way of learning, too. The movement of the body taking internalized forms of being and translating it into visual forms of articulation. They say something. These are wishes, not only coming to the artist from the outside but also hopes for something else. This embodied method of working provokes ideas, thoughts, drawn from the subconscious more than from reality but having lived it all. Musing is an important process of understanding.  The artworks seem to be landing points for both artists – acts of making that serve as temporal reference points in the development of ideas, echoing rhythms of control and gesture. Alternate and embodied forms of articulation engage different types of knowledge. This process underlines the importance of making as a method of learning, sorting through information in an embodied way – taking part in the world, physically, emotionally, and mentally. We are corporeal beings. Through the act of making we come to a fuller understanding of being in the world. We also cement our presence – within the cannons of history, in art, in daily life, situating ourselves within histories in which many narratives have been omitted or made invisible.   The works in this exhibition convey very clearly the artists behind them, in a firm but accessible way. This exhibition is full of contrasts, brimming with nuance, time, and change. The viewer has room to feel it out on their own but always in relation to something there – the wondering of time immemorial, the cultures and roles of the people throughout history, the space we inhabit, and how we navigate our societies, perhaps our society as a whole. 

The Dancers Who Surround the Conch with Fire from Their Heads

“Play the drum,” hollers Pandit

The room suddenly bursts with a pouncing sound , the conch is horned, and the possessed begin to dance

Continuously, the drums roam the room to reach all

Wicked tongues and rolled eyes, but you must not make face nor a sound

The conch is blown again as the Goddess appears

As the people who surround the conch with fire from their heads

Look to the temple for almighty, Mudda Kali

In the Indo-Caribbean community, it’s not uncommon to seek wuk (work service) during Sundays. On this day, you’ll hear the Hindu temple clash of rapid drumming, conch blowing & singing, joined by a fiercesome array of colors to manifest the Hindu Goddess, Kali. A phenomenon, known as Kali Mai puja, is a service mainly in the Indo-Guyanese community that requests the healing power and guidance of Kali. This contemporary shakti ritualized performance has been amongst the Guyanese community since the 19th century and derives from the Tamil and Telugu-speaking folk of the Madrassa in South India.

The manifestation is performed by the senses being overwhelmed. For instance, a vast amount of colors, incenses, singing, and offerings to the God are used to disorient those who are possessed. In addition, those who follow the pundit play powerful rhythms of Kali Tappu and horn a conch to call Mudda (mother). Following, Kali inhabits the mediums and surrounds the singing and drumming attendants by running continuously in place. During this time, Mudda temporarily commanders the Pandit and his attendees to address mundane and elevated concerns to the mediums. However, you’ll witness the mediums speak in an unfamiliar tongue, dump jars of water overhead on themselves, strike themselves with neem tree and eat the leaves. Some mediums may even request to be whipped on their arms. As it may sound rough, the mediums are not able to feel the harm as they under the protection of the Goddess, Kali. In confirming the authenticity of the manifestation flaming cubes of camphor are given to mediums orally or placed overhead.

Afterwards, those who participate in the performance tend to lose all memory, consciousness, or pass out. However, the contents of it all are to receive the loving message and guidance from Kali.

There is a temple in Queens, NY that performs the Kali Mai puja. The last I visited this temple was in Apr. 2020, but I’ve visited there 3 times.

The first two times I went for spiritual consultations. This is when you visit the Pandit and trade money for spiritual advice. When you get called into the room, he asks for your name and birthday. From there, the Pandit begins to provide advice that fathoms the mind. Pandit just pulls out this book and tells you what you must-do if you hope to relieve yourself of your issues. The advice is usually extremely accurate and reads you like an open book. According to James Reich and Drew Thomases’ article, Therapy Across the Line: Goddess ‘Manifestation’ in an Indo-Caribbean Hindu Temple in Brooklyn, they state:

“…he proceeded to describe to each of us some extremely sensitive, personal emotional and professional issues we were each, respectively, dealing with, giving details about which, in at least one case, we had barely even dared to speak to close friends.”

When the consultation is finished, you are given a red ribbon that must be worn every day and cannot be washed. The ribbon is rather small and can be pinned on easily.

The last time I went to the temple, I witness the performance. I’ve understood spirituality to be considered of high importance in the Guyanese community, but this performance took it to another level for me. As astonished as I was, I couldn’t make the slightest expression. I was told, once the performance starts you cannot laugh nor make a face. That if I do, what are possessing the others will inhabit me.

I always wondered why people in the Indo-Caribbean community did not celebrate this Hindu practice. But, I found out that many consider this a form of “black magic” since the Hindu Goddess, Kali, requests a blood sacrifice. In some scenarios, others who practice Kali Mai puja may involve the use of blood. In many cases, a cock or goat will be sacrificed and the host for Mudda Kali will drink blood for the decapitated sacrifice.

Sources:

Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West

Therapy Across the Line: Goddess ‘Manifestation’ in an Indo-Caribbean Hindu Temple in Brooklyn

Manifesting Kali’s Power: Guyanese Hinduism and the Revilatisation of the ‘Madras Tradition’

List of artistes to performance at the Cape Town International Jazz Fest

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List of artistes to performance at the Cape Town International Jazz Fest

We’ve got the list of artistes that will be performing at the 19th Cape Town International Jazz Festival which will take place on 23 and 24 March 2018 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

On Tuesday festival director Billy Domingo announced some of the artists that will be hitting the stage.

The line-up:

Corinne Bailey Rae (UK), dubbed the British queen of soul, is a contemporary R&B song-writer who has secured multiple Top Ten UK and US releases. She’s also stacked up an array of Grammy and MOBO Awards. Dedicated fans will be able to imbibe her meditative indie rock and folky neo soul tracks.

Best known as the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke (Ethiopia) is recognised for his unique blend of traditional Ethiopian music, Western jazz and Latin rhythms. The musician/arranger’s captivating sounds which lead with vibraphone and congas have seen his songs sampled by hip artists like Nas, Damian Marley, Kanye West and K’naan – who aptly summarise the man’s contemporary reach.

Vijay Iyer Sextet (USA) – Vijay was voted 2014 Pianist of the Year and 2015 Jazz Artist of the Year in the Down Beat International Jazz Critics Poll. As a piano player, his lineage descends through Ellington, Monk, Randy Weston, Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner and Alice Coltrane, this jazz pianist, electronic musician, and writer is a hot item in New York City where he’s based.

Seu Jorge presents the Life Aquatic/ A Tribute to David Bowie (Brazil). Jorge hooked onto the Ziggy Stardust alter ego after Wes Anderson cast him in his 2004 film The Life Aquatic. He sings Bowie’s covers in Portuguese, with only an acoustic guitar for accompaniment.

With his move to the Ninja Tune label, Jordan Rakei’s (NZ) soulful, jazzy hip hop palette has settled into a grander sound on his second LP, Wallflower. The 25-year old’s balladry and mid-tempo grooves are shaped by his skills as multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer.

Blinky Bill & Sibot’s Afrofunk Spaceship (SA/Kenya) unites Kenyan musician, producer and DJ “Blinky” Bill Sellanga with Sibot, a veteran of the South African electro music scene. Sellanga fronted the Just A Band, a collective who created self-described “super-nerdy,” music which embraced hip hop, electronica and funk?—?all with an African inflection. Combined with Sibot’s love of performance, this collab promises a playful mish-mash of jet-fuelled electronica.

Trombone Shorty (USA), aka Troy Andrews, is best known as a trombone and trumpet player, but also stretches out on drums, organ and tuba. He’s worked with some of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, funk, and hip hop and this year Blue Note Records announced the label had signed Trombone Shorty for his Blue Note debut – Parking Lot Symphony, which dropped in April 2017.

The Louiz Banks Quartet (India) brings the weight of Indi pop, progressive jazz and Indo jazz fusion to the bandstand. Dubbed ‘The Godfather of Indian Jazz’, Banks was an early member of Weather Report, later performing with John McLaughlin, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pam Crain, Ramamani, and Dizzy Gillespie. His 2008 collab as co-producer, arranger and pianist/keyboards on Miles from India, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category.

Vocalist, upright bassist, composer and arranger Miles Mosley (USA) was named after Miles Davis. This Hollywood producer is respected for his out-the-box approach, which sees him use effects pedals and a bow on his upright for his forward leaning solo projects, embracing jazz, soul, funk and rock; Trumpeter Nicholas Payton: Afro-Caribbean Mixtape (USA) digs deep as he fuses traditions from his hometown New Orleans with modern jazz, hip hop, mixtape and spoken-word. His playing is steeped in trad jazz, but he frequently flies free in search of new terrain. Bebop, swing, The Great American Songbook, R&B, plus dialects from Central America and the Caribbean.

Together with Swiss colleagues from The Umgidi Trio, pianist Nduduzo Makhathini recorded an 11-track album in Switzerland in 2016. This Inner Dimensions Collective (SA/Swiss) plumbs ancestral depths using chordal deconstruction reminiscent of early South African jazz styles from the Sophiatown era. Their specific dimensions span contemporary gospel and jazz choral, funky liturgical, indigenous African chants and free flow improvisation. The ensemble scooped a 2017 SAMA Award.

R+R=NOW (USA) is an exciting collaboration of some of the music industry’s most talented artists. The multi-award-winning pianist, record producer Robert Glasper, together with multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, actor and record producer Terrace Martin who will bring his saxophone to the A-game, along with Grammy-Award nominated trumpeter Christian Scott Atunde Adjua, and celebrated bassist Derrick Hodge, multi-instrumentalist keyboardist and beatboxer Taylor McFerrin and Berklee College of Music alumnus and drummer Justin Tyson.

Mi Casa (SA) the trio return with soulful urban house grooves guaranteed to bring us together as one big Familia. Expect trademark highlights, like Nana, from their latest soul jazz release.

The Feya Faku Spirit Unit (SA) sees the trumpet legend making more space for duets and solo performances. Saxman Sisonke Xonti (SA) is set to impress with thoughtful lyricism drawn from the nuances of seminal reedmen like Ezra Ngcukana;

Billy Monama: GrazRoots Project (SA), who revisit local classics in a celebration of mbaqanga and maskandi; Armed with her guitar and compelling voice, Belhar’s Claire Phillips (SA) delivers a forceful repertoire of funk, R&B and fusion; Jarrad Ricketts (SA) was crowned the espYoungLegend 2018 winner and the Cape-based singer will up the game with a dynamic pop showcase; Keenan Ahrends Quintet (SA) places the guitarist centre-stage as he airs his compositional approach to deeply toned ballads, local jazz and grungy rock.

Amanda Black’s (SA) balladry on her 14-track Amazulu release secured her platinum status three weeks after release. The sensational singer will show why she’s been dubbed ‘the new queen of ballads’; Nicky Schrire’s (SA) vocal work has drawn comparisons to Esperanza Spalding and Tori Amos. Her inventiveness has landed her spots with the likes of two Grammy-nominated pianists Gerald Clayton and Gil Goldstein; A familiar face on Cape stages, veteran entertainer Alistair Izobell (SA) has captivated audiences in musicals like Kat and the Kings – he’s guaranteed to stir up some dust as he unpacks a classic Cape party;

Sekunjalo Edujazz Band (SA) have been reeling in fans with their impressive interpretation of evergreen standards and local classics. Helmed by new director Kelly Bell, the ensemble’s varied playlist includes numerous memorable highlights; Bellville scholars from The Settlers High School Band (SA) are regular participants in the CTIJF Sustainable Training and Development Programme, and have also wowed at the CTIJF 2017 Music & Careers Live Performance – now they’re beyond excited to graduate to the main festival stage.

Originally from Soweto, prize-winning three-part a cappella group The Soil (SA) dazzle with a repertoire of township jazz, hip hop and Afro-pop. The trio’s beatboxing and polyphonic harmonies gel together as warm kasi-soul with subtle echoes of the kwaito of Mandoza and Zola; MABUTA (SA) is award-winning double bassist Shane Cooper’s latest and much-anticipated quintet. The Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz builds on his moniker as electronic producer Card On Spokes, now assembling sidemen Bokani Dyer on piano and synths, Sisonke Xonti tenor sax, Robin Fassie-Kock trumpet and Marlon Witbooi on drums; Louis Moholo-Moholo presents 5 Blokes 1 Doll (SA) – The only surviving member of The Blue Notes, Moholo-Moholo’s intense stick work continues to inspire. A long, illustrious career has seen him work with everybody from Evan Parker to Keith Tippett, and once again he’ll add his avant-garde flair to 5 Blokes 1 Doll.

Ticket information:

The 19th Cape Town International Jazz Festival will take place on 23 and 24 March 2018 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Tickets are available at Computicket outlets.

Some of the first artists announced for @CTJazzFest including @CorrineBaileyR, @MiCasaMusic, @TheSoilMusic and @AmandaBlackSA ! pic.twitter.com/arqKs4sHin

— TheJuiceSA (@TheJuiceSA) November 28, 2017

Is Eddie Grant the true inventor of Soca?

by Jo-Ann Greene

 Eddy Grant stands among an elite group of artists as one who has not just merely moved successfully across the musical spectrum, but has actually been at the forefront of genres and even created one of his own. From pop star to reggae radical, musical entrepreneur to the inventor of ringbang, the artist has cut a swath through the world of music and made it his own.

Born in Plaisance, Guyana, on March 5, 1948, the young Edmond Grant grew up on the sound of his homeland, tan singing, an Indo-Caribbean vocal style whose roots lay in South Asia and are the backbone of modern chutney. Then in 1960, the Grant family emigrated to England, taking up residence in the working-class Stoke Newington area of London. The young teen's musical horizons swiftly expanded, embracing the R&B, blues, and rock that percolated across his new island home.

In 1965, Grant formed his first band, the Equals, and long before the days of 2-Tone, the group was unique in being the first of Britain's multi-racial bands to receive any recognition. The West Indian contingent comprised Jamaican-born singer Lincoln Gordon, with his twin brother Derv and Grant both on guitar, while the rhythm section of bassist Patrick Lloyd and drummer John Hall were native-born white Englishmen. Like most of the teenaged bands roaming the capital at the time, the Equals cut their teeth on the club and pub circuit and finally inked a label deal with President Records in early 1967. Their debut single, "I Won't Be There," didn't crack the charts but did receive major radio support. This, alongside an expanding fan base wowed by their live shows, pushed their first album, Unequaled Equals, into the U.K. Top Ten. At the request of his label, Grant had also been working with the Pyramids, the British group who had backed Prince Buster on his recent U.K. tour. Besides composing songs for the band (and one for Buster himself, the rude classic "Rough Rider"), Grant also produced several tracks, including the band's debut single and sole hit, "Train to Rainbow City." In 1968, the Equals scored their own hit with "I Get So Excited," the group's debut into the Top 50. Although their follow-up album, Equals Explosion, proved less successful than its predecessor, as did the next single, the quintet's career was indeed about to explode. "Hold Me Closer" may have disappointed in the U.K., where it stalled at a lowly number 50, but in Germany, the single was flipped over and "Baby Come Back" released as the A-side. It swiftly soared to the top of the German charts, a feat repeated across Europe. Later that spring, a reissued British single finally received its just due and reached number one. Even the U.S. took notice, sending the single into the lower reaches of the Top 40. Sadly, this turned out to be a flash in the pan. The Equals' follow-up single, "Laurel and Hardy" died at number 35; its successor did even worse, while their new album, Sensational Equals, didn't even make the charts. New hope arrived when "Viva Bobby Joe" shot into the Top Ten in the summer of 1969, but its follow-up, "Rub a Dub Dub," just scraped into the Top 35. Understandable, considering the Equals' roller coaster of ups and downs, Grant now turned his attention elsewhere.

In 1970, he started up his own specialty record label, Torpedo, concentrating on British reggae artists. He also utilized the label as a home for a brief solo career under the alias Little Grant, releasing the single "Let's Do It Together." But the artist hadn't given up on the Equals yet, and good thing too. Later that year, their new 45, "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys," slammed the group back into the Top Ten. And then, the unimaginable happened. On New Year's day in 1971, Grant, all of 23 years old, suffered a heart attack and a collapsed lung. If lifestyle played a part, it wasn't because he drank, took drugs, smoked, or ate meat; it was due to Grant's only vice -- a hectic schedule. He quit the group at this point and the Equals soldiered on into the shadows without him. He sold Torpedo as well and with the proceeds opened up his own recording studio, The Coach House, in 1972. Grant continued to produce other artists and release their records through his newly launched Ice label, but his own musical talents were seemingly left behind. It wasn't until 1977 when Grant finally released a record of his own, the Message Man album. It was three years in the making and a stunning about-face from his previous pop persona, even if "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys" had suggested a change was imminent. Tracks like "Cockney Black," "Race Hate," and "Curfew" were politicized dark masterpieces laced with aggression and anger.

But the album also included some lighter moments, including "Hello Africa," which featured a sound that the media hadn't even invented a word for yet. Grant dubbed it "kaisoul," an amalgamation of kaiso (the traditional word for calypso) and soul. Caribbean legend Lord Shorty, the acknowledged inventor of this new crossover hybrid, labeled it solka. Neither term stuck, however, once the Trinidad and Tobago press came up with their own label: soca. But regardless of what it was called, the style was just one of many hybrids that Grant was entertaining.

Message Man may have proved a commercial failure, but that didn't dim the artist's vision for one second.

Two more years passed while Grant wrestled with its follow-up in the studio, composing, producing, and performing virtually the entire album himself. The end result was 1979's Walking on Sunshine, one of the greatest albums of the decade. While the B-side featured a clutch of seminal musical hybrids, the centerpiece of the album's A-side was "Living on the Frontline," a dancefloor classic that blended tough lyrics with an electronic sheen, a sense of optimism, and a funk-fired sound. Released as a single, the song roared up the British chart, while becoming a cult hit in U.K. clubs. Inexplicably, the album itself didn't chart at all, nor did its follow-up, 1980's Love in Exile. However, in the next year, Grant finally cracked the market wide open with Can't Get Enough, which finally breached the Top 40. His singles' success had continued uninterrupted across "Do You Feel My Love," "Can't Get Enough of You," and "I Love You, Yes I Love You." A phenomenal live album, Live at Notting Hill, was recorded in August 1981 during London's Notting Hill Carnival. The following year's Killer on the Rampage slew its way into both the British and American charts, where it landed at number ten. The album spun off "I Don't Wanna Dance," which topped the chart in the U.K., while the exhilarating "Electric Avenue," from his next album, Going for Broke, landed at number two on both sides of the Atlantic.

Nothing else would equal these dizzying heights. Three more singles followed by the end of 1984, but none managed to break into the Top 40. In the U.S., only one, "Romancing the Stone," actually made the chart, charming its way into a respectable berth just outside the Top 25. That was his final showing in the U.S. On both sides of the Atlantic, 1987's Born Tuff and the following year's File Under Rock were passed over by the record-buying public. However, the British gave the artist one last Top Ten hit in 1988 with "Gimme Hope Jo'anna," a highlight of his 1990 Barefoot Soldier album. Unfortunately, its 1992 follow-up, Painting of the Soul, went the way of its last few predecessors. 

By then, the artist had long ago left the U.K., having emigrated to Barbados a decade earlier. Even as his own career had taken off back in England, Grant was spending much of his time mentoring a new generation of soca talent. He opened a new studio, Blue Wave, and lavished most of his attention on it, which explains the gap in his output between 1984 and 1987. By the time "Jo'anna" had fallen off the chart, Grant was well on the way to creating his own mini-empire. Besides giving new stars-to-be a helping hand, Grant also moved into music publishing, specializing in calypso's legends. Over the years, Ice has thrilled the world by making the back catalog of multitudes of stars available: Lord Kitchener, Roaring Lion, and Mighty Sparrow, to name a few. And almost uniquely among Caribbean artists, Grant has maintained control over his own music, and Ice, of course, has kept it available. Across Grant's solo career, the artist has continued to experiment with different styles in ever-changing combinations. Pop, funk, new wave, reggae, Caribbean, African, and even country have all been melded into his sound. 1992's Painting of the Soul was heavy with island influences, while the next year's Soca Baptism is a collection of covers, from hits to obscurities, all dosed with a modern sound.

By this time, Grant was hard at work in the evolution of yet another hybrid style: ringbang. Many of the genre's elements are easily found in the artist's earlier recordings, from African rhythms to military tattoos, alongside soca itself and dancehall rhythms, many of the latter influenced by Grant's own previous work. The new style debuted in 1994 at the Barbados Crop Over festival. Since then, the style has continued to intrigue, but has yet to create the international success that it's always threatened. Much of this can be laid at Grant's own door, through a simmering dispute with other artists and the legal ramifications of the genre's trademark. A vociferous supporter of artists' rights, Grant first ran into trouble in 1996 when he demanded his label's artists receive adequate copyright fees from Trinidad and Tobabgo's Carnival. A heroic stance that infuriated the festival's organizers, this was quickly overshadowed by the public outcry over soca itself. As far as T&T was concerned, the inventor of soca was island native Lord Shorty, who announced its birth in 1978 with the Soca Explosion album. However, Grant insists otherwise, crediting his own "Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys" as the first-ever soca record. Needless to say, his public proclamations of this fact continue to infuriate T&T and other Shorty supporters. But politics aside, the greater factor may be in ringbang's trademark. Once Grant filed it, the word could no longer be used by other artists without express permission. A perusal of any soca, calypso, or chutney hits collection shows the importance of the use of the genre term to the actual song, and just how many titles feature the term. By preventing artists from using the word ringbang, few outside the Ice stable were willing to explore the genre.

Even so, Grant managed to organize the Ringbang Celebration 2000 as part of T&T's millennium festivities. The event, which went off without a hitch, created further ill will due to its price tag, a whopping 41 million (6.5 million dollars in U.S. currency). The artist himself performed two songs at the event.

In the new year, he recorded a new version of one of them, "East Dry River," while in Jamaica, appropriately enough in a ska style. The previous year, the artist released the Hearts & Diamonds album, with Reparation following in 2006. Grant continues to make an impact on both sides of the studio, with his music always an intriguing concoction of sound and his studio work equally innovative. Ice itself is equally instrumental in the music world, both in its preservation of past legacies and its attention to new artists.

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