|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Reading Time 3 mins
The People’s Calypsonian Takes His Final Bow: A Tribute to Brother Valentino — Caldwell Taylor, Martin Felix, Nzinga Taylor
Less than a week after the burial of the Mighty Sparrow, the Caribbean is mourning another giant of calypso. Brother Valentino, the Grenada-born Trinidadian calypsonian known to many as “Valie” and to all as “The People’s Calypsonian,” has passed away at the age of 85.
Sparrow and Valentino shared more than a homeland. Both sons of Grenada, they were born just two days apart in July, and for years they marked their birthdays together on one stage. The last of those nights was in 2015 at t
he Mas Camp Pub in Port of Spain, when Sparrow turned 80 and Valentino turned 74. Valentino’s children sang alongside him that night.
Valentino was born Emrold Anthony Phillip in Cherry Hill, Grenada, on July 7, 1941, and moved to Trinidad when he was five years old. As a young singer he joined Lord Kitchener’s Revue, and it was Kitchener himself who named him Lord Valentino. In the 1970s, during the Black Power movement, he became Brother Valentino, and the name stayed with him for the rest of his life.
He grew into one of calypso’s most thoughtful and socially conscious voices. His music was never just entertainment. He used calypso to speak out and to teach. In songs like “Life Is a Stage” and “Stay Up Zimbabwe,” he spoke against injustice and stood up for ordinary people.
His work was widely honoured. He won the Veterans Calypso Monarch title in 2005 with “Where Kaiso Went,” and in 2012 he received the Hummingbird Gold Medal, a national award from Trinidad and Tobago. He was also set to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Trinidad and Tobago next month, and had already taken his graduation photos on campus.
Valentino never lost his connection to home. Grenadians proudly remember him as part of Grenada’s cultural delegation to CARIFESTA ’79 in Cuba, where he proudly represented his homeland.
He earned the title “The People’s Calypsonian” over decades of singing about the lives of ordinary people, their struggles and their hopes. It was his fellow calypsonian Black Stalin who first called him that, and it fit. Whether he was taking on political oppression or social inequality, he meant every word. When asked how he hoped to be remembered, Valie said he would be quite pleased if “The People’s Calypsonian” remained his legacy.
He also treasured friendship and learning. One of us, Caldwell Taylor, corresponded with him for many years, as did our co-editor, Susan Patrice. In one letter to Caldwell, Valentino wrote:
“I learned a lot about my own art form from you, including the social and political climate and development of the past, which the calypso played a vital role. I will always be grateful to you for that.”
He closed the letter with two simple words: “Stay up.”
That letter tells you who he was. Even after decades at the top of his profession, Valentino was still learning, and still happy to share what he knew.
That love of history came through in his music. His recording of “Where Kaiso Went,” which he co-wrote with Caldwell Taylor, traces calypso from the early twentieth century to the present day. It reminds listeners that calypso cannot be separated from the struggles of Caribbean people. When debates about the origins of Carnival and calypso came up again in recent years, Valentino had already set the record straight in song. It was vintage Valentino, and it was deeply Caribbean.
He leaves behind his wife, Peggy Castanada, and eight children.
As people across Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago and the wider diaspora share their memories, many will think of his voice and his songs. Others will remember his generosity, his humility, and his belief that calypso should teach people, not just entertain them.
Brother Valentino spent his life reminding Caribbean people who they were, where they came from and what they could become. Life, he told us, is a stage. The curtain has fallen, but his voice will be heard wherever Caribbean people gather to sing and remember.
Stay up, Valie.
The funeral service for Brother Valentino will be held on Thursday, October 29, at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Independence Square, Port of Spain.