Chronique no. 32 | Chronique Index

Homage to Lord Kitchener

A Giant of Caribbean Music disappears

The Caribbean music establishment is mourning one of its greatest musicians. Less than a year after the death of Haitian Guy Durosier, Aldwin Roberts , better known as Lord Kitchener, one of the most influential Calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago, passed away : Lord Kitchener died this past Thursday in Trinidad and Tobago at the age of 77 years, of a severe blood infection and organ failure.. Anyone of us who listens to Trinidadian Calypso and Soca is surely familiar with the long musical career of Lord Kitchener.

While many of us know more about Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener had an enormous influence on the evolution of Calypso in his country. He and Sparrow were very good friends and traveled all over London together. Interestingly enough, Sparrow was recounting how he convinced Kitch, as he was affectionately called, to return to Trinidad so that there could be some solid competition in the music. For a period reminiscent of the Nemours Jean-Baptiste -Webert Sicot rivalry, Sparrow and Kitch engaged in some lively competition, while at the same time maintaining a solid friendship throughout their life, despite all appearences. In fact Sparrow used to say that he needed this kind of competition to develop.

Born in the Carib town of Arima, Lord Kitchener started singing very early and his career spanned fifty years, in other words, a whole generation. During that illustrious career, he won some of the most prestigious prizes such as the « Road March » and the « Calypso king » . However his greatest and most important contribution to Calypso and Soca has been his constant effort to promote Steel pan music, integrating it into his music and making it accepted as widely as other music on the island. This was in some ways the same kind of fight in Haiti about the promotion of Roots music, both genres having originated in the social struggle of the poor. In an interview many years ago with Von Martin, Trinidadian host of the Caribbeana radio program in Washington, DC, Kitch was saying how difficult it was to compose for pan music. Because the musical phrases can be so different from the brass section, it takes a whole new approach to write for pan music. Yet, he was able to constantly write for both and in the process achieve a perfect marriage between brass and pan. He has had so many hits that it would be impossible to name all of them here. Let us however mention « Pan in Harmony, Home for Carnival , Sweet pan, Soca Corruption, She dey, Trouble in Arima » etc. He always managed to have one or two songs written for pan on each one of his albums, always encouraging pannists to do more .

Just like we were fortunate in Haiti that Guy Durosier left us a voluminous amount of his music, so are we with respect to Lord Kitchener. Whether in the form of a social commentary, pan music or road march, he left plenty for generations to enjoy and appreciate. The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago called for an official funeral as a final homage to Lord Kitchener and his music. This is a fitting tribute to a musician of this stature.

Serge Bellegarde