Cariso is a kind of Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

ian folk music, and an important ancestor of calypso music

Calypso music

Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...

. The word may come from carieto, a Carib

Carib language

Carib, also known as Caribe, Cariña, Galibi, Galibí, Kali'na, Kalihna, Kalinya, Galibi Carib, Maraworno and Marworno, is an Amerindian language in the Cariban language family....

 word that means joyous song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

. Cariso used satirical and insulting lyrics, and is related to the picong

Picong

Picong or Piquant is light comical banter, usually at someone else's expense. It is the way in which West Indians tease, heckle and mock each other in a friendly manner...

 tradition. Cariso singers, called chantwells, sang primarily in French creole

French-based creole languages

A French Creole, or French-based Creole language, is a creole language based on the French language, more specifically on a 17th century koiné French extant in Paris, the French Atlantic harbors, and the nascent French colonies...

. Cariso is also Virgin Islander

Music of the Virgin Islands

The music of the Virgin Islands reflects long-standing West Indian cultural ties to the island nations to the south, the islands' African heritage and European colonial history, as well as recent North American influences. Though the United States Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands are...

 folk song.

Definition of a Chantwell

The ‘Chantwell’ is another incarnation of the African ‘Griot’ tradition. On the Caribbean plantations African ‘Griots’ became ‘Chantwells’ preserving the tribe’s history and traditions orally. They would sing to contemporary and mythical heroes and to the Gods. They would also preserve the complex oral traditions of West Africa with songs of derision, praise, satire, and lament. At first the Chantwells were mostly women because the males were targeted for destruction on the plantation. On Emancipation the tradition continued and the Chantwells would sing call and response chants called ‘lavways’ lionizing and cheering on champion stickfighters. This form of music gradually evolved into the modern Calypso. As the country became urbanized Chantwells became more and more a male function but the portfolio remains the same. The Chantwell is the Call- the tribe and the audience is the Response.

Rapso Music-in the Cariso Tradition

Rapso music is itself an evolution of the ‘chantwell’ or ‘griot’ tradition of African music in the diaspora. It is called ‘the poetry of Calypso’ and ‘the Power of the Word in the rhythm of the Word’. Rapso is the poetic ‘rap’ form of Trinbagonian music- the next evolutionary step of Calypso and Soca. It also has origins in the ‘oral tradition’ elements of the performances of traditional masquerade characters in the Trinidad Carnival.

Traditional Masquerade characters like the Midnight Robber, the Pierrot Grenade, and the Wild Indians each have particular forms of poetic and musical speeches that echoed ancient African masking and poetic traditions. Rapso borrowed many of the rhythmic and performance elements of these forms.

The first wave of Rapso music occurred in the late 1960s with the invention of Rapso by its pioneer Lancelot Kebu Layne. The second wave occurred in the late 1970s and mushroomed in the early 80s with the work of Brother Resistance and the Network Rhythm Band alongside other artists like Brother Cetewayo and Brother Book. This wave mainstreamed Rapso music in the musical equation of Trinidad and Tobago and World Music.

The 3rd wave of Rapso occurred with the advent of young groups such as Kindred and Homefront in the early 1990s. They were part of a musical movement entitled the ‘Kiskadee Karavan’ which was led by millionaire Robert Amar who invested his money in the unleashing of the young musical genius of Trinidad and Tobago. The Karavan revolutionised Trinidad’s music by taking ‘traditional’ forms like the Rapso and giving it modern production and promotional methods to take the music to stadiums in the native Trinidad and Tobago. This opportunity uncovered many talents on the ground, and was able to create a series of anthemic musical singles. The song ‘This Trini could Flow’ by super-group Kindred took Rapso into the 21st century and firmly entrenched the music as a form comparable to hip-hop and dancehall

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

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