The primary legislation of soca music, in keeping with Machel Montano, is: “it is dancing time on a regular basis.” And in his Tiny Desk Live performance, the “King of Soca” offers irrefutable proof to assist that assertion.
Montano’s efficiency is the primary to convey soca, the excessive vitality dance music of the Caribbean, to the Tiny Desk. The style was born in Trinidad and Tobago within the early Nineteen Seventies when calypso artist Lord Shorty (who later selected the identify Ras Shorty I) added conventional Indian percussion devices and rhythms to calypso music — itself a fusion that includes parts of African, Venezuelan, French and American music.
A proud Trinidadian, Montano’s contribution to soca has earned him awards and recognition since his youth. His profession started in earnest when he was 7 years outdated, and by the point he was 10, he’d shared the stage with Calypsonian pioneers and icons, most notably acting at Madison Sq. Backyard with Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener and The Mighty Shadow.
Certainly, Montano’s Tiny Desk Live performance was consultant of his 40-plus-year profession and, to the delight of these in attendance, included a few of his greatest hits: “One Extra Time,” “Famalay,” “Like Ah Boss” and “Soca Kingdom.”
Visitors who attended Montano’s efficiency got here able to fête! They jumped, they wined they usually waved the flags of their respective Caribbean islands up excessive, singing alongside phrase for phrase. Being a Barbados-born, Saint Lucian-bred gyal, seeing and feeling the spirit of unity inherent to the cultural sound ingrained in my DNA — and foundational to my upbringing — represented at Tiny Desk made me beam with pleasure. If that is your first publicity to soca music, I counsel you stretch and loosen up your waistline earlier than pushing play on this one, as a result of there isn’t any sitting nonetheless when soca fills the room.
SET LIST
- “One Extra Time”
- “Dance With You”
- “Quick Wine”
- “Like Ah Boss”
- “Famalay”
- “Soca Kingdom”
MUSICIANS
- Machel Montano: vocals
- Dwain Antrobus: keys
- Duane Williams: results
- Bayete Williams: keys
- Damien Neblett: bass
- Melvin Alick: drums
- Kyle Peters: guitar
- Modupe Onilu: percussion
- Rhys Thompson: percussion
- Etienne Charles: trumpet, flügelhorn
- Lamar Robinson: background vocals
- Michael Chandler: background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Nikki Birch
- Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Collection Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Alanté Serene, Mitra I. Arthur
- Audio Engineer: Tiffany Vera Castro
- Photographer: Sofia Seidel
- Tiny Desk Staff: Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer, Kara Body
- Govt Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Collection Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
