Product Description
Paseos and Waltzes of Trinidad Vol.1 contains twelve pieces transcribed and arranged from recordings by Lovey's Original Trinidad String Band and Belasco's Band between 1912 and 1918.
Originally performed on violins, cello, flute, clarinet, piano and a variety of strumming instruments (guitar, mandolin, cuatro and braga), they have been arranged for violin and guitar (or other strumming instruments).
Lovey's Band were the first to record calypso music - as instrumental 'paseos' (two-step dances) - together with Venezuelan-style 'vals' or Spanish Waltzes. The first disc released in 1912 was Mango Vert and Manuelita for Columbia Records. Coming five years before the first jazz recordings, the importance of this record is highlighted by its selection for preservation in 2002 by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.
The music is extremely catchy and highly syncopated, with the paseos adopting the melodies of popular calypso tunes of the time.
The waltzes differ from European-style waltzes by the strong 'hemiola' - two beats against three - rhythm heard throughout the music, which adds to the syncopation in the melody.
The success of the Lovey's Band's 1912 recordings led to Columbia Records and Victor Talking Machine coming to Trinidad in 1914 to record more of this exciting new music fresh from the source. The man they hired to organise the musicians was Lionel "Lanky" Belasco.
Belasco was the foremost Trinidadian musician and composer of his era, and is lauded in Venezuela as the man who introduced jazz to the country. He emigrated to the US in 1915 and was one of the most prolific West Indian recording artists of the early 20th Century, accompanying the first Calypso singers in the late 1920s and 30s.
While the two Belasco paseos here are from the Trinidad recordings of 1914, the two waltzes were recorded in New York in 1918.
Arrangements for larger ensembles (strings and wind) are available on request.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.