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Remembering Kitch By Trevor Burnett, Trinidad & Tobago Mirror News, January 30, 2005 |
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CALYPSONIANS and lovers of the artform will soon, in different ways, be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the death of the Grandmaster Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts) on February 11. Since Kitch's passing, some say the standard of calypso has deteriorated so badly, that steelbandsmen are being allowed to play compositions of yesteryear in this year's Panorama competition. The Calypso Revue is already paying tribute to Kitch and the tent's other pioneer, Jazzy Pantin, who died late last year. Beginning in 1963, Kitch and the Revue took calypso to another level (from where Sparrow had taken it, with selections like The Road and Love In The Cemetery.The saga of Kitchener reveals that he was domiciled in Manchester, England when Sparrow, during one of his many performances in the UK, pleaded with him "to come back home ... calypso need yuh bad". Just after World War Two, in 1947, Kitchener, Beginner and several other calypsonians were on a Caribbean tour, performing in countries like Curacao, Aruba, culminating in Jamaica. According to Kitch's Arima-born contemporaries, like the Danclair brothers, Kitch later related that he stowed away, from Jamaica, aboard a ship bound for England. Stunted then by the slow development of the calypso artform at home, and in the wider Caribbean, it was his desire to further promote calypso to the world. Another premier promoter of Kitchener's memory comes off on the late Road March King's birthday, on April 18, courtesy the Diego Martin Pan Institute, in collaboration with Clyde "Lightening" George, and his wife, Kathy-Ann. Recently at Holy Name Convent, a special tribute to the Grandmaster was made through performances by his son, Kernel Roberts. Within the confines of his Rainorama Palace in Diego Martin, Kitchener's museum is soon to be opened, featuring some of his earlier contemporaries like Pretender, Beginner and Roaring Lion. And, later this year, with the completion of the Diego Martin Highway, the extension will be named, in his honour, Kitchener's Highway. |