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 Caldwell Taylor

 That whatsoever Master shall suffer any slaves to beat any Drum or empty Casks or Boxes or great gourds, or blow Horns, Shells or loud instruments, for the Diversion or Entertainment of
Slaves...who do not suppress the same in one Hour after the same begins shall be convicted. 

-The Laws of Grenada from 1763 to 1805
G. Smith 1808, p.10

Thirty Carnival seasons have revolved around the scintillating Grenadian sun since calypsonian "African Teller" made his debut back in 1976. The thought sent my mind stammering into a Grand Etang fog of expired years, grasping for signposts and other markers.Aha,'76 was the season of the children's uprising in Soweto and, too, it was the  year when Maurice became the Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition in Grenada. But that was not so very long ago; was it?

 As I remember it, African Teller's coming out was by no means spectacular. But it was tellingly memorable, for the bard was quick to signal a willingness to contend and contest. Indeed, in his first outing, he articulated a clear desire to afflict the comfortable in Grenadian society while  calling attention to an African continuit, the griot (story telling) tradition. The Teller, who resolved in '76  to tell it as he saw it,  revisited his choice of "calypso name" during a recent telephone conversation with this writer.
He  commented:

 "Kiku [ the writer's nickname], boy you know I became the African Teller because I wanted to connect up with my African roots and I wanted to be the wire that will plug Grenadians into their African source. You also know that my great- uncle [ Christopher Rennie]- he is your great uncle too, went to Africa [Liberia] in the 1930s and established himself in a big way. So I wanted to make that link from the word go. I wanted my singing name to be a bridge connecting here with over yonder. Anyway, you was there when I started, and you know all the scenes".

True. I was there. In fact, I was there long before my cousin Winston "Houdini" Glasgow transformed himself into the African Teller. I remember the nights when we (Prekko, Police, Parlay, Bug Jones, Houdini and I) sat in the "Hotel California" drinking an under proof St Croix rum. During these late-night  sessions the man who would become the Teller talked endlessly about calypso and about Al Green and about ZZ Hill and ultimately about his coming greatness. And we listened. And listened.
 
But why did Winston Glasgow take up Calypso?  I put that question to the bard and he gave this
answer:

"I had something to say, especially as things was getting rough in Grenada. One of the main things that got me going was injustice. The killing of Dummy [Jeremiah Richardson , a Paradise youth who was shot
and killed by a policeman in April of 73]really triggered something in me. So I decided to take up calypso to put words to all the feelings that was bubbling and boiling up inside ah me; yeah".

So that's how The Teller took up what he lovingly calls the "art form". He entered the St Andrew's
Calypso King Competition, held at Grenville's Deluxe cinema, and copped the third place. " The Mighty Timpo"  [Randolph Thomas] was the winner of the '76 contest, and Fitzroy "Teach" Bain was the first runner up. A little more than ten years later, Timpo would die in a vehicular accident in New York. Fitzy's demise was unspeakably tragic; he was executed at the Fort on October 19, 1983.

 Teller has not turned back since that night at the De Luxe, an old -fashioned "theatre" whose walls have
been serenaded by the likes of "Sparrow", "Quo Vadis", "Melody","Caruso", Papitette and Bomber. And following in the wake of Bomber, Sparrow, Valentino , Stalin, Chalkdust and and calypso greats, The  Teller has given eloquent voice to our anger and our frustrations. He has breathed poetic life into our collective hopes, our conscious ambitions and our longing for real  economic and political independence and cultural emancipation. These strands of Teller's work come together most powerfully in a 2003 composition called " My Manifesto"

Teller's manifesto calls for a brand of independence might not be attainable, but giving up on it will be the same as smothering the pulses of one's soul. Like the rest of us, The Teller is one part realist and one part dreamer, a dreamer of dreams that are imbued with his compositional common sense and exquisite melodic maneuvers .

The Teller's proud heart dreams of performing one day in Liberia before members of his "Liberian family". And he dreams also of" making a grand return" to Aruba, the place where he was born a little more than 50 years ago: He was the third of six childrenborn to Anita and Doderidge Glasgow. Doderidge was from St Vincent.  

Young "Winty" came to Grenada at the tender age of 3 to be was raised by "Nennen", his maternal
grandmother. Today he boasts of how Nennen schooled him in various African retentions. This schooling
manifests itself in the sweet percussiveness of  Teller's  music and in his penchant for the call-and -response type song. Talking about the call-and -response , art historian Robert Farris Thompson tells us that it is among the principal aesthetic highlights of the African song tradition and is highly favoured among the Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin, and the Bakongo of Congo, and Angola. It is hardly controversial to say that no Grenadian calypsonian employs the call- and- response more often and more effectively than does the Teller.

Call- and- response is a dialogue between soloist and chorus. It is the device that suffuses Sparrow's
"Ten To One is Murder" with its dramatic urgency. 

The years have sharpened Teller's compositional skills. Proof of this is very evident in  songs like "We Ent Leaving" and "The Request", contained in the bards's 2006 CD album titled "African Teller and Queen Shanika".  "We Ent Leaving" is a zouk -accented number which promises to drag you to the dance floor. "The Request" is a masterpiece which satirizes the obsession with the "get something and wave" song. Being satire at its best, the song uses ridicule as a means of inducing change and reform.   

In his thirty years in the calypso business, the Teller has made several trips to Grenada's Calypso
Monarch Finals. He grabbed the crown back in 1982, and won Road March honours one year later.  And during those  thirty exciting years Teller has shared the stage with icons like Sparrow and the
Black Stalin.  

The  calypso beats time to our Caribbean counter -narrative. The Teller knows this and he is working
hard to keep the art form alive and alert to its social and historical responsibilities.

 Long live the African Teller.

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