J’OUVERT MUSIC
In most pre-lenten Carnivals around the world, Shrove Tuesday is when the main celebrations happen. It’s the final day; the most elaborate costumes come out, and revellers wring out their very last drops of energy, going all out with no fear of the morning after. It’s loud, proud, bright and beautiful.
However, my favourite part of Carnival starts in the early hours of Monday morning, it’s wilder and more rebellious, there are no stand out costumes, just a primal swell of bodies smeared in mud, paint, oil, or maybe even chocolate, often a combination of these things. I am of course talking about J’ouvert.
J’ouvert is the official start of the Carnival and evolved from the Canboulay festivals of the 19th Century, when ex slaves would gather to celebrate their emancipation. If Carnival itself is an expression of freedom, then J’ouvert is at it’s very heart. You can feel the pressure valve of the year’s stresses and struggles release completely, and the energy in the streets during this time is truly electric.
I can’t express how much I would love to be celebrating J’ouvert right now, the sights, the smell and the sounds are embedded deep in my brain and I know my good friend Sam Atki2, one of my co-hosts on the Super Soca Show, feels the same. So we’ve compiled a list of our favourite J’ouvert tunes to share both the love and loss that we’re feeling without it.
Sam Atki2
Roaring Lion - J’ouvert Barrio
Trinidad's Roaring Lion (1908-1999) was a true Calypso great, whose 65-year career brought the genre international popularity. He recorded and released J'ouvert Barrio in 1935, which became a "Road March" or "Leggo" contender during carnival that year (he won the competition but with a different song called Dingolay Oy). He re-recorded the song two more times over the course of his career (1976 and 1993).
J'ouvert Barrio has a deeply evocative opening, a crescendo of percussion suggests the J'ouvert parade on the move, with the "beating of the bottle and the bamboo ". Through its verses, Lion offers us a short history on some of carnival's key elements. In the first , he sings about "ole mass", describing the "excitement and bacchanal" of the procession. Next, he introduces several carnival characters and their traits; the terrifying Jabs with their "whips and long forks", the "old talk" griot of the Midnight Robber, and the humorous Burrokeet "dancing jack ass". And in the final verse, he sings of the stick fight tournaments (or "calinda"), and name checks some of its most legendary competitors.
The song is a masterpiece of narration and atmosphere. With its minor chords, stripped back instrumentation and Lion's foreboding delivery, he frames the J'Ouvert celebration as a key touchstone of Trinbagonian culture.
3 Canal - Blue
Kaptin: 3Canal are at the forefront of a sound called Rapso, which as the name suggests is a mixture of Rap and Calypso that has its roots in the rhythmic carnival poetry of characters such as the Midnight Robber and Pierrot Grenade, as well as the Black Power movement of the 60s and 70s.
This is their first hit from 1997 which perfectly captures the spirit of J’ouvert, celebrating blue as both a cleansing colour to ward off evil and the chosen colour for many Jab Molassie, those devilish horned creatures whose wild and mischievous ways are an integral part of Carnival celebrations.
3Canal actually began life as a J’ouvert band a few years before they became a music group and now they host one of the most popular J’ouvert parades in Trinidad, including percussion courtesy from the mighty Laventille Rhythm Section. Sadly we got side-tracked on the way to join them when we visited, and ended up following friends to another band, but 3Canal are definitely my choice for when we go back next.
Bunji Garlin - Differentology
Sam: Differentology will forever be a part of my own J'ouvert experience.
Port-Of-Spain, 2014, my friends and I were signed up to play J'ouvert with the Clay mas band. It was 6am and we'd been on the road for 3 hours, our bodies covered in water and mud, having already put away too many rums to count. At that moment, the truck stopped in the street and the sun finally appeared over the horizon. The masqueraders went wild as huge quantities of colourful powder paint began to fly, mixing with the mud, and the opening chords of Bunji' Garlins Differentology boomed from the sound system. Carnival had truly arrived.
Differentology is perhaps Garlin's biggest song of the last decade. Featuring Nigel Rojas on the guitar, it became an international hit, gaining further momentum with a slew of remixes, including versions by Busta Rhymes and Major Lazer. Even in the UK, festival crowds that year could be heard belting out the chorus.
Many elements of J'ouvert are referred to in the lyrics: "Look how de sun now raisin' up", "Everyone with painted body". Bunji even alludes to J'ouvert's place in the carnival calendar, "Twenty-four parties we hit in a row ... Before we head out on de road" refers to the string of parties or "fetes" that lead up to the start of Carnival proper. And of course, the lead refrain "We ready for de road" perfectly encapsulates the mood at the beginning of Carnival; the anticipation of the gathering mass bands and the two-day parade through the streets.
For me, no other soca song takes me back to the thrill and sensation of playing J'ouvert quite like this one!
Benjai ft Scarface - Tanty Say
Kaptin: Although Buni Garlin also had a great track on this same riddim, I think his old sparring partners from the Asylum days really stood out on this one.
You can feel the excitement here, even though Tanty (a Trini colloquialism for Auntie, but she’s not necessarily a blood relation) has told them not to go down there, cos there’s “too much bacchanal, it gonna take my life away” She might have a point, but if you’re gonna go out, I can’t think of a better way.
