Hi, dear Hivers

Some time ago I wrote and arranged my first oriental calypso inspired in Beila Gamboa, a popular folk character in Playa Grande (a very popular district in my town). I worked for 11 years in a school in that area and I wrote the calypso for a festival. It was a bit difficult because I was not very familiar with the genre.

I did some research about Mrs Gamboa to write the lyrics. She was a school teacher, then principal, and a designer of award-winning Carnival Fantasies. Luci Cordero, a colleague of mine did the choreography. It was a wonderful experience I wanted to share with you as part of the #BeeInspired initiative.

The Calypso is a form of Afro-Caribbean music original of Trinidad and Tobago but also popular in the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela. The Trinidadian calypso owes much of its form to West African Kaiso.

The calypso arrived to Venezuela from the African slaves that were brought from Trinidad and Tobago. The language of calypso mixes some French Creole from the Antilles, patois from Trinidad and Spanish. The instruments used are also a mix of the steel drum and some local Venezuelan instruments (bumbac drum, Jawbone, bell and cuatro). Usually, a keyboard is added, as well as electric bass, wind instruments and male and female voices.

In Venezuela the calipso del Callao (south of the country) is probably the most popular genre, but we also have the (north) oriental calypso which is the genre I composed.

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