Anty-Calypso (Roland Prince) - cover by Alfredo

alfstone · February 16, 2011, 03:52:59 PM

For each one of us, there are songs that are particularly meaningful, quite often for mysterious reasons...and sometimes this happens with songs and tunes rather unknown.

For me, this happened with "Anti-Calypso": it was 1975 (or something like that), I was 20, and I went with some jazz-fan-friends to Umbria Jazz festival. Those were the days of great performances at the most important Italian jazz festival: in few days we could listen to absolutely free concerts by great musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman...

Well, one of those evenings one of the concerts was by Elvin Jones' band. A good concert, of course, BUT the final tune was presented as "Anti-Calypso". The title told absolutely nothing to most of us, but when the band - the brass section - began playing....WOW....even if the tune was absolutely unknown, that melody line, well, just entered inside the brain of all of us...at the end, a long ovation, and of course the encore we all requested, and obtained, was "Anti-Calypso" again.

At the end of the concert, when we all were going back to the campings or the hotels, well, we all were singing and whistling that latin tune, absoultely unknown till few hours before.

Then I discovered that Elvin Jones had recorded it in an album called "New Agenda", and that the tune had been composed by Roland Prince.
Just few months ago I found on the internet the pdf file of the chords of "Anti-Calypso"

http://www.geocities.co.jp/MusicHall-Horn/3268/anticalypso.html

so this is my personal hommage to one of the most beautiful (and unknown) tunes I've ever heard.

Technical data: backing track (drums-bass-piano) with Band-In-A-Box. All the brass and winds

it's me on my Godin ACS guitar, driving my old Roland GR-30 guitar synth.

Enjoy!

Oldrottenhead · February 16, 2011, 05:18:17 PM

i should be in my bed hic. but i have awoken the whole household to hear this ya bugger alfredo

dah dah dah da da da
its lodged in ma heid noo

Ted · February 16, 2011, 09:51:56 PM

Lucy, I'm home! Wachoo doin' with my Godin geetar, Lucy? No, you can't be in the show.

Ay Carumba! Si, Si, you can be in the show.

64Guitars · February 17, 2011, 09:15:38 AM

This is great, Alfredo.

Man, I wish I could afford a guitar synth. It sounds amazing.

Greeny · February 17, 2011, 10:27:25 AM

I'd be dancing around the office if I weren't such a miserable b*stard, lol. This is great Alfredo. There is no audible clue that the saxophone is anything other than a real sax - AMAZING! Another seriously accomplished piece of music. You maintain incredibly high standards.