Recording Calypso   Substantial recording of calypso in England began in 1950, two years after the arrival of the Windrush. Parlophone Records initiated the trend with recordings by Lord Kitchener and Lord Beginner.

Kitchener record

The United Kingdom:     Calypso in Britain     Recording Calypso     Performing Calypso     Calypso on Radio, Film & TV     British Calypso Themes

Journalist Denis Preston directed the sessions, with accompaniment provided by Cyril Blake's band. Preston also directed early recordings of calypso for Melodisc Records. Both Kitchener and Beginner recorded extensively during the 1950s. In the course of the decade, top Trinidadian calypsonians Roaring Lion, Lord Invader and Mighty Terror also lived in England for varying periods of time and released records.

Lord Beginner

Lord Kitchener

Melodisc Records

Edmundo Ros

Trinidadian percussionist/nightclub owner Edmundo Ros led the best-known Latin band in England from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Along with Latin genres of music, the band performed calypsos. Popular Guyanese singer/percussionist Frank Holder also performed a range of jazz, Latin music and calypso during the 1950s. Two actors/singers of the period, Cy Grant from Guyana and George Browne from Trinidad, featured calypsos in their broader repertoires of folksongs. In addition, the records of Harry Belafonte and other artists of the 1950s American "calypso craze" were popular in England, while Belafonte's concerts in London attracted much media attention.

Frank Holder

George Browne