Sonny Blacks, a name and an individual not as widely known in the general population of T&T as he is among calypsonians, panmen, and steelband leaders, has spent over 50 years producing and promoting the best of our cultural artistes.
His work has taken these talents on performing tours across England and continental Europe, spreading the appreciation of the national instrument and depicting the folk art and culture of T&T.
“Sparrow, Rudder, Black Stalin, Renegades, Pan Am North Stars, Trinidad All Stars” are among the calypsonians and steelbands Sonny has featured in his shows and productions. However, it did not begin in such grand fashion for the boy from south-east Port-of-Spain in the 1940s.
For the keen reader and observer, a scan of Sonny’s off-beat, unconventional youth in front and behind the Bridge, coupled with his disinterest in conventional schooling at Calvary and Bethlehem primary schools, shows he was a habitual “biche breaker.”
His choice of route to school often took him farther away from the classroom learning of his time, through “Hell Yard,” the home ground of the legendary Trinidad All Stars, which foreshadowed his later interests in promoting the culture.
“I go back to Jules, Fisheye, panmen like Curtis Pierre (De white boy from Dixieland), the Hill 60 steelband, Crusaders.”
Through his uncertain journey, Sonny came under the tutelage of renowned pan innovators like Spree Simon. He also formed friendships with the great Ellie Mannette and characters such as “No Hand Sarge,” “Patch Eye,” and occasionally, through casual contact with the infamous Boysie “Rajah” Singh, who committed one too many murders with Boland Ramkissoon as his accomplice, the victim being dancer Thelma Haynes.
Sonny was born on George Street, lived on Nelson Street, and escaped to San Fernando as a runaway from licks by his grandmother in Port-of-Spain, walking part of the way and for the rest of the journey riding on a donkey cart.
“After I start playing pan for a while, Spree, who wasn’t an easy man in those days, told me to go and promote steelband and calypso.” So said, so done.
In his early efforts, Sonny came to realise, “These men grew up in dire poverty, started beating biscuit tins and pitch oil drums, and ran from the police with bull-pistle. When they were caught, they charged them with disorderly conduct, and the magistrate threw them in jail for a few weeks,” giving a picture of the desperate conditions out of which the steelpan and steelband emerged.
He remembers the “breakaway” relief on VJ and VE days after the war—Victory over Japan and Victory in Europe Day. “When they came out on the road with their rudimentary steelpans playing ‘Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take meh money and run Venezuela,’” which was one of the popular pieces played by the bands after the 1939-1945 WW2 ended with victory for the Allies over Germany under Hitler.
On his return from his escapade in San Fernando, Sonny got a job in a Chinese shop on St Vincent Street near Green Corner, “I didn’t get any money, but I got food and a place to sleep,” says the hardy man from George and Nelson streets.
First steelband concert
at Queen’s Hall
“My first time in a calypso tent was when Melody (Lord Melody–Fitzroy Alexander) took me as his guest to a tent on Richmond Street. In the tent were Pretender, Tiny Terror, Christo, Sir Galba and others.”
He recalled with laughter that, on occasion, he was able to don the attire of the calypsonians of the day—“Pink Suit and Black Tie, black and sombre—‘Eh-beh-we-doh-doh,’” says Sonny–check out the meaning in Cote’ci Cote’ la.
Having taken Spree’s advice to promote the pan, Sonny said his early efforts at achieving the objective set out for him by his mentor resulted in the bands and calypsonians performing for different audiences “but for no pay, only a bottle of rum.”
Undeterred by the conditions faced by a promoter, the calypsonians and steelbands, Sonny, this young man from George and Nelson streets living with his grandmother, with nothing to recommend him, displayed the courage, temerity, and deep insight into the future to organise and promote “the first steelband concert at Queen’s Hall.”
And get this, the show was under the patronage of the then British governor, Sir Hubert Rance, who TUB Butler once called “Rancid”.
“In those days, they didn’t want steelband in Queen’s Hall, it was only baritone and mezzo-soprano. I brought Ebonites, Starland, Dixieland, and Invaders to the concert; I invited All Stars, but they didn’t show up,” Sonny told me.
When I asked him how he could perceive achieving such a far-out-of-reach objective given the circumstances of the day and the perception of the steelband and steelpan player, he simply replied, “I just did it,” without being deterred in any way. A lesson in seeing the value in culture.
Sonny also promoted roving calypso tents, three times a week in country areas such as Couva, California, and Ritz Cinema in San Juan, among other venues.
“On nights after one show, we had to stop a taxi to go to the other show.” He also pulled off the seemingly impossible feat of being involved in promoting the Jaycees Queen Show—“white people competition,” says Sonny.
Spreading Trini culture
to Europe
One close friend Sonny had in the calypso world of the 1940s-50s was the great Mighty Spoiler. “He used to meet me on mornings by the rum shop at Charlotte and Duke streets, Golden Gate, and started drinking from there. The next stop was at the corner of Henry and Duke streets by Peep of the Day Bar. From there, the procession went to Frederick and Duke, La India Bar.
The stops at the watering holes got Spoiler primed to sing down Frederick Street, in front of Yufe’s “with people putting in a few dollars along the way. Spoiler was one of the best-loved calypsonians,” says the soon-to-be international promoter of calypsonians and steelbands.
We also reminisced about the Vasco de Gama rum shop at Piccadilly Street and Old St Joseph Road, where the Portuguese owners/managers lived and ran their business.
Miramar Night Club, the venue of Sparrow’s Ten to One is Murder. “Ten vicious men … ah had ah chicken at Miramar, well ah say that was meh last supper … ah hear potow pow and the crowd start to scatter.”
The most famous (infamous, if you like) venue owned by Mervyn Assee, Sonny tells me, “He was a man from ‘BG’ (British Guiana) and there was also the Motoo Bros band from BG and a dancer who probably earned the name of ‘DeLilah’”–use your own imagination; I don’t have court clothes.
After a generally failed trip to London in 1957, Sonny returned in 1961, “this time to live there, and I had a lady friend with me along with Dixieland, renamed as Flambeau. We travelled all over Europe, France, Sweden, Germany,” Sonny informed me.
Among the venues for the calypso and steelband shows promoted by Sonny over the decades in his role as impresario were the Royal Albert Hall in London at a show organised by the then T&T national living in England, Olympic sprinter McDonald Bailey.
Sonny also produced and promoted a T&T Cultural Extravaganza show for one month in Harlem, USA.
Most recently, Sonny created the Three Calypso Kings in 2024, a musical production in which D’Alberto and Tobago Crusoe sang the songs of the Windrush Generation–“Windrush” was the vessel which took the first group of calypsonians such as Kitchener, Beginner, and Terror to the “Motherland”. The second half of the production featured one of the masters of this era, David Rudder. The show was sold out for three nights, says Sonny.
Sonny Blacks, the impresario who introduced and spread Trini culture to Europe, created a 30-day tour in Europe with Black Stalin, Denyse Plummer, Roy Cape and his band.
Overall, Sonny lived and worked for 25 years in Denmark, five in Finland, and five in Germany.
“I do this from my heart and not for the money,” says Sonny, giving an example of his honest dealings with entertainers. “Once, I came to Port-of-Spain with a contract for Black Stalin. He came from San Fernando and just signed it without reading it, fully trusting me to do the best for him. A calypsonian doesn’t have to tell me anything, I know what his needs are, and I will make sure he gets it,” Sonny told me with plenty of passion and commitment in his voice.
He also promoted a show a few years ago with King Sparrow. “It was one of the big shows I did in England which made money.” He said he goes back to the days “when a fella named Hull used to print the words of calypsoes on sheets and sell them for a shilling.”
I asked him, “Do you produce and promote shows with the new soca artistes?” He said, “No, I don’t,” in a very matter-of-fact response, obviously designed to stop me from proceeding along those lines. But I persisted, and the tenor of the conversation changed. “I am from the old school, man; old school calypso, that’s where I came from. ‘People say if you bring this person, you are going to make money.’ I say I’m not interested in making money, it’s a question of respect for the culture. I’m not jumping on any bandwagon,” I got the idea that I should not pursue the subject any further … he knows what is true, true kaiso, and he’s done with that talk.
There is one thing that sticks deep in Sonny’s craw, though. “All the shows I did never got a penny from the T&T Government. They knew the opportunity was there for them to promote the country’s tourism industry,” he says, giving an example of an enlightened approach by the St Kitts Government responding to an outreach to promote the country.
“I met with the minister, and in 20 minutes, he said I could have this and that. I have written so many letters to the T&T Government, nothing! It’s the most disorganised civil service, but I don’t bother. I put on shows in Europe with Calypso Rose, ten times; they just palaver.”
He loves his use of that word. “Not one artiste in the world can say I owe them a penny. I love working with Shadow, he was a great man; but don’t mess with him.”
As for the future, apart from bemoaning the fact “that panmen, steelbands, and calypsonians aren’t making money in keeping with their talents, I just plan to continue,” says the impresario, minted on George and Nelson streets in the city.
