Although Anthony Joseph has spent 26 years of his life in Britain, it is his Caribbeanness that attracts some to his work.
His official bio notes that his work as a poet, novelist, musician and lecturer has occupied “a space between surrealism, Jazz and rhythms of Caribbean speech and music.”
Yet during a Skype interview, Joseph, a Trinidadian, couldn’t find a definition for his musical creations. “My music is hard to categorise,” he said. “It is a combination of calypso, soca, rock, funk, jazz. It is hard to say one thing.”
His sixth album is titled Caribbean Roots and among the songs is a tribute to the Mighty Sparrow, titled Slinger.
As a writer, Joseph said Sparrow was his first poetic experience as he listened to his use of language. While he was doing his doctoral thesis on Lord Kitchener, he was hoping to chat with Sparrow as well. But that did not happen because the Birdie (as Sparrow is also fondly called) was not available at the time of the request.
“Then out of the blue, he called! ‘Hello, this is the Birdie,’ (imitating the bard’s voice),” he said.
Although he waited for some time before he got the call, the chat between the two was enlightening, Joseph said. Joseph found out that the Calypso King of the World considers himself a singer rather than a calypsonian.
A lot of Sparrow’s generation had aspirations to become successful crooners like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
Joseph also found out before Sparrow and Kitchener were good friends, their early relationship was not so endearing. “Kitch did not give him the respect as a calypsonian because Sparrow was a Grenadian,” he said.
Based on this conversation, Joseph composed the Sparrow tribute. Slinger is accompanied by a music video which was shot in Trinidad. The video will be launched a week before the album’s May 27 release. Making an appearance in the video, is David Michael Rudder, another calypso king who is revered by many in Trinidad and the Diasporas, as well as Carl Jacobs, another popular Trinidad vocalist who was a frontliner for the local band Shandileer.
“We did six locations in two days,” Joseph said.
But his video shoot in Trinidad is not a rare appearance back home. Joseph comes back often. “I like to dip in and out,” he said.
Joseph has been writing poetry since age 10 and did not do it professionally until he migrated to England in 1989. He also teaches creative writing at Bickbeck College and has been there for the past nine years. As for his musical side, he has been signed to a label for the past 10 years. He is happy that the company allows him to create, doing what he wants to do. “I’ve done a lot of touring and that is good.
When you do four, five albums, you are a serious artiste with a consistent track record. It feels good to have a body of work,” he said.
About Anthony Joseph
He is the author of four poetry collections and a novel The African Origins of UFOs. In 2005 he was selected by the Arts Council of England and Renaissance One as one of 50 Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature.
He is the recipient of an Arts Council of England award as well as an AHRC scholarship to complete his doctoral thesis; a fictional biography of the legendary Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Kitchener. In summer 2014 BBC 3 plans to broadcast a documentary based on Joseph’s thesis.
He has released four critically acclaimed albums, all released to coincide with book publications. His debut album Leggo de Lion (2007) featured lyrics taken from his novel The African Origins of UFOs. Bird Head Son followed in 2009, coinciding with the publication of his 3rd poetry collection. Rubber Orchestras was released in 2011, alongside a new collection of poems of the same title.
Anthony has collaborated with a range of artists, including Archie Shepp, Joseph Bowie, Laurent Garnier, Othello Molineaux, Malcolm Catto, Mop Mop, Robert Aaron, Roger Raspail, Keziah Jones, Jerry Dammers and most recently Meshell Ndegeocello who produced his most recent album ‘Time’. (source: www.anthonyjoseph.co.uk)