“I am a seriously disillusioned optimist,” said musician Raf Robertson this week.
“And, I have earned the right to say this. I know and appreciate the true potential of this country and when I see where we’re at, at present, and where we ought to be, all you can do is take a double with ice. We have confused the difference between a privilege and a right. It is a privilege to wake on a morning, but, it is not a right.”
Robertson, who began playing music at the age of nine, credits his grandmother for directing him to the piano and music. The father of Grammy Award winner Mylz Robertson is taking the music of his last album, Majesty, to the stage on May 24, at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
Said Robertson: “The concept and inspiration for Majesty came from those calypsoes of yore that can only be described as ‘majestic’, because they succinctly define the society they were born in. For instance, I think that Valentino’s take on Shakespeare’s Life is a Stage is genius. I also think that although Marley’s Redemption Song is a good song, Sparrow’s Slave is as great. Another song I did was Endless Vibrations by Shorty. There are no words to describe what Shorty has done, in terms of taking the music in a particular direction.
“That Endless Vibrations album was the beginning of taking our music in a new direction, out of the jump and wine mode. Another super song was Andre Tanker’s Forward Home, a story line that I actually experienced in Europe and America.
“One of the best calypsoes by Sparrow, with a lot of relevance today, is Federation. So, I gave that one a special arrangement. You can’t really do the music of 50 years ago the same way it was done then, so I’ve changed it. The music however remains the same today. Another song like this is Sniper’s Portrait of Trinidad, which I tried to do, remaining true to the composer’s work.”
Robertson is passionate about passing on his musical acumen to young people and has been music director of the birdsong Academy. He laments the indifference to young musicians by some quarters of society. “The demise of Divine Echoes is extremely tragic,” said Robertson, “and reflects very badly on us, collectively as a people and a nation.
“You don’t take away instruments from people, especially the youth. You take away guns from gangsters and killers. What the government did was crush a mosquito with a backhoe. All these young people had were some instruments given to them by a previous administration.
“They were no threat to anyone and what they were doing was positive. What should have been done was to allow the musicians to purchase their own instruments but not simply smash them into the dust.
“As a musician, I am proud to know that where a musician can go, a politician can’t go. The New York Philharmonic performed in North Korea. I don’t know of any politician who can go there.
“Trinidad isn’t a stereo town, it is definitely on mono, in terms of our thinking. We don’t see the bigger picture, or think outside the box. An example of what celebrates our uniqueness in the world is that the most popular television show in T&T is a crime show, as opposed to a music show.”
Robertson said that despite having talent on every corner of the nation, young artistes need guidance and to place themselves on a solid and sound music foundation.
“There are a few lights that are shining within our music today. It’s like this year, Bunji’s Differentology was something special. It was beautiful how Bunji was able to connect with Nigel (Rojas), a rock guitarist, to produce a truly beautiful song. Differentology has legs and I have a feeling that it can go far down the road,” Robertson said.
“But, in this cokee eye society of ours, the one you focus on to the take the music higher might not be the one to do so eventually. One can tell that there was thought and care in making Differentology.”
Urging musicians and producers to consider their craft as “serious business.”
“You cannot thumb a ride on the highway of the international music industry. We are intent on trying to get to the end of the tunnel without first taking into consideration the dark areas and obstacles in the middle. To get from where we are to achieving our goals there’s always stuff in the middle to encounter. We are never able to get through all those distractions and non-productive flotsam in the middle,” Robertson said.
About Majesty Live the show, Robertson said: “When a musician does a new CD the normal thing is to have a launch. This CD took about a year to do and used up all the money I had. So, without the funds to launch it, I decided to do a show.
“I also wanted to do the show because some of the musicians on the CD were here for Carnival and they suggested that we do the music live; their sincerity convinced me to do it. We originally wanted to do Majesty Live on Mother’s Day but that fell through. I also got a few young people together and formed a vocal choir.
“In life the only person who can stop you is you, so I made up my mind to do this show. Apart from receiving a few dollars from some friends, no one, corporate or otherwise, helped me with this venture. Dennis Ramdeen and his Pepper organisation have tried to assist me, as well as Glenda Collens. I’ve soldiered on, using whatever little savings I had.
“I feel that what I am doing what people need to be doing. Right now in this country it’s only bad news. If, through my music and this show, I can give people something to enjoy then I would have achieved what I set out to do. I am determined to make people focus inward, enjoy my music, and be inspired to move forward.”
Majesty consists of ten tracks and, despite being released to all the radio stations, none of its tracks are heard. Disappointed by this, Robertson quipped: “A musician friend was telling me recently that T&T is very sick and there is no cure for its ailment. While I struggle for exposure and assistance in the media, and I am being refused, there’s media who are sponsors of the Peter Cetera and Air Supply concert, doing full page colour ads almost on a daily basis.
“The lack of respect for our arts and our musicians has made people very busy but unproductive. Nobody is really sitting down and doing anything artistically relevant or substantial. Everybody’s just busy running around, getting no where.
“I would like to alert the public that a tsunami of political distraction is coming to this country and it is of neither worth or value, or anything positive for our nation. I am inviting the population to take time out and come and sit and enjoy some great music.”
Majesty Live is headlined by The Raf Robertson Group, Relator, Bro Valentino, Glenda Collins and Robertson’s Vocal Ensemble. Saying that he prefers to keep to his chest details of the show, Robertson said: “I don’t want to let too much out of the bag but, doing lead vocals on the night will be Krisson Joseph, son of the late Mighty Penguin (Seadly Joseph), who has a remarkable voice. There’s also saxophonist Jesse Ryan, grandson of the Mighty Bomber.”
“Something adventitious (sic) that has survived un-sayable conditions to arrive in its own right and legacy- a musical form identical to the resolve of a people to recapture the strains of the ancestral voice beyond bewildering extremes of psyche bemusement – makes its presence felt in the fulfilling genius of our virtual musician, Raf Robertson.
“His selection is an act of trust that combines his own unhesitant compositions, as well as those that profile legendary calypso virtuosos such as The Mighty Sparrow, Andre Tanker, The Mighty Kitchener, Lord Shorty and Brother Valentino bringing to fruition an unexampled work that is sealed in his deft signatures and the mature light of his arrangement skills where Calypso achieves an inward luminosity, not only via its jeweled studded grandeur, but also with mysterious cadences that contemplate prophetic certainties: moreover, in this instance, the Majesty that is singly the spirit of the Calypso.
“Raf’s impressive entourage includes Brother Valentino, Carl Jacobs, who ably embraced this act of conscience with cordial significance, divining the enigmatic spell of historical musical portrait.” - Leroy Clarke (Majesty CD liner notes)