New York Carnival SocaFest is a battle of the soca bands to see who is the best at this year’s New York Carnival. Winning can be a ticket to fame and fortune. Many famous Caribbean musicians got their start by winning carnival competitions.
New York Carnival SocaFest 2024
Brooklyn Museum
New York Carnival SocaFest features over 15 soca musicians at the Brooklyn Museum in Prospect Park; on Friday, August 30, 2024 from 8pm – 3am. From $75. wiadcacarnival.org 🇹🇹
Soca
“Soca” is a Trinidadian blend of African and East Indian musical traditions, a fusion of Trinidadian calypso and Indian rhythms. Today, Trinidad’s largest ethnic community is of East Indian descent.
Lord Shorty (Garfield Blackman) developed Soca in the 1970s as a response to American soul music which was getting popular with Trinidadian youth. He originally called it “solka” (soul-calypso). A music journalist wrote it up as “soca” and the name stuck. Soca has a calypso vibe, but the instruments include East Indian dholak, tabla, and dhantal percussion.
[Editor Kíko Keith: Listening to old calypso reminds me of my childhood. Calypso had a good run in the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, I’m that old. Jamaican American singer Harry Belafonte had a hit with “Yellow Bird” in 1957. I used to sing it in kindergarten. I thought it was a Trinidadian calypso, but didn’t know about Jamaican mento back then. “Yellow Bird” is actually based on a wonderful Haitian nursery rhyme “Ti Zwazo.” The Caribbean has deep Haitian roots because the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) pushed a Diaspora across the Caribbean, including to New Orleans and Trinidad. My father’s best friends in college were three brothers who I thought were Trinidadian, but they were from Guyana. My father’s best friend at Howard University Dental School was a Chinese Jamaican. He made the best curry (after my East Indian grandmother), and turned me on to early reggae like Desmond Dekker and the Aces “Israelites.” The West Indies and the Caribbean are incredibly diverse. Every island has its own unique culture, but a lot of culture is shared across the islands. Soca is great and now it’s blending with urban music into new forms. Thank you New York Carnival for reconnecting me with my own roots. ]
Tickets
From $75.