Alexander D Great : The Great Band

A vibrant calypso and soca band for hire, including steel pans, percussion and horns, this smiling ensemble are kept in order by Trinidadian kaiso song writer Alexander D Great (UK Calypso Monarch 2010). A full-on summer time festival band who always bring the sunshine with them, but also pack cutting, witty, topical and totally contemporary songs into their touring baggage. Calypso based music that is completely of our times.

We started working with this incredible singer, songwriter, poet, musician, band leader, arranger and social commentator in 1996, and the response to his performances has been outstanding. His weekly slot on London’s Choice FM Rum Shop Kaiso Chronicles With Alexander D Great had already established the man as a serious writer in the great Trinidadian tradition of kaiso, the precursor of calypso. Alexander has become famous for his scathing attacks on politicians and general injustice in both the West Indies, the UK and elsewhere in the world, yet he can also produce the most haunting and beautiful songs of tenderness, and clothes his considerable singing talents in the most delightful and exciting arrangements for his flexible ensembles – from solo voice with guitar, to trio with steel pan and percussion, up to ten piece band with full brass and steel pan sections.

While all Alexander’s music lies firmly in the great calypsonian tradition, his solo songs are the framework for his most vitriolic attacks on injustice and corruption, or merely stupidity in high places. His band compositions in addition incorporate modern soca and his own ‘soca blues’ to give a more dynamic, yet still lyrically intelligent performance. Humour inevitably laces any Alexander D Great show, in fact pervades his entire repertoire.

Alexander D Great can also be commissioned to write (and perform) an original themed song for special events, and did so for Nelson Mandela’s last-but-one UK visit (for BBC Television’s Newsroom South East), the final show of BBC Greater London Radio’s Black London and Frank Warren’s mother’s 70th birthday party. Frequent radio appearances have included BBC West Midlands, Leeds, Leicester and Coventry stations together with Virgin Radio. He continues his weekly musical observations on the week’s news on London Live, the BBC station for London.

Alexander D Great frequently works with Tobago Crusoe who was the Calypsonian who featured in The Paddington Movies.

Alexander D Great can also be booked to present on:

Calypso and the black British Experience in the 20th Century

(1940s -1960s Life in London through Calypso Lyrics)

In this presentation, Alexander examines three main themes via a number of calypsos, composed by several calypsonians who spent time in Britain in the period. In an attempt to highlight the attitudes and social mores of those times, as expressed in the witty (and often painfully accurate) lyrics of the composers featured.

Testimonial:

“Dear Caroline,
Alexander D Great went down a treat at the wedding. It is nice to hear old style calypso.
Please convey to him my thanks for learning the song ‘Don’t touch me tomatoes’ for the occasion and my apologies for not thanking him for his performance in person.
Nick”
Wedding of Nicholas and LiLi, October 2014