Features
Melissa Doughty
Anthony “All Rounder” Hendrickson has lived a lot of calypso history. His calypso career began under the guiding hand of the late, great Aldwyn “Lord Kitchener” Roberts and the late Neville “The Growling Tiger” Marcano.
Throughout his over 50-year career he has told many local and international stories, often through a humorous lens. Many might remember him telling the tale of Innocent Jimmy or, of more recent vintage, how to do the Body Wine or even how to enjoy a good Garlic Sauce, complete with the blonde bun.
He began singing calypso on January 6, 1967. His personal history includes getting the sobriquet, All Rounder from his wife, Wilma.
Now the 83-year-old is asking other calypsonians to Bring Yuh Juice and Come.
The song will be sung at the Klassic Ruso tent which opens on January 21 at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
In a phone interview on January 13, the veteran calypsonian said while he has no problem with calypso’s evolution, he worries about the way many construct/write calypso.
Calypso is storytelling, he said.
This year’s song tells of a competition between calypsonians where they are called to bring their juices and come.
He recited the song’s first verse to Newsday which went like this:
Big, big competition
In de stadium
Calling calypsonians,
‘bring yuh juice and come’
I know I am a veteran
I go make them bawl
In this competition
They can’t beat noni juice at all
His coach in the song is a woman named Vio Bruce, who opens her bucket of noni juice and makes the judges exclaim, “Noni win already.”
Don’t let the humour fool you, All Rounder is true to the art of crafting a calypso – gaining this knowledge from Kitchener.
He said, “When you get a topic, you have to think of the approach.”
All Rounder said he often heard younger singers saying they would go to the studio and get a beat.
“You are supposed to have a charisma on stage to attract the people.”
He added he was not condemning or criticising the new style of calypso.
He recalled Kitchener often had stories in his many Road March hits and people were still able to dance to them.
Asked what accounts for his longevity in the industry, All Rounder said, “Good food in calypso.”
He said some people entered the music industry for different reasons: some to win a crown, some for money. He said if someone loves something, however, they go at it.
“You climb the ladder. Too many of them coming to sing and they study the judges too much. Everyone is singing the same thing and everyone wants to win, it is obvious.”
He said in his many decades in the tents he saw and heard many young, promising calypsonians who moved away from it and instead gravitated to the “modern thing.”
“I am not saying the modern thing is bad but it brutalise them. I lie down and listen to my radio and from station to station, you hear about ten songs, ‘Wine, wine, wine’ without a story.”
He recalled first singing his 2011 hit Body Wine for the late Leroy “Black Stalin” Calliste.
At the heart of it all, All Rounder simply loves to entertain. He believes a true entertainer should stay away politics.
“You don’t know who is who. So as an entertainer, you have to make your path clear and you entertain everyone.”
All Rounder wants Trinidad and Tobago to have a safe Carnival. He asked people not to allow drugs and alcohol to put them out of control.
He also called on people to protect themselves knowing that the covid19 virus was still around.
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