Recorded by Alan Lomax and Jacob D. Elder, assisted by Antoinette Marchand and Anna Lomax

Compiled and with notes by John Cowley

With Trinidad’s famous Shrovetide festival as its focus, this collection of Kalendas, Bélè, Maypole songs, Castilians, Pasillos, Calypso, and Hosay drumming, expertly assembled and annotated by John Cowley, explores the bridge between pre-Emancipation African-American traditions and the cosmopolitan character of the twenty-first century Carnival.

“It’s nice to be able to recommend and album both for being and doing good!” —Ramble