Calypsos for Adam and Eve

This vivacious tropical cover for the Monogram label (disc: Kalypso Records Ltd., Jamaica) appears to be the handiwork of the same uncredited artist who illustrated Ritmo's Calypsos from Jamaica.

The above 7" EP features tracks by the Duke of Iron ("Big Bamboo"), Lord Kitchener ("Big Toe"), the Four Deuces ("Lemme Go Emelda"), and Sir George Brown ("He Like It, She Like It"). The A-sides, with Kitch and Duke of Iron, are classic Trinidad calypso, while the artists on side B reflect the Jamaican mento variant.

We would appreciate any information about the illustrator, whose style is audacious and singular.

David Stone Martin does Calypso

Disc Records 78 rpm CALYPSO album with cover illustration by the legendary David Stone Martin (1913-1993), whose work adorns hundreds of 1940s and 1950s jazz, blues, folk, and ethnic records.

In the early 1940s, the Chicago-born and -bred Martin befriended artist Ben Shahn, whose work proved inspirational. Martin got started in album cover design in 1944 when his friend, pianist Mary Lou Williams, persuaded her label to hire Martin to illustrate her next release. The company honcho, Moses Asch, was so impressed by Martin's virtuosity that he hired him as art director.


In the 1950s, Martin's moody figure studies for Norgran, Clef, Verve, and Mercury practically defined the illustrated jazz LP cover (in a manner far different than, say, Jim Flora). Eric Kohler, who reprinted over a dozen classic Martin LPs in his book In The Groove: Vintage Record Graphics 1940-1960, observed: "Many of Martin's covers did not have an actual image of the recording artist, but rather an abstract image that might recall the feeling of the music."

A book of his work, Jazz Graphics: David Stone Martin, was published in Japan in 1991. It is, sadly, out of print and hard to find. Martin's vital, cosmopolitan line art deserves renewed circulation.

The calypso album above contains three sides by Lord Invader ("Tied-Tongue Baby," Yankee Dollar in Trinidad," and "New York Subway") and three by Lord Beginner ("Shake Around," "Nora, the War is Over," and "Always Marry a Pretty Woman").

Congo Man (Mighty Sparrow)

National Records (LP 5050), 1965. Sparrow recorded the title track (a paean to cannibalism—white meat, in particular) at least three times. Each version is singularly spectacular, and each is punctuated by Sparrow's demonic laughter that seems to imply, "Pass the salt."

Let's Go Calypso (Somerset)

Features King Scratch and the Bay Street Boys, ca. late 1950s. "These two acts," the brief liner notes attest, "have long been favorites in the islands and many a tourist has felt the gay and carefree spell they cast with the charm of their readings and infectious Calypso rhythms. This is as much a part of the islands as the palm trees or lovely beaches." Despite a preponderance of cruiseship standards (e.g., "Marianne," "Sly Mongoose," "Jamaica Farewell," "Donkey Wants Water"), the performances are refreshingly "native" and highlighted by raucous percussion. Meaning, these recordings were not prettied up for export. Is good.

Fabulous cover illustration, unsigned, uncredited.

Calypso (Rico)

Calypso Mania

Cover illustration by Demilio from the Richmond Records LP Calypso Mania by Edmundo Ros, as discovered by Ernie, who collects the artist's work.

Calypsos From Jamaica (Times Store)

Which is to say, Mento, an indigenous Jamaican style marketed abroad as calypso. The forms share many characteristics, both being African/European fusions filtered through Caribbean culture, and their audiences overlap. Like one, you'll probably like the other—unless you're some kind of weird contrarian.

Calypso Mama (Art)

The Enchanted Steel Band (Cook)

I had to "ream" this LP, because the center spindle hole was off-center, causing wobbly playback. Reaming is a highly technical process involving one blade of a double-lever scissors, positioned perpendicular to its opposite, and a rum-based cocktail, positioned less than arm's length from the work space. You carefully maneuver the blade in a back and forth carving motion to enlarge the hole and thus allow visual centering on the turntable. Each pass with the scissor is customarily followed by a sip of the cocktail.

Unfortunately, due to frequent applications of the liquid, the scissors slipped and I accidentally gouged an irrigation ditch through side A, rendering it unplayable. A priceless Cook LP, ruined. The cover survives.

Calypsos From Jamaica (Ritmo/Monogram)

A fine Mento collection featuring Hubert Porter, Lord Lebby, the Denzil Laing Trio, Harold Richardson, Lord Flea, and The Wigglers.