*** "Independence" Picked As #3 Groove Album Of 2007 By Exclaim! Magazine
*** Winner of Best World Song for "Corbeaux Following" by the 2007 Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards
*** Nominated for Best World Artist-Group by The 2007 Canadian Folk Music Awards
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ABOUT KOBO TOWN
Founded by bandleader Drew Gonsalves, Kobo Town is named after the historic neighborhood in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where traditional calypso (kaiso) was born amid the boastful, humourous and militant chants of the roaming stickfighters. Situated near the fishermen's wharf, the area was a site of constant defiance and conflict, a place where sticks and stones, songs and verses clashed with the bayonets and batons of colonial rule. For the members of the eight-piece outfit, the name suggests an origin as well as a destination.
Exploring the rich lyrical tradition and compelling rhythms of calypso's formative years - the age of the Roaring Lion, Mighty Spoiler, Lord Invader, King Radio and Attila the Hun - Kobo Town strives to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of their art by engaging the pressing concerns of our time. Domestic violence, the US war on Iraq, the paradoxes of globalization, the ongoing state of Caribbean dependency, and the bittersweet experience of immigration are all treated within their wide and varied repertory.
Calypso is an art that developed in dialogue with other musical forms. The members of Kobo Town, who come to calypso from all over the musical map, hope to continue and extend this tradition of rhythmic and melodic cross-pollination. While rooted in old time calypso and various West Indian folk musics, their music also draws heavily on dub poetry, roots reggae, zouk, son montuno, funk and jazz.
For Kobo Town, Trinidad's musical heritage is a living, growing body of work, with a continuing importance in their lives, the West Indies and the world. While exploring new sounds and arrangements, their songs resonate with the satire, storytelling and social concern that lie at the center of Trinidad's national art.
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PRESS CLIPPINGS
"Merging calypso, roots reggae, acoustic performance, dub studio techniques and Trinidadian/Jamaican cultures, Kobo Town is a unique, stylistic, transnational composite of rhythm, poetry and activist journalism."- Brent Hagerman, Exclaim!
"...a pan-Caribbean mix of reggae, rock steady, calypso and funk whose vibrations dictated dance." - Joyce Corbett, The Live Music Report
"Toronto's hottest new Calypso-Reggae-Jazz ensemble." - Shawna Marlay, AfroToronto.com
"They've been getting some attention from CBC and I see them playing around town and on the festival circuit a fair bit. I'm just willing to bet that 20 years from now, there will be a retrospective (a la Light in the Attic's "Jamaica To Toronto" compilation) that will marvel at this extraordinary group and their twist on a particular antecedent of Trinidadian Calypso." - Jowi Taylor, CBC Radio 2 Blog
"Kobo Town is set to unleash a new musical style on the world with a fusion of old and new traditions from the West Indies. Lead singer/songwriter Drew Gonsalves' vividly melodic lyrics backed with a heavy bass and rhythm section inspire people to move both physically and spiritually." - Karam Debly, Canadian Music Network
"Guitarist and singer-songwriter Drew Gonsalves has crafted cutting messages through thoughtful lyrics that beg to be absorbed." - Chris Page, Ottawa XPress
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ABOUT "INDEPENDENCE"
Growing up in Diego Martin, Trinidad, my father finally gave in to my enending demands for some new running shoes and brought a pair home as a surprise gift. He decided to edit my request, however, and in a rare display of fiscal restraint purchased a local imitation instead of the expensive foreign brand that I had been agitating for. Although I would not openly spurn the generosity of a hot-tempered West Indian father, I was mortified. But the cause of my dismay was not merely the absence of the logo, which I unwittingly sought as a status-marker among my peers, but rather the presence of a tag which read: Made in Trinidad and Tobago. A quarter-century after Naipaul wrote btterly of the insatiable desire of Trinidadians for all things foreign, I sharted with everyone I knew the neccessary corollary to that desire -- the routine dismissal of all things produced by our own people in our own country. I thought my friends would laugh at my homegrown footwear and I was right. I shared with my friends and neighbours an insatiable appetite for all things foreign, and a routine dismissal of all things made by our people in our country. I thought my friends would laugh at me for my homegrown footwear, and I was right.
For us, nothing made in Trinidad could have any worth, especially our culture. Little had changed since Naipaul's observation on the eve of Independence, and now, at the turn of a new century, it remains painfully clear that the forty-four year long experience of nationhood has not succeeded in instilling a sense of cultural self-worth in our people.
The title of the album is intended to be hopeful and ironic at the same time: some of the songs on the album offer a critical look at the "independence experiment" (in T&T and abroad) and its various failures and betrayals, while all of the songs aim to celebrate the musical and artistic traditions formed over the long years of our turbulent history. Written out of an unconscious love for old time calypso and the nation and struggle that gave birth to it, this record is also driven by a desire to join those West Indian artists, activists and musicians who have recognized in their work that the wounds in our society run deep into our past, and that recovering a sense of cultural, national and spiritualal self-worth is a crucial first step in the path toward healing and renewal
- Drew Gonsalves
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ABOUT DREW GONSALVES
Drew Gonsalves is a singer and songwriter whose music blends traditional calypso, dub and reggae. Born and raised in Diego Martin, Trinidad, Gonsalves was keenly interested in music from an early age. As a child he joined the folk choir of his school, which performed Afro-Trinidadian Creole songs and dances such as the jhuba and the belay. Gonsalves' later songs would draw much of their influence from the folkloric music of the West Indies.
As a teenager, Drew emigrated to Canada, and began studying the classical and flamenco guitar, as well as the cuatro, a small four stringed guitar native to Venezuela and Trinidad. While in school, Gonsalves began to write songs dealing with many of the political and social struggles facing the Caribbean. In 1992, he formed a reggae/calypso/funk fusion group called Outcry along with bassist Stuart Watkins and drummer Robert Milicevic. Drawing inspiration from reggae artists such as Steel Pulse, Lintown Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka, Yellowman and Peter Tosh,as well as from traditional Calypsonians such as the Roaring Lion, Lord Beginner and the Mighty Terror, Outcry sought to achieve a sound that expressed both the deep roots and vibrant innovations of West Indian protest music.
In 1999, Outcry released the album New World Raging which was received with great enthusiasm in both his native Trinidad and among world music fans throughout Canada. During the same year, Outcry performed at the Blue Skies Folk Festival. Other festival appearances include the Ottawa Urban Music Festival (1998) and the National Capital Tulip Festival (2001). With Outcry, Drew had the privilege of sharing the stage with many distinguished artists including Jamaican reggae giants Third World, Toronto-born soul diva Ivana Santilli, Sudanese Afro-Beat ambassadors Tarik Abubakr and the Afro-Nubians, Cabo Verdese morna singer Fantcha, Cuban rhumberos Klave y Kongo, and Brazilian samba troubadours Cascabulho.
When Outcry disbanded in August 2000, Drew returned to Trinidad to write, perform, and study with virtuoso cuatrista Robert Munro and Caribbean Indo-Jazz pioneer Mungal Patasar. In 2004, he founded the group Kobo Town in order to perform new songs rooted in the rhythmic and lyrical forms of early Trinidadian music.
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