Quelbe!

A few years after Frémeaux's two-CD compilation Virgin Islands Quelbe and Calypso 1956-60, comes a new release from a contemporary St Croix-based ensemble, Stanley & the Ten Sleepless Knights. Using flutes, banjos, keyboards, squash (a gourd rasp) and steel (a metal triangle), their folky set spruces up the traditional island style quelbe to include calypsos, quadrilles and waltzes. Quelbe, to an unaccustomed ear, sounds like a fusion of Jamaican mento and Trinidadian calypso, with a dash of Dominican merengue thrown in.

Most of the CD's 17 tracks sound rather similar – jaunty, lightly percussive, lead vocal and chorus-led tunes, with fast banjo and virtuoso flute melodies running the show. Stanley Jacobs’ flute work is the standout feature overall, particularly on ‘LaBega Carousel’ and ‘Queen Mary’. The lyrics, although hard to follow due to the heavy patois, are fascinating: ‘Queen Mary’ tells of how a young woman in 1878 who led a labour movement, thus earning the nom de plume Queen Mary, and ‘Cigar Win the Race’, introduces a well-loved horse called Cigar, who won a key race despite the predictions of a renowned Obeah practitioner. Quelbe! may not be essential listening but it is a fun introduction to a little-known Caribbean style.