Jimmy October is the Father of New Calypso.

Jimmy, born L’shun Emmanuel, so coined his hybrid pop-kaiso sound almost a decade ago.

Since then, the sub-genre has exploded into local and regional consciousness. Jimmy’s hitmaking collaboration with soca star Kes (Kees Dieffenthaller) and jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles “Magic” first paved a mainstream path for acts like Freetown Collective, Hey Choppi (Sean Padmore), Mical Teja (Mical Williams) Kalpee (Christian Kalpee) and others, to reach wider audiences.

Now Jimmy is exporting the laid-back groove to North America. The 28-year-old Sangre Grande-born singer has already played venues in Toronto, Canada, as well as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Atlanta in the United States, on his ongoing Gone Til October tour, alongside Nigerian Afrobeats star Ruger (Michael Olayinka).

Tonight, the duo will take the show to the American west coast where they are set to appear at the Echoplex in Los Angeles (LA), California. “I honestly feel like the first time I said the words ‘new calypso,’ I was really trying to find some sort of identity musically and I wanted that to be tied to our culture,” a jet lagged Jimmy told the Kitcharee in the wee hours of the LA morning, last Friday. Read More

Mondezie, M. (2023, August 19). Mixing “Rum & Calypso.” Trinidad Express Newspapers. https://trinidadexpress.com/features/local/mixing-rum-calypso/article_21c706c8-3ef1-11ee-ae6b-1304dc6453e3.html