Tropical Disco Hustle: Highlighting The Disco Era in Trinidad + Beyond

Words by Greg Scruggs

While many in the US would peg the end of the disco era at 1977’s Saturday Night Fever or the infamous Disco Demolition Night in Chicago in 1979, the ’70s-era dance music had more staying power in the Caribbean. Disco fever hit hard in the islands—especially in Trinidad—even as reggae consumed the region, resulting in a slew of recordings that connected Philadelphia International brass and disco drumming with soca horns, and calypso percussion. Kalyan’s 1977 “Disco Reggae” was just the beginning of a trend that would see luminaries like Mighty Sparrow dabbling in the genre.

This past June, Boston-based record label Cultures of Soul released Tropical Disco Hustle to recover this lost era in Caribbean music. The tunes on the compilation (which consists of 11 original tracks and two remixes) are largely by Trinidadian acts, with a token Bahamian contribution from Ronnie Butler and The Ramblers, and a yardie answer to “Rapper’s Delight” from Prince Blackman, an alias of legendary Jamaican singer and bassman Leroy Sibbles. Also featured is Joanne Wilson, daughter of Tony Wilson, the Trinidadian-born bassist and songwriter for Hot Chocolate, the U.K. band behind disco classic “You Sexy Thing.”

Levi John’s “Feel Like Dancing” captures the spirit of the era with elaborate saxophone, piano solos, a soulman’s bellow, and sultry backup female vocals.

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Levi John

Levi John got the disco bug while living in New York but opted to record back home. “I felt at that time that Trinidad was the best place to go because musicians were so versatile and innovative with rhythm,” he told LargeUp. “Disco in America was basically the Philadelphia Orchestra and I wanted something more like” – over the phone he mimicked the difference between a basic disco beat and a more complex syncopated beat like in steelpan or kompa.

Port of Spain clubs like Rolls Royce, the Heritage, and the Penthouse featured live disco bands during the peak of the craze. Ensembles like Wild Fire, who have two tracks on Tropical Disco Hustle, served as house band for some of these clubs, perfecting a West Indian twist on the New York and Philly sound. Mighty Duke’s “Be Yourself” comes the closest to a pure calypso-disco fusion with an uplifting message and some pioneering synthesizer.

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Joanne Wilson

While disco records filtered down to the islands, back in New York, John found that the Caribbean community was largely isolated from the disco scene that had gripped black, and eventually white, culture. “I didn’t meet a lot of West Indians at disco clubs, mostly Americans” he said. “I was always one to search out beyond the basement parties, where it was always a Jamaican playing reggae, or a Trini playing calypso, or a Bajan playing spouge.” John recalled a memorable night spent at Studio 54: “There were so many glaring, spinning lights. It was like the first time I entered New York City and went down to Times Square at night and was in awe.”

For Deano Sounds, the head and founder of Cultures of Soul, the concept for Tropical Disco Hustle began with a bootleg compilation of Caribbean disco he heard a decade ago. An avid vinyl collector, he kept an ear out for more gems from the era until he amassed enough for a compilation of his own. “I was surprised there’s so much material out there, [and] how much of it was great. Any house or disco DJ could play this stuff.”

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Leroy Sibbles a.k.a. Prince Blackman

It’s an archive that other diggers have also been culling—see Toronto’s Invisible City, and their 2012 mixtape, Possibility of an Island. As a record label, Cultures of Soul took the rediscovery approach one step further by properly licensing all the tracks. That process led Deano to Charlie’s Calypso City, a record store and recording studio on Fulton Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, that boasted a thriving record label during the ’70s and ’80s. It proved a particularly reliable source of quality material. “Anything that had a Charlie’s Records sticker, I pulled it,” Deano said.

But in most cases, the tracks remain the musician’s intellectual property. That fortuitous outcome meant both an easier process for a small, independent label and the opportunity for Deano to engage directly with many of the artists. “A lot of these guys are still active musicians, still hustling,” he explained in a nod to the album title’s double meaning, a gesture to both the era’s iconic dance, and these Caribbean artists’ hardworking ethic.

A second Tropical Disco Hustle volume, featuring tracks from Barbados, St. Lucia, and elsewhere, is now in the works, with a planned release in spring 2015.

Tropical Disco Hustle is available on CD and double LP, as are selected 12”s from the compilation, here.