Various Artists — Kaiso Power
Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970–1980 · 2026
Label: Soundway Records · Genre: Funk / Afro-Caribbean Jazz · From: Port of Spain, South America
In the early 1970s, Port of Spain thronged with Black Power marches, trade union demonstrations, and Carnival protest bands. When the meetings ended, the revolution moved to cramped secret dance halls, steelband yards, and Carnival fetes. The musicians who soundtracked all of it — Clive Zanda, Andre Tanker, Lancelot Layne, Abdul Malik de Coteau — blended Afro-American jazz with West Indian traditions and studio innovations borrowed from disco and psych-rock. The result was a music with a sharp edge: spiritual and political and danceable all at once. Soundway’s Kaiso Power collects ten of the finest recordings from this moment, compiled by the Wajang Diskotheque collective from Trinidad.
Did you know: ‘Kaiso’ is the Trinidadian term for calypso, derived from a West African word meaning ‘well done’ or ‘bravo’ — a term of communal approval that became the name of an entire musical tradition. The Black Power movement of the 1970s gave kaiso its most politically charged decade.
Listen / buy: Bandcamp · Juno · Spotify · YouTube
← Explore the full Souldigs collection