[78-L] Lost Recordings - 1945 Guild calypso test pressings

[Steve Shapiro]

They existed.  Many.  Described by Tiger as constituting a cultural treasure.  I spoke to someone who in 1945-1946 on Musicraft's behalf went through them, a very good-sized stack.  Atilla the Hun and the Lion.  (Lion had stormed out of the project mid-way and was replaced by MacBeth.)  These went to Musicraft.  I forget how Lord Invader came into the picture, with several records on Musicraft, not Guild.  (In the very early post-War period, Invader also recorded for Decca and Moe Asch.)  It would be hard to conceive that there wasn't an early recording of his singing Rum and Coca Cola on one of the tests, as a 78 of him singing this would have been a great seller.  I assume that Invader didn't record this for Decca in May 1945 because he had committed or already recorded this song for another company.

In 1944-1945, Guild was very ambitious and paid the way for Atilla and Lion to travel from Trinidad to New York to record with Gerald Clark's orchestra.  Guild in general may have been overly ambitious.  Soon after they issued - and sold many of! - these calypso records , Guild went out of business.

Musicraft reissued a few of these tests in an album and perhaps also some singles.

The tests wound up with Alan Lomax's brother-in-law,     ?    Harold.

Mr. Harold's last apartment was in Greenwich Village.  When he died, there was the usual sale of goods and the tests went to who knows where.  They have never resurfaced.

There may be another set of these calypso tests among the Musicraft masters.  (Are these in Connecticut?)/steve
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