FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC

Up from the Panyards and at the Orphanage

There were a number of questions on my mind when I first met Roy Cape. As a young boy, he had grown up in poverty, yet he had gone on to become a musician and bandleader of broad reputation. How had this come about? What conditions enabled him to break out of the cycle of poverty? How did his early apprenticeship deepen his love for music? What instruments were available to him and where did he learn to play? In order to fully appreciate how far Roy had come, I needed to know where he began. So I started with his childhood.

Many sociologists would be quick to point out that knowing the socioeconomic conditions and class status that marked Roy's childhood would help explain his personhood, his habitus, both then and now. Yes, to some extent, but not entirely. More than economics figure into the genesis of a labor of love. Roy's love for music demanded time and effort to listen and learn, and not without some sacrifices along the way. The point here is that simply living in an environment where steelbands are ubiquitous does not lead one to have music in the blood. Against any essentializing narrative, I wish to detail the considerable personal efforts and punishments Roy endured to pursue his love affair with music.

The second section of this chapter focuses on Roy's life in the Belmont orphanage, from 1954 to 1958. It clearly shows that human agency cannot be exercised outside of the socioeconomic forces and physical conditions that inform one's life. It reveals how, while Roy was developing his musical skills by playing the pan, the severity of family hardships led him first to the streets and from there to the orphanage. I address the important role that orphanages played in the musical education of brass band musicians in Trinidad, beginning with a brief history of the emergence of the Belmont orphanage. This story links the Catholic Church's efforts to provide humanitarian aid while engaging in its missionary mandate and colonizing process. I also describe its educational programs, including academic instruction, teaching a trade, and finally, music lessons—who taught music and what instruments were taught, and the playing opportunities provided by the institution.

In addition to drawing from historical documents, this chapter provides different perspectives on life in the orphanage by including not only my voice as an ethnographer but also excerpts of an interview with the current director. It also features a conversation with Roy, who describes his experience at the orphanage in his own words.

GROWING UP AMID POVERTY

Roy Cape's family ancestry is unique, and typically complex, as is the case for most West Indians. It is both multicultural and multiracial, and it involves a family narrative of migration and separation. Roy's maternal grandparents were both from Grenada. His grandmother, whose last name was Nancoo, was of Indian descent; his grandfather, whose family name (Cape) was given to Roy, looked Creole—that is, of African and European descent. After the couple married, they migrated to Trinidad, "just like everyone else in those days, looking to make a better life," as Roy put it. By the time his future mother was fifteen, Roy's grandparents had separated. His mother, the eldest of the family, stayed with her father, while her sister, Cordelia, returned with her mother to Grenada. Three years after the separation of her parents, Roy's mother became pregnant. She gave birth to Roy in 1942. Roy never met his father nor saw a photograph of him. All he knew was that his father was a white American in Trinidad on business, who had returned to the United States without leaving a trace.

Poverty marked the first few years of Roy's life. The support that both he and his mother received led him to live a life deeply entangled with the Catholic Church and with women of all ages. Roy was only a few months old, living with his young mother and his grandfather, when the latter fell ill and died. His neighbors, whom Roy refers to as "churchly people," took Roy and his mother into their house and treated them like their own children. Roy grew up with these neighbors almost from the time he was born until the age of five or six. They turned out to be the great-grandparents of Mark John, better known in the calypso world as Contender. Roy fondly recalls Mama Z, whom he used to call Granny, wearing a "big, flowing dress with a serious head tie" and looking very "Martinican."

As soon as Roy was old enough, Mama Z sent him to the Sacred Heart Girls School on Park Street. Perhaps they wanted him to live in a safe environment because of his small size; and since he had long hair, Roy could pass for a girl. Or perhaps it was simply the closest school where they could send him. In any case, from the beginning, Roy grew up in a Catholic environment with many women around—a granny, his mother, and many nuns and girls—with a touch of French Creole color and most certainly Creole cuisine.

Even though from early on Roy's life was enmeshed in multiple networks, Roy's telling of his childhood centers on his mother and his emerging love for music. Roy was the only child for a few years, but his life changed after his mother married and had two more children, Isabella (Bella) and Hollis. But the union soon went sour. Roy was old enough to remember the violence, the crying, and the blood flying when his mother found her husband with his girlfriend. The girlfriend got jealous and hit his mother's head with a bottle. After that incident and the eventual separation, his mother moved them both to Roy's godmother's place in Sea Lots.

Sea Lots was a shantytown that even today, as Trinidadians would say, "has a stigma." They lived at Labasse, a place filled with junk and garbage, next door to the abattoir where they used to slaughter the cows, goats, and other animals for market. Roy and his mother lived there only briefly, until his mother took her family back to live with her husband. Although she returned for the sake of her children, it wasn't long before the relationship broke down once more.

Roy's mother went back to the tannery to live with Roy's godmother. She became engaged to Andrew Rivas, who then became the father of Roy's sisters and brother, Patricia, Kay, and Brian. For a while, even though they were poor, the family was able to make ends meet. His mother was the economist of the family and ran a mutual aid society like a "sousou." The family moved to Picton Road, in John John, reputed to be a poor and tough area. They lived near his mother's friends, Jean and Jap.

The family rented a two-bedroom place in St. Barb's in Laventille—a bedroom, a kitchen, and one other room where the children slept. With no beds or mattresses, the children slept...