Calypso historian donates massive collection to foreign, says T&T wasn't interested...

[The_Honourable]

From Facebook:

Time to say goodbye. Trinidad is not interested so I donated my entire collection of calypso, steelpan, combo, chutney, big band, rapso, Christmas, parang, Caribbean soul... music from 1912 to 1989. Over 5,000 records to a foreign institution that promised to preserve, document, and digitize the music. This is the first set of boxes ready to be shipped.

Records formats are LP's, EP's, 10", picture sleeves, and 78's. The next shipment is set to go next week. 50 more boxes to packaged - George Maharaj.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/george.maharaj ... 9428217394

[De Dragon]

From Facebook:

Time to say goodbye. Trinidad is not interested so I donated my entire collection of calypso, steelpan, combo, chutney, big band, rapso, Christmas, parang, Caribbean soul... music from 1912 to 1989. Over 5,000 records to a foreign institution that promised to preserve, document, and digitize the music. This is the first set of boxes ready to be shipped.

Records formats are LP's, EP's, 10", picture sleeves, and 78's. The next shipment is set to go next week. 50 more boxes to packaged - George Maharaj.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/george.maharaj ... 9428217394

He prolly didn't ask for a bribe, so he wasn't taken seriously

[maj. tom]

Why would the Government be interested in preserving history? How else would it be assured that nobody will know about our own history like 1970, the collapse of the railways and sugar industry, or that Eric Williams wasn't a genius demi-god who did no wrong? I mean, besides taxing computers, books and technology and adding an online tax so illiteracy will be protracted. It eh have no money for the government to preserve dem thing, Kamla did teef out the Treasury.

[Les Bain]

Coming from aggravating personal experience I must say the foreign donation is a tremendous gain.
That collection would sooner be digitized and the originals (album artwork & liner notes as well) preserved by the foreign owners.

If that stayed here, that collection would have been revealed as the mysterious mildew heap/frog habitat in the National Archives.

[Les Bain]

But uncle socks though

[hustla_ambition101]

Wonder how much money he demanded for it?

[VexXx Dogg]

Coming from aggravating personal experience I must say the foreign donation is a tremendous gain.
That collection would sooner be digitized and the originals (album artwork & liner notes as well) preserved by the foreign owners.

If that stayed here, that collection would have been revealed as the mysterious mildew heap/frog habitat in the National Archives.

this

[The_Honourable]

Wonder how much money he demanded for it?

Valued at US$1 Million

He probably has the greatest calypso memorabilia in the world.

Collector donates massive calypso archive, says T&T not interested

An avid collector of original calypso albums says he has given up on getting the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to buy his collection and has donated it to a foreign institution.

George Maharaj, who is based in Canada, posted on Facebook this morning that he is donating 5000 albums to an institution to be digitised and preserved.

“Trinidad is not interested so I donated my entire collection of calypso, steelpan, combo, chutney, big band, rapso, Christmas, parang, Caribbean soul... music from 1912 to 1989. Over 5000 records to a foreign institution that promised to preserve, document, and digitise the music. This is the first set of boxes ready to be shipped. Records formats are LP's, EP's, 10", picture sleeves, and 78's. The next shipment is set to go next week. 50 more boxes to packaged,” he wrote on Facebook.

Speaking to Loop, Maharaj said since the NAR regime, he has tried unsuccessfully with every Government to sell his collection. He said the collection was valued at US$1 million.

He said he even tried to donate the collection to the Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation (TUCO) and the National Carnival Commission (NCC). He said he also approached a number of corporate bodies in T&T on the condition that they build a museum to pay tribute to calypsonians.

“One company told me they would take it but only if I pay the shipping,” he said.

Maharaj, 71, said he took the decision to donate his collection since he is getting older and does not want to run the risk of his children giving it away when he dies.

His vinyl collection comprises original albums from Mighty Bomber, Lord Christo and the Mighty Sparrow.

“I have 115 Sparrow records. He don’t even know he made that amount, they were made all over the world,” he said.

From 1986 I beating my head off then I found somebody who will do all the digitisation and I am donating to them with the condition that they digitise it and they have it open for whoever wants to access it,” he said, noting that he is very comfortable with the decision.

He has already sent a portion of the collection to the institution which he said he could not identify at this time.

Maharaj, son of famed San Fernando hairdresser Mme Maharaj and brother of Kama Maharaj, founder of Sacha Cosmetics, said he became a calypso fan when he migrated from T&T in 1969.

He said he left with one Sparrow album, More is More.

“I went to school in New York and they ask what is my culture and I said Divali and the Indians laughed at me. I had brought Sparrow album to the US with me and I went the next week and said my culture is calypso. I always thought calypso was the greatest thing to happen in Trinidad because anytime you meet anybody and they ask where you from and you say Trinidad they would say the land of calypso. I took it upon myself to collect calypso albums and became of the world‘s largest collectors of calypso,” he said.

Even though he has donated his records, Maharaj still has about 2000 CDs, printed material, books. photographs, paintings, trinkets, and calypso stamps.

Maharaj is also an author who has written two books on the roots of calypso.

Lamenting how culture is treated in T&T, he said he knows many people who have been giving away their collections.

Source: http://www.looptt.com/content/collector ... interested

[Rovin]

saw this today on fb

not gonna pretend i am a big local music lover but i get what this is about to ppl who love it

govt cud waste millions doing all kinda assness not to mention paving over already good roads for elections & renting spaces they not occupying but it very sad how nobody even those who supposedly enthusiastic about this stuff didnt even try to offer d man half price self for his stuff ... yet we always boasting how trini carnival & its culture is d bess in d whole world

now somebody gonna digitize this stuff , pay a few $$$ for royalties & make some nice $$$.... kinda like how foreigners took our steelpan & making it to sell while we only care about it for 2mths of d yr ...

[killercow]

Banana republic doh even care bout its bananas.. We reach...

[MaxPower]

Yep, sure right:

Trinis aren’t interested.

And no one is interested in them.

[zoom rader]

This Buju and Vibes country.

This country is gun culture

[The_Honourable]

This Buju and Vibes country.

This country is gun culture

His surname may have been a factor?

[RedVEVO]

^^

Did THEY miss this collection !! ?? !!

There is a huge demand for this abroad ..

And there are people and/or institutions that are willing to pay big $$$

The LP vinyl is by itself highly prized - it's a classic.

He should advertise his collection on eBay.com

[zoom rader]

This Buju and Vibes country.

This country is gun culture

His surname may have been a factor?

Non red Goverment surmanes always have been an issue for decent folk.

As I said our red Goverment supporters people made things bad for us.

The kasio culture is racist and red Goverment supporters look down on anything injun culture.

Buju is a convicted drug dealer and red Goverment supporters rush and pay money to see this jail bird.

He should not been allowed to enter this country.

But left foot and right is what they like .

[adnj]

Trinidad-born, Toronto-based George D. Maharaj is now in negotiation with the Government of Barbados, which is interested in acquiring his unique collection for their National Library.

https://www.panonthenet.com/news/2008/m ... ection.htm

[The_Honourable]

Trinidad-born, Toronto-based George D. Maharaj is now in negotiation with the Government of Barbados, which is interested in acquiring his unique collection for their National Library.

https://www.panonthenet.com/news/2008/m ... ection.htm

Although this was from 2008, it gives a good idea what he went through.

Question is did he resume negotiations with the Barbados government or somebody else for the collection?

[pugboy]

he can sell those in japan for big money
there are serious old time calypso collectors of vinyl over there
will be better appreciated there

I know an old guy who used to play pan a lot on cruise ship contracts,
he once got a short contract to play in place in japan
one day he said a japanese guy came to show him his collection of records and want to play pan alongside him
a totally self taught guy who was fairly decent at pan

them japanese are fanatics at what they do

[adnj]

Trinidad-born, Toronto-based George D. Maharaj is now in negotiation with the Government of Barbados, which is interested in acquiring his unique collection for their National Library.

https://www.panonthenet.com/news/2008/m ... ection.htm

Although this was from 2008, it gives a good idea what he went through.

Question is did he resume negotiations with the Barbados government or somebody else for the collection?

It also says that he has been trying to find a home for his collection since 2001.

[j.o.e]

The world is a village. No use hoarding, if it’s cataloged and digitized everyone will be better able to access it for years to come.

[88sins]

imho, it was the best option.
At best, to some degree, the rest of the world will have access to the history and evolution of our music and culture.
At worst, when people out there get to find out that our very own government blithely rejected this collection they would rightly believe that we are a nation run by idiots, and couldn't care less about our own history and culture enough to even try to preserve a piece of it.

Waiting to see which party financier getting a contract for 600 million that they don't have to complete

[Rovin]

This Buju and Vibes country.

This country is gun culture

His surname may have been a factor?

race relations is always a sticky subject but i wud like to hope\think this is not d issue

lets face it : age 25 & under crowd doh give AF about ole time ting besides maybe bob marley & an occasional ole dub , unless they grow up around parents or relatives who used to play ole skool they will not know or care to youtube what music came long b4 their time

like i say above i eh no big local lover but stuff prior to 1990 [& no soca rubbish] i wud allow in my ears , way too many to type but those were songs of substance not jes yapp yapp with ah beat ... on occasion when i in a mood i will take a listen on youtube even if d quality eh so hot up

[88sins]

It getting too easy to spot the old timers on 2or these days

[The_Honourable]

His website in case anyone is interested in anything calypso: https://therootsofcalypso.webs.com/