David Rudder: The other King of Calypso/Soca

...David is a songwirter, singer, recording and performing artiste.  "An entertainer to me deals with the surface and an artiste goes below the surface to bring things to the surface." (David Rudder).  David Michael Rudder was born in Belmont, Trinidad on May 6, 1953. One of nine children, he spent much of his early childhood with his grandmother, a spiritual Baptist, growing up near a pan yard and a Shango yard, in a neighbourhood where boys dreamed of being entertainers.   Rudder began singing at the age of 11 with a group called The Solutions.  In 1977, at the age of 24, he joined the brass band Charlie's Roots and began charting his musical career.

He has been baptized three times: as a Baptist by his grandmother, as an Anglican by his mother and as a Catholic when he started school. It was at school that he discovered how much art, painting and sculpture really interested him.

David became an apprentice to the late Ken Morris, a master craftsman known for his copper work and carnival designs. He still paints today and in fact he sees himself more as an artist rather than an entertainer.

It was the influence of the Shango and Pan yard that was to actually colour his music. The chanting of the Shango Baptists continues to be at the heart of many of his songs, though his musical tastes in the past had leaned towards jazz. Other influences include the African music of Yossou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Mory Kante and Alpha Bondy.

He has often been described as a pensive, self-contained individual; a person who, wrote Trinidadian columnist - Wayne Brown, "...has acquired the notion of singing as a king of self-sacrifice, involving surrender of personality and of the singer dissolving to become at once a symbiotic extension of the audience and the anguished medium of the song, a voice of the mercy of a Baptist testifier."

In the early days, Rudder acquired a reputation as a back-up singer in the calypso tent run by Lord Kitchener, one of the great legendary calypsonians. For years, he worked behind the scenes in calypso tents and studios, watching the action. In the meantime, he made a living as an accountant with the Trinidad Bus Company.

Rudder's first big break came when Christopher "Tambu" Herbert, lead singer with Charlie's Roots, fell ill after an exhausting tour of Guyana and suggested his friend Rudder as a temporary replacement. Rudder stayed on as a co-lead singer, and built a reputation for his scintillating performances.

Long before Rudder established himself in the calypso arena, he was known as one of the few band singers who wrote all his own songs. His popularity flowed from his obvious talent and from the radically different image he cultivated of himself as a singer. He did not take a calypso name, did not drink (alcohol) and rarely fraternized with the other calypsonians.

The Mighty Sparrow (calypso's most successful monarch) speaks of David: "He lives clean. He is the heir apparent of the monarch supreme. He gives good interviews and handles himself well."

David, along with Charlie's Roots, produces and performs for the Carnival productions of, what is arguably, the most innovative and controversial Carnival artist ever - Peter Minshall. Minshall's designs have been used in many major events, the most notable being the Barcelona Olympics of 1990 and most recently The Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Over the years Rudder's music has become intertwined..with the yearly Minshall's theatric bands.

Rudder spends much of his spare time reading or relaxing with his children, who he regularly brings on stage. His first son Khafra, named after the first black Pharaoh of Egypt, was born in December 1984, almost exactly a year after the death of Rudder's father, an oilfield worker in La Brea in South Trinidad. His second son Isaac was named after the best friend of the character he played in the TV series, Sugar Cane.

Featured in :

DVD Documentary, Calypso Music History: One Hand Don't Clap, 2004, 2007

This critically-acclaimed documentary explores the popularity of calypso and soca and introduces the viewer to the reigning king and queen: Lord Kitchener and Calypso Rose. Upon its theatrical release, Vincent Canby of The New York Times called ONE HAND DON'T CLAP "Most engaging! Show stopping!" New York Newsday awarded it four stars and the Post called it "An enticing introduction to an appealing and unique form of music."

DVD Documentary, Calypso Dreams, 2004

Winner of the Best Caribbean Documentary at the Jamerican Film Festival, Audience Favorite at the DC Film fest, Pan- African film festival, Mill Valley Film Fest and embraced by an entire nation in Trinidad, Calypso Dreams chronicles the rich and complex cultural roots of calypso music in Trinidad and Tobago.

Play, The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club, 2004, 2006

The Brand New Lucky Diamond Horseshoe Club was an actual bar and hangout in Trinidad that burnt down under mysterious circumstances. This brand new calypso musical [Blues Kaiso in Jouvay Opera], which had its world premiere at Indiana State University's SummerStage 2004, provides the clues. It is a “whodunit” musical but it also is an unconventional love story sparking a dangerous triangle and an attempt to protect a mysterious fugitive. Taking place on the eve of Trinidad’s world-famous carnival, the musical introduces us to the Club’s salty and colorful misfits viewed in the glow of carnivalesque illusion. Lucky Diamond is a place where love, tempers and joyous music can ignite at any moment. It is a place where the reigning patriarch Old Patience aka Mista Nation, played by SummerStage veteran Lew Hackleman, attempts to reform the sinners that hang out in the Club with a cleansing fire born of his religious zeal. With music from the calypso/soca star David Rudder, you will want to stand and dance and marvel at a world that is the colorful yet tragic Caribbean in miniature, one that is as strong and beautiful as it is fragile and vulnerable, the “belly out of which the music emanates, like an unexpected diamond for all to see and wonder at.”