The Frankie McIntosh Story

I recently acquired a copy of a recently released publication on Frankie McIntosh, co-authored with Ray Allen, a former Music Professor at Brooklyn College, Frankie’s Alma mater. I was aware that they were working on the book which chronicles the musical journey of Frankie, with a special section, “the Art of the Soca Arranger” which was the interest of Ray Allen who felt that while a lot of publicity was given to the calypsonians, there was little attention paid to the arrangers and instrumentalists “who created the musical setting in which these vocalists plied their craft.” This work we are told, fills the void “by focusing on the life and music of one of the most celebrated soca arrangers and keyboardists of all time.”

My interest in the book was different because I had known Frankie from very early and welcomed the opportunity to reflect on those early days. Frankie’s father “Tom” was transferred to Barrouallie as a Revenue Officer when Frankie was about four years. Frankie attended my mother’s Pre-School and in fact when it was time to move on to Primary School, I remembered walking with Frankie to the Anglican Primary School. I am not sure when Frankie left Barrouallie, but we met again at the Boys Grammar School, although he might have gotten in at least a year before me. Frankie states that when he moved to Barrouallie he met three boys with whom he became friends for life. I was part of that trio, the others being Anselm Scrubb who later became a trumpeter, and Bing Oliver who played Bass and was one of the key players later of the Barrouallie group, Resurrection. I know that Bing played on occasions with Frankie in New York and the same I suspect, applied to Anselm.

I remembered Frankie’s father who I believed was the person who brought football to Barrouallie. I remembered as a ‘tiny tot’ looking at him on the football field. My mother was the librarian and as the library overlooked the playing field, I found myself there on afternoons sitting on the veranda taking in what was happening on the field. It was in Barrouallie Frankie said, that his father taught him the rudiments of musical notation. At Grammar School I was aware of Frankie’s musical involvement at an early age. At that time my interest was in sports, particularly cricket and football. I also developed some skills in table tennis but played most of it outside of school. Later on, when doing a summer course in Social Development at the Coady Institute in Nova Scotia, the other students came from different parts of the world, especially Africa and Pakistan, there was a table tennis competition among the students. Having not played table tennis for some time I seized the opportunity to do some serious practice in preparation. The finals put me against a Pakistani who bragged about his special skills in the game. I however stopped him in his tracks when I defeated him. A proud moment it was for me.

At the time we were growing up St. Vincent was an area with a rich cultural life. Frankie came from a musical family. His grandfather, George ‘Papa’ McIntosh was a druggist and is well known today for the role he played in the 1935 Riots and his formation of the St. Vincent Workingmen’s Association which dominated the legislature of St. Vincent from 1937 to 1951. George was an accomplished musician, playing the piano and clarinet, with as Frankie tells us, a strong appetite for classical music as can be seen from his private collection of gramophone records. He ensured that his children received musical instruction and the name that springs to mind when thinking of that period and her musical teaching was Eunice Horne. His father was able to play “everything from classics to calypso.” He indicated that most of his father’s playing was with the McIntosh family dance band, but that he occasionally played with the St. Vincent Philharmonic Orchestra. He held on Sundays ,Jazz and Calypso Jam Sessions at their home at McKie’s Hill to which they had moved when Frankie was about 6 or 7.

Frankie was told that when his mother took him home from the hospital, his father and siblings had a celebratory Jam Session. Included with them was Shake Keane and other members of his father’s dance band- the Melotones Orchestra. Frankie’s musical journey began early. He joined his father’s musical group as a pianist after he had entered the Grammar School, being then about 12 years old. By age 14 he had started his own band with persons like Clem Ballah and Darnley Dublin. The name of the band was the Frankie McIntosh Orchestra. The band grew. They played not only for socials and dances but also accompanied local calypsonians at Victoria Park at the annual competitions. Frankie also stated that they played for shows at the Lyric and Russell Cinemas “when calypsonians like Blakey, Lord Melody and Bitterbush came to town. We kept busy, playing on weekends and several times we even travelled to St. Lucia where we played at the Palm Beach Club and the Gaiety Club.” The book also takes us back to the days of the Blue Rhythm Orchestra led by Syl McIntosh, and Latinaires by Kerwyn Morris. We are reminded of the calypsonians of the 1950s and 1960s and early ‘70s, with persons like Caribbean Pete, Mighty Sheller, Lord Teach, Lord Hawke and Toiler. Before 1971 Vincentian road marches came from Trinidad but in that year, CDC indicated that the annual road march song should involve only Vincentian calypsonians. Many of us know little about or would even think of the rich cultural landscape that was St. Vincent. As early as the 1890s in existence was the Kingstown Orchestral Society. In 1951 when George Charles launched his United Workers Peasants and Rate Payers Union some 2,000 workers joined him as they marched from the King George V Playing field at Arnos Vale to the Victoria Park accompanied by two brass bands playing patriotic songs. The rural areas also led with rich folk music.

Frankie, after leaving school taught at the Intermediate school when one day, he received a call from Cooper Prescod, son of Elta Jackson, the country’s first woman police, inviting him to come to Antigua to replace Carver James, another Vincentian who had left Antigua on holidays. Frankie took up the challenge. Antigua then was heavily into tourism and there were many opportunities for musicians. Frankie could not resist the temptation and decided to stay on when it was realised that Carver was not returning. There began another phase in Frankie’s musical journey. St. Vincent was heavily into agriculture, and obviously not offering musicians the opportunities that came with Tourism (To be continued).

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian