Immigration to the United Kingdom from African and Caribbean territories began centuries ago, due to slavery. After its abolition in the first half of the 19th century, the flow of immigrants increased, especially during the First World War, when many of them joined the British army.
And in the post-World War II peace times, the impact of this migration on British culture took full effect. The British Nationality Act 1948 allowed citizenship to be obtained by those who lived in the United Kingdom and its colonies. The hope for a better life and job prospects attracted many West Indies residents to the country
.
The Empire Windrash brought more than 800 Caribbean migrants to the United Kingdom as early as 1948 in response to newspaper advertisements: post-war England needed labour to rebuild its industry and services. The effect of this displacement, which gave rise to the "Windrash Generation", was a major cultural shift: people of very different cultures were able to live peacefully and freely side by side, gradually forgetting the horrors of war. The art, culture and music of Afro-Caribbean migrants have flourished in the United Kingdom.
Music was literally the very first contribution of newcomers to British life. Among the passengers of the Empire Windrash was Lord Kitchener, a performer of Calipso; as soon as he was on British soil, journalists stuck a microphone under his nose and he sang in response: "London is a place for me.
Thus the country began the era of Trinidadian Calipso. Calypso is an Afro-Caribbean style of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early to mid-19th century. This deeply rhythmic and harmonious vocal style resembled Jamaican folk songs in many ways, and in the same way was rich in topical content - but was more lively and cheerful.
A few years after the landing of the "Windrash generation" on English soil, another significant event took place - the British Festival of 1951, which was performed by Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra - an ensemble of performers on steel drums.
The popularity of this genre was added by the incredible success of Harry Belafonte, a native of the USA, who also performed calipso. In 1959, Trinidadian journalist Claudia Jones organized the Caribbean Festival in London; Connor became its artistic director too, and among the performers was, for example, Mighty Terror, who came to the UK from Trinidad in 1953. The festival laid the foundation for a carnival in Notting Hill, a grandiose event organized annually by people from the West Indies. Carnival - a real manifestation of black, immigrant culture in the UK - is held to this day.
The festival was organized, in particular, to withstand the growing interracial tension, which in 1958 spilled into racial riots in Notting Hill. It would be wrong to say that all migrants, their culture, customs and music were accepted in Britain with open arms. Some British, including politicians, had tried to prevent the influx of migrants into the country; many migrants had faced prejudice and racism.
Politics was originally an integral part of the Kalypso style: musicians sang about their slave owners, teased and teased them in an attempt to find something funny and comforting in a difficult life situation. Kalypso music, joyful, rhythmic, tropical in its sound, also took on a political dimension in Britain: Lord Invader with "Teddy Boy Calypso (Bring Back The Cat-O-Nine)" of 1959, a song in reaction to racist attacks in London.
In the early 1930s, jazz played an important role in the British cultural landscape. Louis Armstrong was on tour in 1932, and Duke Ellington came a year later. The latter's performances caused such a sensation that he said: "I'd be surprised if my concerts didn't become regular. However, because of legal squabbles between musicians' unions in the United Kingdom and the United States, he returned to the United Kingdom the next time, only in 1958, and in between, American jazz on the British stage was almost non-existent. And although in the works, for example, the ensembles of Spike Hughes or the project of Nate Gonella The Georgians, the influence of innovators like Armstrong was acutely felt, the overseas jazz boom of the local scene was actually forced to ignore. Under these conditions, she needed other sources of inspiration.
One of the most influential figures in British jazz of this period was Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, a West Indies swing master and Jamaican trumpeter Leslie Thompson. Johnson's ensemble The Emperors of Jazz was the first significant Negro big band in the country. He soon became a member of the popular The West Indian Orchestra (West India Orchestra), a permanent resident of London's Café de Paris. However, like many other cultural movements