The Growling Tiger

b. Neville Marcano, 1915, Siparia, Trinidad, West Indies, d. 13 May 1993. Marcano took up boxing as a teenager (he was known as the Siparia Tiger), winning the flyweight championship of Trinidad in 1929. In 1934 he started to perform calypsos as a way of supporting himself. Taking the name Growling Tiger, he was soon winning calypso competitions with his witty socially concerned compositions. Although the youngest of the calypsonians who emerged in the 30s, Tiger's style harked back to calypso's African, French and Spanish roots (although he was also influenced by pop crooners...