This is the story about a Danish band that found their roots in the Caribbean - in the former Danish colonies there...
Long time ago, Denmark possessed a small group of islands in the Caribbean - The Virgin Islands also known as St.Thomas, St.Croix and St.John. The islands were sold to the USA back in 1917, but when the Danes left the islands, they left something behind - the MUSIC ! Even today it's possible to hear vestiges of Danish music there, but something strange has happened to it: It has fusioned with the local calypso-rhythms in a quite unique way, creating a brand new style only to be named "POLCALYPSO" (polca + calypso = polcalypso)
In 1988, bandleader Kazio Kierpaul coincidently dropped over this music, and being heavily inspired he formed the band Karlekammeret - The Original Danish Polcalypso Orchestra, and introduced this music to Europe. Since then his band has performed live on all kinds of stages in Europe and the Caribbean, and has been broadcasted by an innumerable number of radio-stations in Europe and America..
In the Caribbean, the bands first and second album has been on airplay by the St.Thomas radio station WSTA since 1990, and as a result of that the band was invited to perform on the Virgin Islands in the spring of 1992 - with great success. In 12 days the band played 11 concerts, was broadcasted daily by the radio stations WSTA and WSTX, as well as the TV-channels of the Islands, Channel 8 and Channel 13 and had a lot of jam-sessions with local musicians as Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights and Blinkey and the Roadmasters...
In November 1994 the bands third album POLCALYPSO III was released, and simoultanesly, the band was invited to perform at the carnival of St.Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands, from the 21'th of December '94 to the 7'th of January '95. A concert were also performed in St.Thomas in January '95. At the concert in St.Thomas the band met the legendary Grand Old Man in Polcalypso music, Mr. James “Jamesie†Brewster, and a great jam emerged.
As a result of this jam, Jamesie came to Denmark in the summer of 1995 and made concerts with the band. One of these were recorded by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), and the recordings were issued in February 1997 as a CD titled “POLCALYPSO LIVE feat. JAMESIE†In 1999 the band made it’s third tour to the U.S. Virgin Islands doing 14 concerts i 12 days with overwhelming success…
POLCALYPSO - "exotic" music from the old colonies in the Caribbean, sounding very well known for European ears... An echo of the former colony dancing halls, performed in a very contemporary way by The Original Danish Polcalypso Orchestra..... The only one of its kind in Europe.
In 2000 Jamesie was back in Denmark, doing a tour and a new record was made: “ Se Acabo - Polcalypso & Jamsie – Live in Denmark 2000†From 2000 through 2007, the band does a lot of concerts in Denmark... In 2005 the band plays at the Rudolstadt Festival in Germany with overwhelming succes. A new country discovered Polcalypso!
Discographia: POLCALYPSO (Olga Music LP/MC 89045) 1989 POLCALYPSO II (Olga Music CD/LP/MC 91055) 1991 POLCALYPSO III (Copenhagen Calypso Records CCR CD/MC 94001) POLCALYPSO LIVE feat. Mr. James “JAMESIE†Brewster (Copenhagen Calypso Records CCR CD 97002) SE ACABO Polcalypso & Jamsie live in Denmark 2000 (CCR CD2000-1)