Granville Leonard Straker, the Vincentian-born music pioneer who helped bring the sounds of calypso and soca from the Caribbean to generations of immigrants in New York and audiences around the world, has died at 86. Straker, whose Brooklyn-based Straker’s Records became a landmark of Caribbean music, died on August 27, according to his family.
Born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on September 12, 1939, Straker began building his music business in Brooklyn during the 1960s, as the borough’s West Indian population expanded. He established record stores, including the well-known location at 242 Utica Avenue, creating spaces where Caribbean immigrants could find the music and culture of home.
- Advertisement -
In 1971, Straker founded Straker’s Records, which would become one of the most important independent labels associated with Caribbean popular music. Over roughly three decades, the label released an estimated 600 to 700 albums, more than 1,000 12-inch records and several thousand singles.
Its catalogue featured some of the most influential names in calypso and soca, including Calypso Rose, The Mighty Shadow, Black Stalin, Chalkdust, Lord Nelson, Lord Melody, Mighty Duke, Explainer, Winston Soso, Singing Francine and Machel Montano. Among the label’s enduring recordings were The Mighty Shadow’s “Bassman” and Black Stalin’s “Ah Feel to Party.”
Straker’s influence extended well beyond selling records. He worked as a producer, promoter, talent scout and distributor, travelling throughout the Caribbean to identify performers and helping artists gain access to professional recording and international audiences. His business helped strengthen Brooklyn’s position as an important centre for Caribbean music production during a period when calypso and soca were expanding throughout the diaspora.
A significant partnership began in 1978 when Vincentian musician and arranger Frankie McIntosh joined Straker’s Records as musical director. McIntosh led the studio band The Equitables and oversaw hundreds of recording sessions, helping shape a distinctive Brooklyn-based sound that contributed to the development and international reach of soca.
Straker’s contribution to Caribbean music earned him several honours, including the Martin’s International/Inter-Culture Award of Honour at the 2009 International Reggae & World Music Awards. He was also honoured in Brooklyn in 2014 for excellence in worldwide music production.
His family remembered him not only as a pioneering businessman but as a husband, father, grandfather, mentor and friend whose commitment to Caribbean culture shaped generations. For the Caribbean diaspora, Straker leaves behind more than a record catalogue, he leaves a musical archive of an era when Brooklyn became one of the places where the sound of the Caribbean found a new home.
