In less than 10 seconds, Young Tiger’s " At the Coronation " plunks you down in 1952 London. Two bars of piano and guitar, a tight press roll, and we’re off: " I took up my position at Marble Arch/From the night before just to see the march . . . I was there! " And so are we for a good dozen verses, the singer’s full, lilting bass reporting on the passers-by, from " the golden coach with Her Majesty " to troops from a laundry list of " dominions and colonies. " As buoyant as the performance is, the song transports a serious cultural freight. It’s the sound of a recent Caribbean immigrant insisting that he belongs at this most English of occasions but never submerging his identity: " I stood my ground like a young Creole. "

" At the Coronation " is the most arresting single cut on London Is the Place for Me (Astralwerks), but not by much. The disc, which was issued last year by the tiny Honest Jon’s label (and noted in these pages by " Frequencies " columnist Josh Kun), has been given wider release by Astralwerks this year. Its subtitle, Trinidadian Calypso in London, 1950-1956 sounds unpromisingly narrow, but for anyone whose familiarity with calypso ends with " The Banana Boat Song, " these urbane, musically varied recordings are a revelation.

The easy Latin-tinged rhythms and dense percussion are no surprise, but the use of modern-jazz horn lines and harmonies is. Many of the singers here were part of a post-WW2 wave of Caribbean immigration to England, but arranger Rupert Nurse and the sessions’ key sidemen were earlier arrivals and already active on London’s nightclub scene. With Joe Harriot’s sax or Cyril Blake’s guitar replacing traditional steel-drum breaks, these recordings feature solo statements as pithy as those on a contemporary jazz 78. " Kitch’s Bebop Calypso " makes the connection explicit, quoting several Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis heads.

Ultimately, though, calypso is a lyric-based form; its most dedicated practitioners consider themselves as much writers as musicians. (Jamaican-born Harry Belafonte, a gifted interpreter, is often dismissed in Trinidad for not penning his own material.) The topics treated on London Is the Place range from the folkways of the artists’ adopted country (songs about cricket and underground trains) to events half a world away ( " Birth of Ghana " ). Lord Beginner’s " Mix Up Matrimony " could be the most upbeat paean to interracial romance ever recorded. " White and colored people are binding mutually, " he exults as the Calypso Rhythm Kings advise: " Incorporate, and amalgamate. " Near the other extreme of the immigrant experience is Mighty Terror’s self-explanatory " No Carnival in Britain, " with melancholy lyrics and a sax section to match.

Lord Kitchener, author of nine of the disc’s 20 tracks, emerges as the movement’s dominant figure. Already successful in Trinidad and Jamaica, Kitchener (born Alwyn Roberts in 1922) reached England in 1948. His visit began well; he sang the compilation’s title song for a Pathé newsreel camera, without accompaniment, minutes after docking. Despite its wild optimism (the English, it seems, " take you here and they take you there/They make you feel like a millionaire " ), the song didn’t see release for another two years. But for the next decade, his ingratiating delivery and witty, tuneful material ( " My Landlady, " the risqué " Saxophone No. 2 " ) made him a well-known figure in his new home — Princess Margaret, no less, was a fan.

In 1962, " Kitch " returned to Trinidad, where he remained a calypso mainstay for nearly four decades, passing away in 2000. Klassic Kitchener Volume Three (Ice), a widely available 1994 import, is a fair sampling of his ’70s and ’80s work. The sounds are slicker and the beats stronger, but Kitch’s tricky melodic sense is fully in evidence on the elaborately arranged " Pan in A Minor. " So is his charm as a lyricist: in " The Bee’s Melody, " our man withstands several rounds of stings, all because " the noise that they making sound like steelband. " Kitchener rolled with the music’s changes well into his 50s: " Sugar Bum-Bum, " from 1978, was an early hit in the dance-oriented, less verbally inventive soca ( " soul calypso " ) style.

Accomplished as this later music is, the early work collected on London Is the Place for Me is both fresher and sadder, in a way that seems the special province of exiles — even voluntary, temporary ones. The compilation’s final two songs, both by Kitchener, show why the movement, and the moment, couldn’t last. " If You’re Not White You’re Black " takes aim not at English racists but at too-assimilated Africans: " You use all kinds of Vaseline/To make out that you’re European. " And just two years after the title track, " Sweet Jamaica " offered a less rosy view of " London city, " with Kitch complaining about the food, the winters, and the unemployment — all while he himself was singing at three clubs a night. Even a celebrity, it seems, can miss his " ackee and saltfish. "