Music
Mavis John carries an entire twin-island nation in her voice. Yet she speaks about singing like an eager student preparing for the next lesson.
That may be the superpower of the iconic vocalist. Beyond the timeless music, global stages and glittering awards, Mavis’ hold on T&T’s musical life is rooted in her great humility, discipline and a lifelong respect for the craft.
She turned 80 yesterday, and will be honoured on June 18 at Steel & Voices, a tribute concert featuring musical homages from Glenda Collens, Candice Alcantara, Karla Gonzales and Mikahil Salcedo, at Kafe Blue, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.
Speaking to the Kitcharee on Friday morning ahead of her birthday, Mavis revealed she was celebrating the milestone in Grenada, the land of her birth and homeland of both her parents. She came to T&T as a toddler in the late 1940s.
“I am overlooking Grand Anse Beach right now, so I have everything I need,” she said. “This is what I asked for, this is what I wanted and I feel well. I feel good.”
Laughing at herself, Mavis also spoke plainly about the physical aches of growing older.
“Honestly, I have had two knee surgeries and people ask me about that too, especially people who are thinking about doing the same thing,” she chuckled. “That is part of life. You go through things and you are able to share the experience with somebody else.”
That instinct to share, to teach, to offer freely all she knows has been Mavis’ calling card. She will be first to tell you, however, she is still a work in progress.
The girl who sang
Before she became one of the Caribbean’s enduring musical voices, Mavis John was a girl from Morvant who liked to sing.
She attended St Philip’s EC, now St Philip’s Government Primary School, and grew up in a community where her singing talent was noticed by villagers at a young age.
Morvant-born musician Jeffrey Turpin, who lived nearby, discovered her and recorded her singing James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World” in 1965. The song, she recalled, was first placed on the B-side of the record, but it found its way into public affection and helped make her a teen idol in the 1960s.
“When I started, I was just a girl growing up in Morvant who liked to sing. People would say I could sing, but I did not take it seriously like that,” she said. “Jeffery Turpin came looking for me—he came asking for ‘the red girl who could sing’. Next thing I know, he was recording me.”
Mavis’ talent has since taken her across many global stages performing calypso, soul, jazz and blues. She later found a new niche in musical theatre.
“I never felt I had to stay in one kind of music,” she recalled. “Different people would know me for different styles, and I was open to that. I have always loved music, so I would sing anything.”
By the 1970s, she had also become part of one of the era’s loved musical pairings with her late husband, broadcaster and singer David Elcock, performing as Mae and Dave. Their 1977 recording, “You Are What Love Is” remains one of those songs that still carries the warmth of that period.
For all her years of experience, Mavis admitted to still having the pre-show nerves of an amateur singer.
“People may not believe it, but I still get nervous before I go on stage,” she laughed. “I admire people who can just walk on a stage and sing without any fear. I have to prepare myself mentally. If you put me on the spot, that is not easy for me.”
Among her people
If music made Mavis John visible, teaching helped shape her spirit.
She taught at Morvant Anglican Primary School for several decades, beginning as a student teacher at 15. When she spoke about the school, she became emotional.
“That school is very dear to my heart. I started there as a student teacher and I immediately felt like I was among my people,” she related. “I came from that community. They knew me and I knew them. To be able to teach there and touch so many young lives meant a great deal to me.”
During that time she entered another major stage: motherhood.
“Being a mother has been one of the most important parts of my life,” she said. “Music is important, but family is also important. I grew up with a single mother and she taught me so much about motherhood.”
Mavis’ work in theatre added another dimension to her career. She won a Cacique Award in 1996 for Shades of I-She, and worked around people whose names carry serious weight in Caribbean theatre, among them Helen Camps, Davlin Thomas and the late Nobel laureate Derek Walcott.
“I never really saw myself as an actress. I saw myself as a singer in that space, doing musical theatre,” she said. “I worked with great people and I learned from being around them. Sometimes I had a few lines, but music was always where I felt most at home.”
When she stepped away from teaching in the late 1990s, Mavis gave new attention to recording. After time away from the spotlight, her 2001 album Mavis Sings became an important marker in her later career, helping to stir renewed public interest in her music.
“I wanted it to be all local music. That was important to me,” she revealed. “I took my time with it and I went to the people whose songs I wanted to sing, because I wanted their permission and their blessing. I wanted to honour the music properly.”
More than two decades later, people still ask her for copies of the album.
“That says something, right?” she declared.
Still learning
Mavis has performed extensively locally, regionally and internationally. Wherever she went, she said, she understood the mission.
“Everywhere I went, I carried Trinidad and Tobago with me,” she said. “Whether I was singing here, in the region or abroad, I knew I was not only representing myself. I was carrying something from home in my voice.”
Her contribution was formally recognised in 2021 when she received the Hummingbird Medal Gold for service to culture and music.
Even now, her music continues to find new rooms. Her song “Use My Body”, penned by the late Tony Wilson during the 90s, was featured in episode seven of the Hulu series High Fidelity in 2020. She laughed as she recalled hearing that people were dancing to the track in nightclubs in New York City.
“I hardly ever perform that song,” she said. “I remember when Tony brought the song to me, I said—what kind of song is this? Tony told me it was about dancing, but when you listen to some of those lyrics, I said, ‘That does not sound like dancing to me.’” She recited the song’s opening lyrics:
We don’t have to get down
Just to get it on
You know how to use my body
“That sound like dancing to you?” she asked, laughing.
Mavis revealed she will be doing a rare performance of the song at Steel & Voices.
“Some people requesting it, but is not a song I usually sing. But I’m hearing it has over five million plays on Spotify, so now might be the time,” she said, before turning to her manager Margaret Gittens with another laugh.
“Wait—it have change in dat?
At 80, Mavis’ laughter and unguarded honesty bring lighteness to the weight of her legacy. Asked what advice she gives young musicians, she says: “Find your own path.”
“When young singers come to me, I try to be careful with how I speak to them. You may see something that needs a little adjustment, but how you say it matters,” she shared. “We can be guided—I was guided by those before me—but ultimately, we all have to find our own way.”
Mavis’ greatest lesson may be in how she treats her own legendary status.
“I still see myself as a student. I am always learning. I can learn from young people too. I do not believe I know everything, and I never want to stop learning new ways of doing things. That keeps me feeling good,” she concluded.