Kid Dynamite born July 23, 1911

Kid Dynamite (July 23, 1911 - December 14th, 1963) was a pioneering Surinamese-Dutch jazz saxophonist. He is celebrated for being one of the first Black musicians to bring swing jazz mixed with Afro-Surinamese traditional music (kaseko) to the Netherlands during the 1930s. His performances were never officially released on record, leaving behind a legacy mainly in the form of written compositions and lyrics.

Saxophonist and clarinetist Kid Dynamite was born Lodewijk Rudolph Arthur Parisius, in the Para District of Suriname. He spent his formative years immersed in the Afro-Surinamese traditional religion winti, which deeply influenced his musical style. He arrived in The Netherlands in 1928 as a stowaway on board the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company ship The Cottica. His friends Frits Blijd (1907-1992) and Frans Vroom (1905-1989) had preceded him earlier. After their arrival in the Netherlands, the three men almost immediately found employment in the entertainment sector, the only industry where their different skin colour worked to their advantage. Frans Vroom called himself Prince Kaya from then on and became a well-known figure in the capital's nightclub scene as a doorman, contortionist and percussionist. Frits Blijd hid behind the stage names Freddy Blythe, Jackie Blue and Rico Fernando, worked as a drummer and dancer, posed as a 'negro model' for students of the Rietveld Academy and opened a 'tap dance school' on the Frederiksplein in Amsterdam in the fifties. 

Arthur Parisius would manifest himself as the most successful artist of the trio and amassed his start-up capital by performing as a fire-eater at a fair, which was an activity from which he is said to have derived the name Kid Dynamite. A frugal spending pattern enabled him to save enough within ten months to be able to afford the purchase of a second-hand alto saxophone. He picked up jazz during his first years in the Netherlands and learnt to play jazz by listening and playing along with records he bought in the port of Rotterdam. The music of the American jazz giants Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were his greatest heroes in this respect. 

Dynamite became a regular in clubs like Kit Kat Club and Negro Palace in Amsterdam, Shim Sham in The Hague and of course Mephisto in Rotterdam. In 1936 he toured Switzerland as an alto saxophonist in the band of the Surinamese guitarist Mike Hidalgo. Tenor saxophonist Piet van Dijk managed to persuade his friend Kid Dynamite to exchange his alto sax for a tenor sax during this trip. In February 1937 Kid performed with the American jazz pianist Freddy Johnson in the Concertgebouw in Haarlem. Later that year he was programmed for weeks with the Surinamese trumpeter Teddy Cotton in jazz café annex 'negro club' Mephisto on the Binnenweg in Rotterdam. He quickly became a fixture of the European jazz scene, performing in popular clubs and leading bands. 

                                  

In addition he was blessed with a good singing voice and was an excellent percussionist. He became the first prominent Afro-Surinam tenor saxophonist, who was respected by many colleague-musicians. When the great Coleman Hawkins heard him play for the first time, he said "tell the people, this guy is alright". Later they would make music together and Kid considered Hawkins to be his musical father. In many pubs where Kid Dynamite could be heard, his Coleman Hawkins-like improvisations were appreciated. Fortunately, he was able to play something that no Dutch saxophonist had in house: 'Surinamese jazz'. He focused on the bigi pokoe, which means both big drum and big music. The ideal line-up consists of alto sax, possibly trumpet, string drum, bass drum and double bass. Cheerful dance music from a bigi pokoe band is called kaseko.

Throughout World War II, the occupying forces banned jazz and targeted Black performers. It was a dangerous time for Kid Dynamite, as a Surinamese in a white society. However, the Rotterdam neighbourhood of Katendrecht became a notable safe haven. Kid Dynamite was able to continue playing, keeping the swing and jazz scenes alive in the Netherlands while the rest of the country was under strict occupation. 

After the war, he was increasingly asked to play with Dutch jazz orchestras, such as The Grasshoppers conducted by Cor van Peperzeel. Bebop, Latin jazz, Dixieland, dance or party music, Kid Dynamite mastered all genres. In 1947 he was on the road with The Grasshoppers through Switzerland and Spain practically all year round. He later formed his own combo, Kid Dynamite and his Jungle Rhythms, while at the same time playing with bands like The Black and White Stars and Bonanza Boys. He subsequently enjoyed great fame in the 1950s as a musician at the Casablanca Jazz Club on Amsterdam's Zeedijk.

When following the rise of rock-'n-roll, jazz declines in popularity in the early 1960s, so Kid Dynamite started to focus on a Latin American repertoire. In December of 1963 Kid Dynamite was touring Germany with Rico Fernando, when his taxi is involved in a major accident near Hamburg. Kid Dynamite died due to his injuries a week later on December 14th, 1963. His legacy has been preserved and revived by later generations of Dutch-Surinamese musicians.

(Edited from the Dutch sites Rebel Base, Historiek & Jonge Historici)