The ca­lyp­so art form has grown rich­er as a con­se­quence of the var­i­ous con­trib­u­tors from the plan­ta­tion to now names like Atil­la the Hun, Spoil­er, Growl­ing Tiger, Be­gin­ner and Lord Ra­dio of a past era and con­tem­po­rary per­form­ers liv­ing and dead such as Spar­row, Melody, Kitch­en­er, Mae­stro, Chalk­dust, Shorty, Mer­chant, Black Stal­in, Duke and Su­perblue are well etched in our mem­o­ries.

In the so­ca genre Shorty has pride of place as a pi­o­neer, Su­perblue rev­o­lu­tionised it and Machel Mon­tano and oth­ers are con­tin­u­ing this process with their re­spec­tive dis­tinc­tive stamps.

How­ev­er, the fo­cus of this dis­course is Su­perblue who in my opin­ion brings a touch to the art form that is sure­ly be­ing missed. Su­perblue in the past and even now moves an au­di­ence as no oth­er. The mere an­nounce­ment of his name, fol­lowed by the mu­si­cal build up ini­ti­ates a mu­si­cal psych­ing that takes his sub­jects on a mu­si­cal jour­ney that cap­tures a mas­sag­ing of the spir­it, emo­tions and move­ments that seem to tran­scend the ac­tu­al per­for­mance.

Su­perblue's com­po­si­tions have al­ways been strong on lyrics, melody, sto­ry­line and African rhythms. These qual­i­ties are in­ter­twined with a love and pas­sion for his craft that re­sult in a joy­ous jour­ney that we all re­mem­ber and I am sure that you are miss­ing as I am.

The art form is weak­er when one who has earned the sta­tus of a leg­end is mere­ly per­form­ing pre­vi­ous hits. Great prac­ti­tion­ers such as Spar­row and Rose con­tin­ue to pro­duce new work with the same vigour and en­thu­si­asm as be­gin­ners. They con­tin­ue to grow the art form and build a body of work for bud­ding Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, ca­lyp­so lovers and schol­ars to draw up­on.

I am send­ing out the mes­sage to Su­per that as much as there are those who are mak­ing a name for them­selves your dis­tinc­tive style and com­po­si­tions take so­ca to a lev­el that is yet to be reached by oth­ers.

This ap­peal is be­ing made notwith­stand­ing the per­son­al chal­lenges faced by you. I am hope­ful that these can be con­quered and will not stand in your way in the fur­ther­ance of your con­tri­bu­tion to the ca­lyp­so art form. Su­perblue your in­put is sure­ly need­ed now rather than lat­er pick your pen again my broth­er. Peace.

Imo Rame­ses Bakari

Point Fortin