The life, ca­reer and lega­cy of ca­lyp­so leg­end Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co was yes­ter­day cel­e­brat­ed true to the larg­er-than-life per­sona he craft­ed in charm­ing gen­er­a­tions of mu­sic lovers over decades.

Prime Min­is­ters Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Mia Mot­t­ley have laud­ed the Mighty Spar­row for his con­tri­bu­tions to Caribbean cul­ture, not­ing that his tal­ent as a sto­ry­teller went be­yond that of an or­di­nary en­ter­tain­er and was clos­er to that of a his­to­ri­an, doc­u­ment­ing the evo­lu­tion of Caribbean peo­ple and so­ci­eties across decades.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Air­line Pi­lots As­so­ci­a­tion (TTAL­PA) is rec­om­mend­ing that Caribbean Air­lines name one of its new Boe­ing 737 air­craft af­ter ca­lyp­so leg­end Dr Slinger Fran­cis­co, the Mighty Spar­row.

It was more a cel­e­bra­tion than a fu­ner­al yes­ter­day, as steel­pan mu­sic, tra­di­tion­al mas and the red, white and black of na­tion­al flags brought the streets of Port-of-Spain alive for Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co’s farewell pa­rade.