SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­san­dral@ya­hoo.com

“In ac­cor­dance with the New York State guide­lines in con­sul­ta­tion with our med­ical ad­vi­sors, we have im­ple­ment­ed pro­to­cols to en­hance safe­ty for all staff, artistes and guests…,” ad­vised the Lin­coln Cen­ter for the Per­form­ing Arts, sit­u­at­ed at 10 Lin­coln Cen­ter Plaza, New York, with­in Man­hat­tan.

In re­open­ing their spaces for “free out­door con­certs from Sum­mer 2021,” their Restart Stages’ slate of ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ed the Mighty Spar­row Live Con­cert, on Au­gust 4.

“The 20th cen­tu­ry’s most fa­mous per­former of Ca­lyp­so mu­sic comes to #Restart­stages! Trinida­di­an Ca­lyp­so King and inim­itable vo­cal­ist and sto­ry­teller brings the Caribbean Is­land fire to Lin­coln Cen­ter for a ca­reer-span­ning set of songs,” ad­ver­tised the Lin­coln Cen­tre of the man pas­sion­ate­ly called the Birdie in T&T.

Streamed live on YouTube and Vimeo from 8 pm, se­nior di­rec­tor of artis­tic pro­grammes at Lin­coln Cen­ter, Jor­dana Leigh, launched the 85-minute event by first thank­ing the US Em­bassy and Con­sulate of T&T for help­ing pro­mote the con­cert, and stat­ing of the Mighty Spar­row: “We have had the ho­n­our of pre­sent­ing Spar­row be­fore, hav­ing done so at the cen­tre and across cam­pus­es, and it is my per­son­al ho­n­our to present him tonight.

“He’s a leg­end and an icon, and we’ve been think­ing of how to bring the arts back to New York City. How do we bring life back; how do we bring cul­ture back. We said, we must present the Mighty Spar­row.”

The audience dances to the music of the Mighty Sparrow during his live performance

She then en­gaged the au­di­ence in wel­com­ing him back to the Lin­coln Cen­ter “the reign­ing Ca­lyp­so King.”

A vi­brant Spar­row was then ush­ered on stage in a wheel­chair to a stand­ing ova­tion, lusty ap­plause and bel­low­ing cheers, sub­se­quent­ly be­ing seat­ed on his per­form­ing throne be­hind his mu­sic sheet.

While wait­ing for the vi­brant­ly sup­port­ive au­di­ence to set­tle, to a lone dis­tant voice that shout­ed The Mighty Spar­row from amongst, he replied: “Aye aye, what’s up with you?” evok­ing loud laugh­ter.

He then in­tro­duced him­self. “Ladies and gen­tle­men, we’re ready now. May I present for your bet­ter en­ter­tain­ment here, the supreme reign­ing Ca­lyp­so King of the World. And you know who that guy is?”

With the au­di­ence eat­ing out his hands, rais­ing them to their feet in con­ga-line fash­ion, with some hands raised, the King did tell sto­ries while in­tro­duc­ing cer­tain songs.

The au­di­ence heard that “no mon­ey, no love is re­al­ly ro­mance with­out fi­nance is a bloody nui­sance”; the two white women who were trav­el­ling through Africa; his two favourite girls; men’s favourite.

Senior director of artistic programmes at Lincoln Center, Jordana Leigh opens the Mighty Sparrow Live Concert.

Clos­ing with Jean and Di­nah, the reper­toire al­so in­clud­ed: Mr Walk­er, Mel­da, Salt­fish, Bag Ah Sug­ar, Spar­row Dead, Bois Bande, Sa Sa Ay, Mae Mae, No Mon­ey No Love, Pussy Cat, Con­go Man, and Obeah Wed­ding.

As­sert­ing that he just loves this mu­sic, and wish­es he were young again, to the strains of the back­ground Lavway mu­sic, played by the ac­com­pa­ny­ing band as led by Lane Stein­berg, the au­di­ence re­spond­ed to the King’s beck­on­ing to sing the cho­rus, “younger” in re­sponse to his hook-line, “Ah wish ah was.”

Oth­er band mem­bers were: Dave Fos­ter, Char­ly Roth, Phillip Nichols, Tom Shad, Tom­my De­Vi­to, Bu­ford O’Sul­li­van, Jeff Hud­gins, Pam Flem­ming with cho­rus, Rem­bert Block and Er­i­ca Smith.

Among a long list, the Lin­coln Cen­ter thanked: New­ground En­ter­tain­ments, Au­drey and Mar­tin Gruss Dis­cov­ery Foun­da­tion, Stavros Niar­chos Foun­da­tion-Lin­coln Cen­tre Ago­ra Ini­tia­tive, Walk­er Beard, Au­dio Inc, World­stage Inc, Unit­ed Stag­ing and Rig­ging and Iatse Lo­cal 1 for help­ing bring the King to its stage once more.

Slinger Francisco (The Mighty Sparrow) performs at the Restart Stages at Lincoln Center, New York.

On piano, Phillip Nichols

Mighty Sparrow, centre seated, performs at the Restart Stages, Lincoln Center.