SAN­DRA L BLOOD

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On Au­gust 4 of last year the supreme Ca­lyp­so King of the World, the Mighty Spar­row (Spar­row/the Birdie), “re­vived” the Lin­coln Cen­ter for Per­form­ing Arts, USA, with an 80-minute con­cert while seat­ed.

The Cen­ter’s se­nior di­rec­tor of artis­tic per­for­mances, Jor­dana Leigh, said it was her per­son­al ho­n­our to present him.

“The 20th cen­tu­ry’s most fa­mous per­former of Ca­lyp­so mu­sic…. Trinida­di­an Ca­lyp­so King and inim­itable vo­cal­ist and sto­ry­teller…. He’s a leg­end and an icon…. How do we bring life back; how do we bring cul­ture back? The on­ly per­son we thought of was the Mighty Spar­row.”

Not on­ly did Spar­row fur­ther beau­ti­fy his lega­cy then, but 13 months fol­low­ing, he’s con­tributed, sig­nif­i­cant­ly, to strength­en­ing that of the world’s first youngest ca­lyp­so king, Aaron Dun­can.

Twelve years ago, 2010, a few min­utes af­ter Dun­can, then six-years-old, won his first na­tion­al (TU­CO’s) ca­lyp­so monarch ti­tle at the NA­PA, he was priv­i­leged to duet on the stage with Spar­row, singing one of Spar­row’s mas­ter­pieces, Ed­u­ca­tion, fol­low­ing which, as Dun­can said, Spar­row told him, ‘When­ev­er you are ready to do a song with me, I will do it.’

Aaron Duncan, then six, and the Mighty Sparrow in 2010 at the NAPA performing Sparrow’s Education soon after Duncan won his first National Junior Calypso Monarch TUCO title.

That po­ten­tial re­al­i­ty played like a stuck stream in Dun­can’s head un­til awok­en by a dream that he should make a go for it. In April, he ho­n­oured Spar­row’s words and pitched his idea to him of col­lab­o­rat­ing for this year’s Ca­lyp­so His­to­ry Month.

The plan came to fruition on Sep­tem­ber 7 at Spar­row’s home in New York, with the pro­duc­tion of a 3min 30sec mu­sic video writ­ten, edit­ed, and pro­duced by Dun­can, ti­tled, Lega­cy, re­leased on­line on Oc­to­ber 11.

Aaron Duncan, 19, and the Mighty Sparrow, 87, performing Duncan’s tune, Legacy, during the music video released cut at Sparrow’s home in New York on September 7 of this year, 2022 and released on October 11.

The song refers to the fight be­ing on to keep the lega­cy of the art form, of the ca­lyp­son­ian, of mon­archs, and now, of Dun­can, alive.

Dun­can said it’s an­oth­er seed plant­ed to try and en­tice younger gen­er­a­tions to ca­lyp­so as he doesn’t think enough has been done and is be­ing done to do so.

He sent the lyrics to Spar­row who added his ‘taste’. Dun­can said he re­alised Spar­row’s in­ca­pac­i­ta­tion and didn’t trou­ble to take the stu­dio to his home. Spar­row said he has al­ways been quite im­pressed with Dun­can. He re­minds him of him­self some 400 years ago, but de­spite him be­ing bap­tised as a Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist, he still wants to do a bac­cha­nal ca­lyp­so with him. He al­so wants to come next year for T&T’s car­ni­val. “There’s more mu­sic to be heard from me. I’m ready for ac­tion.” Dun­can said the pro­duc­tion was one of his great­est ex­pe­ri­ences, and if it could, the ex­pe­ri­ence will be re­peat­ed.

The Mighty Sparrow.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian me­dia dur­ing this year’s car­ni­val sea­son, Spar­row want­ed to put his taste, vir­tu­al­ly, in the Taste of Car­ni­val but re­ceived no trac­tion. He then said he re­alised that he “has be­come a lost bird.

Dun­can said, “It’s the re­turn of the Birdie. It’s an ho­n­our to be part of this his­toric col­lab­o­ra­tion. It’s been a decade since we heard the King of Ca­lyp­so, and now, here he is. This is one for the his­to­ry books.”

Lega­cy in part: “Olé olé ma­ma olé!” Dun­can gets the feel of the spir­it in his soul...But he isn’t giv­ing up, just put him in front a crowd, and let the rhythm of the mu­sic and spir­it in him cre­ate a lega­cy, be­cause ‘this is our lega­cy’, and they are do­ing it leg­endary, while Spar­row belts out: “It’s the rhythm that hit me; that make me come off meh bed, shake off meh feet - a re­turn of the Birdie.

Musical artiste Aaron Duncan.

Photo courtesy Aaron Duncan

“Oo­dayyyy, oo­dayyyy oh, oh, be­cause that is what they know. I’m out­side with meh boy Aaron to give them some ca­lyp­so. We not giv­ing up now. Just put meh in front a crowd. Spar­row come back again with meh boy AD to cre­ate a lega­cy. Just let the peo­ple know that the Mighty Spar­row is alive and kick­ing…”

The video ends with Dun­can, the mata­dor, learn­ing of Spar­row’s favourite ca­lyp­so, which saw the en­tire bull­fight­ing cast, Spar­row and Dun­can, singing the re­frain: Ten to One is Mur­der.

Dun­can’s moth­er, Ly­dia Dun­can, said she feels very proud to see this col­lab­o­ra­tion with her son and the supreme ca­lyp­so king of the world. Dun­can thanked all who made the pro­duc­tion a suc­cess.