I wind up this series, written in recognition and honour of the greatness of the Calypso King of the World, Slinger Francisco, the Mighty Sparrow, on his 90th birthday, placing the focus on his off-stage contributions. But then again, Sparrow has always been in the glare of society in whatever he has done since his 1956 Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clementina; he has never left the bright lights.
We therefore shift the attention ever so slightly, but remain always with the calypso extraordinaire-plus with a microphone in hand.
From the 1960s, Sparrow emerged as a businessman who invested in the record-selling industry through having his own record shop on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain. It was located inside a mall on the eastern side of Frederick Street, going south to Independence Square.
To promote live calypso and other forms of entertainment, he created Sparrow’s Hideaway, a performance centre at his home in Petit Valley.
He did not establish the Original Young Brigade calypso tent, but became joint owner/manager with Syl Taylor and did so for a couple of decades at the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union hall on Wrightson Road in the Cobo Town area. There, he and Taylor provided opportunities for calypsonians to perform leading to the Carnival and for calypso fans to be close to their artistes.
Slinger did another important visual of the calypsonian arriving at a place of “respectability” when he hit the streets of the capital city with a brand new Opel Kapitan, a signal and symbol of the calypsonian and the calypso “rising” from obscurity, singing for rum and a couple of bobs for the tourists at Maracas Bay.
It is certain that he was not the first calypsonian to own a vehicle, but he made a show of it. Years later, Kitchener drove “his “PP (a splashy new Jaguar) and park it any place with meh big fat bamboo in meh waist, so de wrecker could come and police go get ah taste ...”
Sparrow’s buddy of many years, Superior, displayed his Mercedes-Benz with sharp suits and a Stingy Brim Hat, while “Boo Boo Man Lord Melody” drove his flashy red and white Triumph convertible with panache.
Forever the showman with an understanding of how to gain increased popularity for the calypso and for himself, the Mighty Sparrow, the entertainer, always on stage, garrulous, anxious to answer a question and more than that, ready to spread the word of the calypso, inclusive of relating his own story, was a reporter’s delight.
I was fortunate to have interviewed him on a few occasions, once with colleague Winston Maynard at Radio 104–Where Talk Makes Sense, on another occasion I got him for the BBC Caribbean Service when he emerged from a performance at the De Luxe cinema–from memory that was in the approach to his last Calypso King title.
In one instance, with the intention of provoking him to get the right responses, I suggested that he could no longer present the Congo Man with all his “laughs and giggles”. He understood the challenge and immediately released “De Congo Man”–he has been the ultimate showman.
In another instance, I took a couple from Cameroon to see him perform at the Normandie. They demanded that I take them into the dressing room after the show to get a word with the calypsonian they had been hearing about for decades. I was a bit hesitant to intrude, but when I did, he welcomed them like longtime friends. The visitors had a time and remarked it was the high point of their trip; Sparrow knew how to sell himself.
Sparrow’s, on occasions, ambivalent relationship with Trinis and his country (T&T) utilised the calypso to tell the story: “Sparrow come back home,” and this was after a long working sojourn in New York City. “Dey used to heckle, heckle me bad here in Trinidad till ah ketch ah plane to the USA, just to get out of dey way …” However, hungry for his return, they put out the cry: “Sparrow Come Back Home, if yuh hear them groan … but as ah reach Piarco … ah woman say look de hog yuh did bound to come back yuh dirty dog.”
To use the phrase that reports of Sparrow’s passing have been exaggerated is an understatement. On one occasion, the reason given for his sudden demise was: “He sell he soul for calypso …” Another “news monger” was sure that his end was because of “de woman he fool up in BG is she who work obeah on he … is saltfish wey kill him”. The picong exchange was rich with humour and sarcasm.
His God has preserved him with good reason for the outstanding and unprecedented contribution to Trinidad and Tobago and the world with meaningful, relevant, incisive, and even bawdy insights into the society. His work over the last 70 years has been international in scope and meaning.
The material I used in these newspaper columns has been unscientifically chosen and under-researched. The UTT must produce a definitive work on this genius of our times.
Tony Rakhal-Fraser–freelance journalist, former reporter/current affairs programme host and News Director at TTT, programme producer/current affairs director at Radio Trinidad, correspondent for the BBC Caribbean Service and the Associated Press, graduate of UWI, CARIMAC, Mona and St Augustine–Institute of International Relations.
