A few years ago, when leg­endary mu­si­cian Roy Cape was asked in an in­ter­view what he be­lieved was his lega­cy, he said he hoped he had “con­tributed to make the world a bet­ter place through mu­sic.”

He did that and more, leav­ing be­hind mu­sic that is the sound­track of many lives, in­vest­ing more than six decades in the de­vel­op­ment of ca­lyp­so and so­ca and play­ing an in­flu­en­tial role in the ca­reers of artistes across the re­gion.

His most en­dur­ing lega­cy lives on in the Roy Cape Foun­da­tion, es­tab­lished af­ter he re­tired as leader of The Roy Cape All Stars in 2017. It was in­spired by his pas­sion for mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion and his de­sire to save young peo­ple in crime-in­fest­ed com­mu­ni­ties from vi­o­lence and an­ti-so­cial be­hav­iours.

It was through mu­sic that Pap­py, as he was af­fec­tion­ate­ly known by his le­gions of fans and fel­low mu­si­cians, es­caped from child­hood pover­ty and delin­quen­cy.

In his ear­ly years in the East Dry Riv­er, Port-of-Spain, com­mu­ni­ty, he was sur­round­ed by steel­bands—Rene­gades, City Syn­co­pa­tors, Des­per­a­does, All Stars, Blue Di­a­monds and Tokyo—and of­ten went against his moth­er’s wish­es so he could “fol­low the mu­sic around.”

Af­ter his moth­er’s death, he be­came a run­away street child and was even­tu­al­ly sent to the Bel­mont Or­phan­age, now known as St Do­minic’s Home, where his for­mal mu­sic train­ing be­gan.

From there, not yet out of his teens, he em­barked on a mu­si­cal ca­reer that spanned decades, start­ing as an in-de­mand sax­o­phon­ist in the 1950s and 1960s with bands led by Frankie Fran­cis, Clarence Cur­van, Fitz Von Bryan, Ron Berridge and oth­ers.

Mr Cape al­so toured and record­ed with ca­lyp­so greats such as the Mighty Spar­row, Lord Kitch­en­er and Black Stal­in, his close friend for many years. He was one of the mu­si­cians ac­com­pa­ny­ing The Mighty Sniper on T&T’s un­of­fi­cial an­them, Por­trait of Trinidad.

He will be best re­mem­bered as leader of The Roy Cape All Stars, the band he found­ed in 1980.

Among his many well-de­served ho­n­ours for his con­tri­bu­tions to mu­sic and cul­ture are a Hum­ming­bird (Gold) na­tion­al award in 2004 and an hon­orary doc­tor­ate from the UWI in 2011.

How­ev­er, his pos­i­tive in­flu­ence ex­tend­ed well be­yond the en­ter­tain­ment are­na. Mr Cape was very open about his bat­tle with prostate can­cer and be­came an ad­vo­cate for the dis­ease. Guardian Me­dia was priv­i­leged to share his sto­ry through a can­cer aware­ness se­ries just a few years ago.

So­cial me­dia has been flood­ed with trib­utes to Cape since his pass­ing on Thurs­day. All of them are tes­ti­monies to a re­mark­able life.

But one of the most fit­ting ways to ho­n­our his mem­o­ry will be to sup­port The Roy Cape Foun­da­tion’s mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme for at-risk chil­dren and young peo­ple, a pas­sion he pur­sued un­til his death.

Mr Cape set up the foun­da­tion fol­low­ing the Jan­u­ary 2016 shoot­ing deaths of two Laven­tille school­boys and ded­i­cat­ed his life af­ter his re­tire­ment to trans­form­ing young lives through mu­sic.

Dri­ven by his own ex­pe­ri­ence of be­ing saved from a life on the streets by mu­sic, he freely gave his time and tal­ent to teach and lead young­sters on a pos­i­tive path.

Tan­gi­ble sup­port through fund­ing, do­na­tions of mu­si­cal in­stru­ments and pro­fes­sion­al ex­per­tise will keep Roy Cape’s dream of mak­ing the world a bet­ter place through mu­sic alive.