Highly-acclaimed cuatroist, Robert Munro, died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital early Thursday following a period of illness.
Munro, 73, was well known for his skills on an instrument he taught himself to play as a teenager. In recent years, he became less active as a result of gradual hearing loss and arthritis which affected his fingers.
Over a long career, he played alongside performers such as Lord Kitchener and Relator, a number of parang bands, and a generation of cuatroists he mentored, including accomplished performer, Dominic Thompson.
Munro was a regular at official functions up to the 1990s and, despite a lack of formal exposure to music, mastered a vast repertoire that included classical, jazz, calypso and parang music.
Thompson told Guardian Media his mentor continued to “play in pain” over recent years as a result of his illnesses.
“But this is a part of life,” he said. “I get the impression that he was tired of everything, especially since he could not play as he liked.”
Munro often lamented a lack of national recognition. His life as a musician is however recorded in Mikhail Gibbings’ biopic, The Cuatro Man, which played at the 2015 T&T Film Festival and at the 2016 St Lucia Arts Festival.
Funeral arrangements have yet not been announced by his family.