BO­BIE-LEE DIXON

(bo­bie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt)

In 1974 The Mighty Shad­ow born Win­ston Bai­ley gave the ca­lyp­so world Bass Man. He fol­lowed up just a lit­tle over a decade in 1992 with the run­away Caribbean all star hit, telling us mu­sic had no friends nor en­e­mies so every­one can Din­go­lay.

Some­where in be­tween, he called for us to help him ease 'd' Ten­sion in 1988.

And who could for­get his warn­ing to us to 'Pay De Dev­il' if you owed him when he sang of the then chang­ing face of Car­ni­val.

This ca­lyp­so po­et and philoso­pher was set apart by his style code in at­tire, likened on­to that of the Mid­night Rob­ber, his dis­tinct 'skip rope' jump or hop and his 'jumbie' beats. In 2003 he was award­ed the T&T Hum­ming Bird Medal (sil­ver) for his con­tri­bu­tion to the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty.

Now at 77, the Bel­mont na­tive who grew up in Les Coteaux Vil­lage, Scar­bor­ough, To­ba­go, is set to re­ceive an hon­orary de­gree (con­ferred with an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters) from UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus at its 2018 grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny in Oc­to­ber.

Bai­ley would be joined by sev­er­al oth­er hon­orees in­clud­ing R&B Bar­ba­di­an-born singer/song­writer Robyn Rhi­an­na Fen­ty and for­mer West In­di­an in­ter­na­tion­al crick­eter Shiv­nar­ine Chan­der­paul.

Bai­ley is fea­tured in this Sun­day Guardian's Take 5 as he shares with us his re­sponse to his se­lec­tion and what The Mighty Shad­ow has been up to late­ly.

You are re­ceiv­ing an hon­orary de­gree from UWI in Oc­to­ber. You now join fel­low ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and mu­si­cians like the Black Stal­in and Roy Cape. Tell us your ini­tial feel­ing re­ceiv­ing this ho­n­our. Is it long over­due?

That's the big ques­tion! My mu­sic was made for the peo­ple and T&T agreed I should ac­cept it, be­cause it is a long time now peo­ple say­ing I should get some­thing, which I nev­er got. It's a good thing. It's a long time I been do­ing what I'm do­ing and peo­ple say it's a long time it's been over­due, you know.

What has been Shad­ow up to late­ly? Is there some new mu­sic com­ing our way soon?

That is what I do. That's what I know…to make mu­sic.

Ca­lyp­so, what's hap­pen­ing to it? Do we even still au­then­ti­cal­ly have the genre?

Well yes, but every­thing is in its own way. We had one type of thing go­ing over­time, and then it changed to some­thing else and some­thing else again and just keeps on chang­ing. Peo­ple love what they love through the sea­sons as we call them. My thing is a spe­cial thing that peo­ple love and I think it has al­ways been that way.

How's your health these days?

Big ques­tion, yes. The last time I thought I was healthy, and then I was in the hos­pi­tal. That's how the health does move. I can't tell you how it will be to­mor­row.

As a ca­lyp­so pa­tri­arch in your own right, if you had to do your ca­reer all over again, what would you do dif­fer­ent­ly?

I would do the best I could do. I will do the same as I've been do­ing, mak­ing great mu­sic be­cause that lives with­in me.