KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

To vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters, the Mighty Spar­row was one of the great­est ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to ever live, a cul­tur­al gi­ant whose lega­cy de­serves the same na­tion­al recog­ni­tion Ja­maica gave Bob Mar­ley.

But as Trinidad and To­ba­go mourns the death of Spar­row, the ques­tion is how a coun­try should ho­n­our a man whose voice car­ried its sto­ries, pol­i­tics and hu­mour far be­yond its shores.

Pe­ters, a for­mer arts and cul­ture min­is­ter, be­lieves that ho­n­our should be­gin with an of­fi­cial fu­ner­al.

“I would like to see the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go ho­n­our him. It may not be a State fu­ner­al, but at least an of­fi­cial fu­ner­al, be­cause he has meant so much,” he said.

Spar­row, 91, died peace­ful­ly in New York on Sun­day fol­low­ing a brief ill­ness, sur­round­ed by loved ones.

Pe­ters said he hopes Spar­row will be buried in T&T. He said he had spo­ken to Spar­row’s wife, but did not dis­cuss fu­ner­al arrange­ments.

“The Gov­ern­ment should play an undy­ing part in it, no mat­ter what it costs us. The Gov­ern­ment should do that be­cause what he has done for Trinidad and To­ba­go, no mon­ey could pay for it. It’s like Bob Mar­ley. What Bob Mar­ley is to Ja­maica, and what they have done for Bob Mar­ley, should be done for the Mighty Spar­row.”

Pe­ters said he had been as­so­ci­at­ed with Spar­row since he was about 12 years old and de­scribed him as a friend he ad­mired.

He said Spar­row’s ver­sa­til­i­ty and abil­i­ty to take ca­lyp­so be­yond these shores set him apart. While de­scrib­ing Lord Kitch­en­er as “great” as well, Pe­ters said he would “give Spar­row the edge”.

“You could have giv­en Spar­row a plain piece of pa­per with some words on it, and he would just put it in­to what he wants, and then he would make it in­ter­na­tion­al.”

For for­mer San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, a pan play­er and leader of the Skif­fle Steel Or­ches­tra, Spar­row’s con­tri­bu­tion is equal­ly dif­fi­cult to mea­sure.

“He was the quin­tes­sen­tial ca­lyp­son­ian,” Re­grel­lo said. “Spar­row’s im­pact is just amaz­ing.”

Re­grel­lo said Spar­row made his mark from the be­gin­ning of his ca­reer, re­call­ing the 1957 Car­ni­val when Spar­row protest­ed over the prizes on of­fer and did not de­fend his crown.

“From the very in­cep­tion, Spar­row stamped his mark by say­ing, ‘I’m go­ing to stand up for the art form,’ and that has to go down in his­to­ry.”

He de­scribed Spar­row as “the voice of the peo­ple,” say­ing he sang about the events of his day, from the break-up of the West In­dies Fed­er­a­tion to Cold War pol­i­tics.

He sin­gled out Dan Is the Man in the Van as a com­i­cal take on colo­nial-era school­ing.

But while Pe­ters has called for an of­fi­cial fu­ner­al, Re­grel­lo said it was dif­fi­cult to set­tle on a sin­gle trib­ute, such as nam­ing a build­ing or erect­ing a stat­ue.

He said Spar­row had done too much, in­clud­ing found­ing his own ca­lyp­so tent, the Young Brigade, and his own band, Spar­row Trou­ba­dours.

Re­grel­lo sug­gest­ed re­searchers study Spar­row’s body of work and rec­om­mend some­thing “wor­thy of the man and his con­tri­bu­tion”.

Like Pe­ters, he point­ed to Ja­maica’s treat­ment of Mar­ley as an ex­am­ple.

Fu­ner­al arrange­ments have not yet been an­nounced.

Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin not­ed Spar­row’s eight Ca­lyp­so King/Monarch ti­tles, eight Road March vic­to­ries and two Ca­lyp­so King of Kings ti­tles, say­ing his great­est lega­cy may be the gen­er­a­tions of artistes and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers he in­spired.