Jesse Ramdeo

Leroy “Black Stal­in” Cal­liste has un­doubt­ed­ly ce­ment­ed his po­si­tion as a ca­lyp­so leg­end.

In a ca­reer span­ning over five decades, hits such as “Bun Dem,” “Caribbean Uni­ty,” “Wait Dorothy Wait” and “Black Man Feel­ing to Par­ty” have tran­scend­ed gen­er­a­tions and are still able to keep crowds groov­ing at par­ties.

But yes­ter­day, the sud­den news of the 81-year-old’s death was enough to stop many from all house work they were do­ing.

The five-time ca­lyp­so monarch passed away at his home in San Fer­nan­do short­ly af­ter 8 am.

Among those stunned by Black Stal­in’s pass­ing was vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian David Rud­der.

He stat­ed, “I think right now I’m just kind of like just go­ing through the times we had to­geth­er, I think it will hit me lat­er on.”

Rud­der la­belled Stal­in as a men­tor whom he was priv­i­leged to share the stage with.

“When­ev­er I’m in Trinidad, we would spend time to­geth­er rem­i­nisc­ing about our times, we had some great bat­tles in the ca­lyp­so world. He was a man who kept his ear on the ground, he was a part of the ca­lyp­so life and that is why the peo­ple loved him so, be­cause he voiced their feel­ings, he was a fight­er and a war­rior he was a man with lots of love for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool, pop­u­lar­ly known as Chalk­dust, mean­while summed up Stal­in’s pass­ing in a sim­ple verse he sang dur­ing a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia.

“The day Black Stal­in stop singing, this blessed art­form will be suf­fer­ing.”

Dr Liv­er­pool ex­plained that for him and oth­ers, Black Stal­in’s in­flu­ence was strong and re­count­ed one of the times he was rep­ri­mand­ed by the artiste.

“One of my fond­est mem­o­ries of him is when he cor­rect­ed me. He called me and say ‘Chalk­dust’ you too big for that, change that word, change that line’.”

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters said their bond went be­yond the beat.

Said Pe­ters, “Stal­in was like a big broth­er or fa­ther fig­ure to me. I’ve known Stal­in since I was ten years old in 1962. I met him for the first time and I sang my songs for him and he said you go be one big calyson­ian and he has been my friend, fam­i­ly men­tor and ba­si­cal­ly a fam­i­ly mem­ber from then to now.”

Pe­ters said it was too ear­ly to de­ter­mine the NCC’s role in the leg­endary ca­lyp­son­ian’s send-off.

In a Face­book post, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) said, “Black Stal­in has left an in­deli­ble mark in the hearts and minds of mil­lions who wit­nessed his en­er­getic per­for­mances.”

Mean­while, via a Face­book post, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley recog­nised that very few ca­lyp­so bards told T&T’s sto­ries more ef­fec­tive­ly than the Black Stal­in, whom he de­scribed as a mas­ter of his art form.

Row­ley said, “His pass­ing leaves us poor­er but his rich lega­cy of po­et­ic ca­lyp­so lyrics and haunt­ing mu­si­cal lines will all live on for our guid­ance and in his en­dur­ing mem­o­ry.”

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar added that her favourite song from the ca­lyp­son­ian was “We can make it if we try.”

“This clas­sic ca­lyp­so per­fect­ly cap­tures the spir­it of what true pa­tri­o­tism is about; the val­ue of hard work and self-sac­ri­fice dur­ing tough times for the good of all of our peo­ple,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

A state­ment from the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts de­scribed the loss of the “undis­put­ed Peo­ple’s Ca­lyp­son­ian” as sad­den­ing.

“Through his mu­sic, many could bet­ter ap­pre­ci­ate the ca­lyp­so art form whilst si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly be­ing ed­u­cat­ed and en­ter­tained,” the min­istry said.

Al­so salut­ing the vet­er­an artiste via so­cial me­dia posts were Austin “Su­perblue” Lyons, Ron­nie McIn­tosh, Rik­ki Jai, Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter, Faye-Ann Lyons-Al­varez and Bun­ji Gar­lin. All cred­it­ed Stal­in as a true Caribbean man who left an in­deli­ble mark on the art form.