It was not ac­ci­den­tal that David Rud­der (“King David” as named by the Mighty Spar­row, and if Spar­row say so is so) opened his last ma­jor con­cert Sat­ur­day evening with an ad­mit­tance that “we have lost the bat­tle, but yet we will win the war.” Notwith­stand­ing the ephemer­al, short-term de­feat, Mr Rud­der end­ed the show for­mal­ly four hours lat­er as­sured “that the Fa­ther in his mer­cy,” has giv­en him and us cause to be sat­is­fied.

Just pos­si­bly, Mr Rud­der, who re­cent­ly re­vealed he had been di­ag­nosed with Parkin­son’s Dis­ease, is say­ing through the struc­tur­ing of his per­for­mance that while there are im­me­di­ate de­struc­tive ef­fects on his body, tak­en as a whole, he has tri­umphed in what his fa­ther has sent him to do and for that he is thank­ful enough for “every­body to give praise ... Amen.”

The thou­sands at the Sound Forge were in­deed thank­ful and de­light­ed for what this in­spired and gift­ed artiste has done for them and the na­tion. To­wards the end of the show, one cel­e­brant to the art felt com­pelled to “give thanks” on be­half of the na­tion for the con­tri­bu­tion of one of our most beloved ca­lyp­so­ni­ans.

What a reper­toire Mr Rud­der has put to­geth­er over the 40 years of per­form­ing, first as back­ground cho­rus for the big name bards be­fore emerg­ing in 1986 in his own right to win Young Kings, Ca­lyp­so Monarch and the Road March ti­tle of the year.

Over the four decades, Mr Rud­der has of­ten touched on our sen­si­tiv­i­ties, glo­ries and our of­ten mad­den­ing ha­bit­u­al lifestyles. He has poked fun at us, laugh­ing and cel­e­brat­ing un­con­cerned “while ah smart man gone with we mon­ey … to Pana­ma.” In the process, Mr Rud­der has un­cov­ered our ten­den­cy to let things slide with­out be­ing too per­turbed, in re­al­i­ty, in­dul­gent of those who play us for fools.

King David has sung tri­umphant­ly from deep in­side, know­ing that while we of­ten fight each oth­er to the ground, the wa­ters of the great rivers of In­dia and Africa (the Ganges and the Nile) have flowed, mixed and re­freshed our civil­i­sa­tion.

His love for the cre­ators of our steel­band, for the pan play­ers and his ab­solute com­mit­ment to his coun­try and cul­ture, were ev­i­dent in his com­po­si­tions and per­for­mances.

Mr Rud­der’s ap­proach has not been preachy; in­deed, in cer­tain of his com­po­si­tions, he en­joys a mea­sure of am­biva­lence as he pokes fun at those foibles we ex­pose of our­selves and make known to oth­ers.

With­out the en­er­gy and sta­mi­na of the past, Mr Rud­der had a num­ber of young artistes to give sup­port. En­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly, re­spect­ful­ly and grate­ful­ly, many did. Kes, Machel, Big­ford, George, Voice and De­stra dis­played their love for their se­nior with ex­pres­sions of grat­i­tude for al­low­ing them to share his grand stage.

The good news is that King David has “Won the War.” He has been able to do the work his fa­ther sent him to ac­com­plish. The na­tion must sure­ly ex­pect that as King David has said, he will con­tin­ue to per­form as long as he is able to. What is cer­tain is that his con­tri­bu­tion over the years can nev­er die: “Nev­er, Nev­er, Nev­er, Nev­er.”