A couple weekends ago I had the chance to see The Mighty Sparrow, Grenada's most famous musician, perform live. He's known as the Calypso King, a contemporary of Harry Belafonte. I didn't even know he was still alive. Well, it turns out he barely is. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Our cruisers' bus arrives at The Spice Basket, a beautiful amphitheater up in the hills, an hour before the concert is scheduled to start. A few us us get front row seats, slightly off to the side, since the middle seats are reserved. I'm sitting between a cruising couple and my little buddy Tristan (the seven year old who lost his tooth on the hash) and his Mom. Of course, the event is on "Island Time" and doesn't get started for quite a while. Eventually, the center front row seats fill up with dignitaries, including the Prime Minister and his wife. Then, after the last person sits down on the end next to us, Tristan's Mom says "that's him"! The mighty Sparrow is sitting a few seats from us. But, it quickly becomes apparent that he is not well. As he is given accolades by various cultural ministers, he is nodding off. Interestingly, these politicians list off all their favorite songs, but no one mentions "Saltfish", a particularly bawdy song with very thinly veiled double entendres. The first set consists of local musicians performing his music, and he sleeps through about half of it. It gets even more interesting when he comes back (with his assistant) from a bathroom break and sits in Tristan's seat, while Tristan and his Mom are off getting food. Tristan comes running back with his food, looks up at the man in his seat, and he's not happy! I quickly give him my seat and move to the back of the theater. Eventually, they get another chair for The Sparrow (I don't know why they didn't move him back to his own seat) and there is room for all of us again. This proves very interesting when all his old friends come up to congratulate him during intermission. A group of young ladies seems to revive him significantly ;-) We're also sitting right next to him when the Prime Minister comes over to chat. The Prime minister has a very alert body guard who shadows him about ten feet away - he's wearing a loose shirt that hangs over his belt, but it's obvious enough that there's a gun under there.
Anyway, I have since heard various stories about what The Sparrow's health ailments are, including cancer and sickle cell anemia, but it is apparent that the idea of this concert was to pay tribute to the man while he is still alive. At this point, I would have bet that he wasn't even going to be able to take the stage. But, a few minutes later, he gets up and makes his way slowly to the backstage door. When he's introduced, he comes out, walks slowly over to the band, and says "Give me something in the key of "Saltfish". The crowd went wild! (particularly the women), and sang along with the whole song! In fact, we sang and gyrated to all five songs he played. Even though he has a hard time standing up, there's nothing wrong with his voice. I was grateful for the chance to see a legend.
http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=47624817&ac=now
