The Birdie & Me

An unforgettable first encounter with the Mighty Sparrow

For one evening in 2004, the Mighty Sparrow had an audience of one. I was 22, in my first year in media, sitting on a couch in a dressing room at the Jean Pierre Complex while Slinger Francisco rehearsed with his band for his upcoming 69th birthday concert.

Far removed from the pomp and ceremony that accompanied the man known around the world as the Calypso King, there was Sparrow. There was the band. And there was me. I had been assigned to interview him for the now-defunct Showtime magazine and somehow that task had given me a front-row seat to something far more memorable than the story I had been sent to write.

Sparrow worked through his extensive catalogue with the musicians while I sat there watching. Verse and chorus. Song after song. More than 22 years later, after hearing of his passing on Sunday, I dug out those yellowing Showtime pages. The words of 69-year-old Sparrow brought the memory rushing back.