Features
Melissa Doughty
Slinger “Mighty Sparrow” Francisco and Aaron Duncan have teamed up to create Legacy, a new single from the duo and Sparrow’s first in years.
The song, a mix of calypso and soca, aims to introduce a new generation to the beauty of calypso. It will come out today.
Duncan said he contacted Sparrow in April, but it was something he had wanted to do since 2017. It was also important to him to release the song during Calypso History Month, observed in October.
For Duncan, the reasons were multiple, including helping to get younger generations interested in calypso.
Asked if young people embraced calypso, he said: “I don’t think people of my generation understand how important calypso is to them.”
He added that this could be the fault of older generations and thinks more should be done to teach calypso in primary and secondary schools.
“Young people are moving away from their culture because we are not pushing it properly. I think the most I can do is do my best with my voice and my followers to show them that this is still important and still relevant,” he added.
It was also Duncan’s dream to work with Sparrow. Now 19, he first met Sparrow, 87, when he was six and performed with her for the first time in 2012.
After contacting Sparrow in April, he wrote the song and sent it to him, and was so passionate about the project that he bought a plane ticket and flew to New York to shoot the video with the calypso legend. Realizing the singer’s health limitations, Duncan brought the studio to Sparrow’s home in New York.
Duncan wants to ensure that the song is seen and heard by as many people as possible, so it will be widely available, especially on streaming platforms. This is one way he hopes to promote interest in the song and the genre. He said that calypso is not as available on streaming platforms as soca.
The song is three minutes and 30 seconds long, which Duncan hopes will make it more appealing to a younger audience, some calypsos, he said, were long and hard to remember. He thinks they should be shorter now.
He explained that the song describes their respective heritages in calypso.
Sparrow decided to work with Duncan because “he always made some sort of overture to the media and I think he was capable of doing something good.
“I love seeing him perform,” Sparrow said with a deep laugh in a phone interview. He said Duncan reminded him of himself “400 years ago”.
Sparrow said the song was beautiful and not a traditional calypso. He also thinks he has what it takes to attract a younger audience to calypso. That was why he said yes to Duncan.
He said that recording the song was quite easy.
“He did his thing and sent it to me. I listened and put my things away. It was a pleasure to work.”
Duncan said he was close to tears when he saw Sparrow record it, as it had been a dream of his for years.
Sparrow said Duncan was a “great guy” and added that one day he and Duncan would have to create a real “calypso bacchanal”.
Sparrow was baptized last month in New York into the Seventh-day Adventist faith.
Asked if he would still do a “bacchanal song” even though he was baptized, Sparrow said one of his songs talked about it.
“I was once a sinner. it’s
used to become. When it was time to sleep, I was somewhere crawling, wallowing in sin, but no more,” Sparrow said, quoting lyrics from the 2003 song I Used to Be a Sinner.
“People will say he doesn’t sing this and he doesn’t sing that. I can guarantee, for those who are interested, I won’t do anything that doesn’t fit the situation,” he said. “I used to be a lot of things, you know.”
Asked if there would be more collaborations, Sparrow said: “It looks like it could happen, but you’d have to ask Aaron.”
Duncan said co-recording was one of the greatest experiences of his life and if he could do it again, he would.
Sparrow said people can’t wait to hear more music from him.
“I wish to say that the supreme, serenading king of the world’s calypsos, the Mighty Sparrow, is ready for action.”
He hopes to be in Trinidad and Tobago for next year’s carnival, God willing and depending on his health.
“Despite certain statements and so on, the bird with the word is still here with us, ready for action,” he declared.
Duncan hopes to one day perform the song alongside Sparrow.
