The Mighty Sparrow: A Calypso

Helming a radio show on WRUW, a station run by Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, I was privy to the vinyl library that the joint amassed over its decades of existence. Purportedly, WRUW possesses the largest collection of music held by an academic entity in Ohio. It seemed like it even if that wasn’t the truth.

My show, Cobwebs and Strange, focused mostly on JA related musics. Occasionally, the playlists would be dominated by bop and free jazz stuffs, but for the most part it was all riddims and toasts. Some early ska tracks worked themselves in nicely, but as I delved further and further into the station’s library, it became very clear to me that while my knowledge was more than passable in generally society, I didn’t know too much about Caribbean music.

Having the various island’s music all shoved into the “Reggae” shelf found me locating a great deal of music that while tangentially tied to JA had nothing to do with the music is so cared for. And that’s how I found the Mighty Sparrow. Some dusty 12 inch single, all brightly colored and neglected, wound up on a turntable at some point. And while it didn’t come off as something from a Jamaican, it was pretty close.

Calypso, as much as any other island music, has been embraced across cultures seeing as its African roots are applicable to all involved. Beyond that simple fact, even the early recordings of Laurel Aitken are basically in this style. Maintained across boarders are discussions of women, business and an overwhelming focus on politics and self determination.

At the time the genre gained some international recognition during the ‘50s – partially as a result of Harry Belfonte – most of the Caribbean nations were vying for independence, which is clearly related through the music of not just the Mighty Sparrow and Laurel Aitken, but all that trucked in Calypso.

Collecting the Sparrow’s early tracks is a Folkways released disc entitled First Flight (Early Calypsos from the Emory Cook Collection). Cook, who’s name checked in the album’s title is responsible for recording these takes and subsequently licensing them to the American distributor. Today, this collection serves as a look back at the Sparrow’s earliest sides. But seeing as he’s still performing today, there’s a veritable mountain of work to sift through from the singer and guitarist.

There’s as much politically focused stuff here as anything else, but a few times, the Sparrow gets into femme troubles. “Short Little Shorts” is all that one would imagine as the singer goes in on something of a love song to revealing clothing. There’s more than that going on, but in the topic that the song makes use of, the antecedents of not just ska, rock steady and reggae can be heard, but that of hip hop music as well.

The Mighty Sparrow might not be essential listening to reggae fans, but for those that want an ever expanding palette of music to dance to this isn’t a bad place to start.