TRINIDAD CALYPSO TENT OF THE AIR
On the Web since February 1, 1996

Titles:
Calypso King of the World
Road March Tunes
Panorama Tunes
Doctorate Awarded by The University of the West Indies

To his children, he is Dad. To his very close friends, he is known as Birdie, but to his adoring fans all over the world, he is known as The Mighty Sparrow. Sparrow was born, and named, Slinger Francisco on July 9, 1935, in Gouyave, Grenada. The third child of Clarissa and Rupert Francisco, Sparrow's sister Loma was then three years old, and his brother Vivian was 18 months old. Late in 1937, when Sparrow was only a year and 9 months old, he and his mother arrived in Trinidad to join his father, who had migrated o Trinidad several months earlier. They lived in Belle Vue, Long Circular, St. James, just outside Port of Spain, Trinidad.

At age 4, Sparrow attended a private school on Western Main Road, St. James. Being of the Roman Catholic faith, he later transferred to what is now Newtown Boys' Roman Catholic School in Port of Spain. At Newton, which was then called St. Patrick's, Sparrow participated in the once a week singing classes, where he excelled. His vocal singing was so impressive that he was encouraged to join the choir at St. Patrick's Church. As a choir boy, Sparrow dared not sing any of those "rowdy songs" called Calypsoes, or even whistle them, within earshot of his very religious parents. However, he could be heard crooning the less "harmful" popular songs of the day. Those were the tunes Sparrow sang at school concerts which he dearly loved, and in which he excelled. It was at one of these concerts when Sparrow, to the amazement of the parents, teachers, well wishers, and students at the concert, decided to "break the ice." He sang a Calypso!

For his performance, he chose Lord Invader's then current "The Yankees Invade Trinidad." From that day on, the rest, as they say, is history. Though, that early in his career, Sparrow knew that he would be singing Calypso for a living, there was a problem. Most of the Calypsonians of those days earned a living only during the short Carnival season, and had to depend on "other means" the rest of the year. Sparrow, in those days supplemented his income by becoming a tailor's apprentice in St. James. He also worked in a coffee factory, and learned how to type by taking private commercial lessons. Just a few years after coming to Trinidad & Tobago, a mere 120 miles across the blue Caribbean sea from Grenada, Sparrow became not only the premier Calypsonian of Trinidad and Tobago, he was also hailed as the Calypso King of the World. Certainly, Sparrow was responsible for changing the structure of Calypso from the restrictive 12-bar music idiom to an internationally acceptable form of letting the lyrics dictate the idiom and the notes.

Sparrow's achievement was attained by much hard work, study, due diligence, and the ability to make his music as relevant as possible to his audience worldwide. Early in his career, he listened carefully, and understood the essential elements of the works of the top Calypsonians of the time in order to determine where he wanted Calypso, as an art form, to go. The earthy style of Lord Melody, who eventually became Sparrow's favorite Calypsonian and close friends, attracted him as did Lord Kitchener's ability to please both Trinidadians as well as the international audience. >From music books, Sparrow taught himself to play the guitar. Going one step further from learning all the tunes of the reigning Calypsonians' work by heart, early in his career, he tried his hand at composing and, in 1954, he made his Calypso Tent debut as a professional at the Old Brigade Tent on South Quay, Port of Spain. There, he used the sobriquet Little Sparrow. He enthralled the demanding T&T Calypso Tent audience with his composition --- "The Parrot and the Monkey."

Although they thought Little Sparrow was great in 1954, in 1955, the Tent audience saw a "better and much improved" Little Sparrow. For that season, he came out with four compositions: Race Track; The Missing Baby; High Cost Of Living; and Ode to Princess Margaret - a member of the British royal family who visited Trinidad and Tobago that year. Three of the tunes were recorded during the 1955 season. Thus, Sparrow broke into the field of gramophone recording in his second year before the critical Trinidad and Tobago public. 1955, was also the year Sparrow made this first foreign tour. He went to Guyana in a package deal, and he was an immediate favorite of Guyanese of all races, old and young. 1956 was another big year for Little Sparrow. He changed his sobriquet, and he became the Mighty Sparrow. He also moved his craft to the Young Brigade Tent where he started the now famous friendship and "Calypso wars" with Lord Melody. In 1956, Sparrow came out with five Calypsoes: Jack Palance; Queen's Canary; Jean and Dinah; Sparrow's Dream; and Thirteen-year-old Mabel. At the 1956 Calypso King Competition in the Queen's Park Savannah on Dimanche Gras, Sparrow sang Jean And Dinah and won the crown. Sparrow's performance of Jean and Dinah was recorded by the local radio station during that competition, and broadcast at every opportunity on Carnival Monday morning. By that afternoon, Jean And Dinah had become the Road March for 1956, and masqueraders were singing all the words of what at that time was an unusually long chorus for a Calypso.

Thus, since 1956, Sparrow, with his own distinct imprint on the art form, has dominated the Caribbean consciousness, and ever since then it is clear that Sparrow had been branching away from the traditional limitation of Calypso composition by introducing  longer lines and an entirely new concept of Calypso phrasing. 1956 was also the year in which Sparrow began a series of tours on which, in successive years, he has visited Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Aruba, Curacao, Panama, Guyana,  Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia the United States, Europe, Africa, and the United States. It is a large part of any artist's dream to know that he is so successful that he has adoring fans in every corner of the world. The Mighty Sparrow has most certainly realized this universal dream. There is not a single voice in the world that would seriously dispute Sparrow's Sovereign right to the Calypso crown.

LONG LIVE THE CALYPSO KING OF THE WORLD!