Growing up in Trinidad, the wonderfully-named Slinger Francisco started in steel bands in his early teens, and was dubbed Mighty Sparrow after he introduced James Brown moves into his stage act. After winning calypso competitions with songs such as Jean And Dinah, his country’s signature music had become world renowned by the mid-50s, thanks to Harry Belafonte. Sparrow was later crowned Calypso King Of The World, with infectious hits such as Ten To One Is Murder and Jook For Jook but, in terms of cultural and social significance, he can sit next to Belafonte, Nigeria’s Fela Kuti and South Africa’s Miriam Makeba.
Coming with Strut’s usual ornate presentation, this astute attempt at illustrating the man’s cutting-edge effervescence, with tracks drawn from his creative peak between 1962-74, is long overdue. Over brass-blasted rhythmic cauldrons, Sparrow’s lyrics can veer from topical to lusty in the course of a song, whipping up a contagious marriage between the news and party on tracks such as Kennedy And Kruschev. He can just as easily duet with Byron Lee on Otis Redding’s Try A Little Tenderness or court controversy with the uproarious piss-take of Congo Man, while the closing cut simply asks What’s The Use Of Getting Sober?. The bird is the word.
