Slinger “Mighty Sparrow” Francisco and Aaron Duncan have teamed up to create Legacy, a new single by the duo and Sparrow’s first in years.
The song, a blend of calypso and soca, aims to introduce a younger generation to the beauty of calypso. It will be released 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 manifold, including helping to draw the interest of younger generations to calypso.
Asked if younger people were receptive to calypso, he said, “I don’t think people of my generation understand how important the calypso is to them.”
[caption id="attachment_979871" align="alignnone" width="1024"] As TT observes Calypso History Month, Aaron Duncan wants to draw younger generations to calypso and he is hoping his Legacy song with Sparrow can help to bridge the gap. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
He added that this might be the fault of older generations, and thinks more needs to be done to teach calypso in primary and secondary schools.
“The youth are drifting from their culture because we are not pushing it as we should. I think the most I could do is try my best with my voice and my following to show them this is still relevant and still important,” he added.
It was also Duncan’s dream to work with Sparrow. Now 19, he first met Sparrow, 87, when he was six and first performed with him 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. Understanding the singer’s health constraints, Duncan brought the studio to Sparrow’s New York home.
Duncan wants to ensure the song is viewed and heard by as many people as possible, so it will be widely available, particularly on streaming platforms. This is one way he hopes to drive interest in the song and genre. He said calypso is not as widely 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 more youthful audience, some calypsoes, he said, were long and difficult to remember. He thinks they need to be shorter now.
He explained that the song describes their respective legacies in calypso.
Sparrow decided to work with Duncan because “he was always making some sort of overtures in the media and I think he was fit for doing something good.
[caption id="attachment_979866" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Sparrow chose to do the song, Legacy, with Aaron Duncan, who reached out to him, because “he was fit for doing something good.” -[/caption]
“I like to see 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 nice and was not a traditional calypso. He too thinks it has what it takes to attract a more youthful audience to cal
