For more than 70 years, and across seven decades, the man born Slinger Francisco and known to the world as The Mighty Sparrow has represented the music of his native Trinidad, through literally hundreds of singles and albums that defined the genre of calypso and raised the authentic indigenous music's profile internationally. Calypso had already made its mark on the world outside of the Caribbean when Sparrow arrived in the mid-1950s, but it was his topical, witty and always-on-point commentaries - starting with 'Yankee's Gone' a.k.a. 'Jean And Dinah' and never letting up throughout the early years of his career - that took it to the next level. Sparrow always had something to say, and there were always thousands of people ready to listen.
Between 1955 and 2020 Sparrow's recordings were always at the cutting edge of calypso and its descendent Soca. There are so many of them that a decent-sized boxed set might still not be enough to do full justice to the breadth of his work. However this Jasmine compilation of his earlier (and best) work is the perfect introduction to a man whose catalogue is never less than full-on entertaining, reprising many of his biggest successes from 'Jean And Dinah' onwards.
The 'last man standing' of the original crop of classic calypsonians, Sparrow has not been well served on compact disc in recent years - and it's been almost 25 years since some of this material last appeared in a digital format. It's to be hoped that "Sparrow Take Over Now" will reintroduce this giant of world music, and open the door to further dips into his vast vault of otherwise-unavailable tracks.
