Caribbean Entertainment Hub joins the national community of Trinidad & Tobago, as well as the calypso fraternity to mourn the passing of calypso veteran Winston “Mighty Shadow” Bailey.

Bailey, who had been ailing for some time, had a stroke last Sunday, October 21^st 2018, and passed away Tuesday morning in less than 48 hours. He had turned 77 years on October 2^nd 2018.

In 1974, Winston Bail emerged from under the mighty shadows casted by Lord Kitchener and the Mighty Sparrow who had dominated the calypso scene for nearly two decades. His mega hit “Bassman” was one of the most popular Road Marches ever.

The Mighty Shadow was a musical genius and his music has illuminated our hearts and his lyrics has enlighten our minds. For me, he is one the greatest musicians to come out of Trinidad and Tobago. Before his emergence, the bassline in a calypso song was indistinguishable from the rest of the harmony. With his melodic bassline Shadow revolutionized the structure of calypso and together with Lord Shorty helped to transformed calypso into the soca we know today.

Shadow’s mind was a musical factory and he was the one calypsonian whose music I looked forward to every year, and I was never disappointed. His music was always fresh and had some novelty to it. After mastering the rhythm sections and the bassline in his songs, he began playing around with the horn sections and then later on, to prove his genius, he introduced strings to add to the counter melody in his music.

If you want to feel the majesty of Shadow’s music, close your eyes and listen to “Feeling the Feelings” and “Dingolay”. Forget the lyrics and listen carefully to all the depths in the music and you will be taken on a musical journey and you will hear why I consider him the Beethoven of calypso and soca.

Shadow signature sound, as he called it, is a ‘jumbie’ rhythm which cannot be reproduced by anyone else. This Jumbie beat is a haunting rhythm; after listening to it, it would possess you and have you dancing, prancing and humming to its melody.

Winston also had a unique way of saying things. He used a lot of imagery in his lyrics to convey his message. In “Yuh Lookin For Horn” he counselled young men who “Ain’t working no way” against getting married. The line: “Friday evening people passing with box of fry chicken. She watching you in your old shoe; she feeling to hit you.” Makes it so vividly clear as to why they shouldn’t get married. And also, if you didn’t know that poverty is hell, the visual imagery created by the lyrics to his song so titled, will give you a glimpse inside the lives of the Caribbean poor.

Yes, Winston you made us “dingolay” and your music is sweet. Like other musical great it will live on.

Thank God you did not “stop singing Calypso and go and plant peas in Tobago”; our music and our culture is so much richer for your contribution.

REST IN PEACE