Prowler, the polished professional

THE EDITOR: Mystic Prowler felt that somehow he had been ditched by the New York calypso connection and singled out for a boycott.

He would tell others that he would never again get a call to perform in the Big Apple. The early ties that took him and the original cast of the Living Legends of Calypso to the recording studios to record the classic Glamour Boys Again CD, and then on to New York, Boston and Montreal for the Living Legends tour were severed; the strained relations that resulted kept him at bay, hospitable but hurt. And he was partly right. Prowler could be difficult, detached and aloof. But he could be also generous, even humble and charming. He felt himself the outsider, the underdog, even after he captured the Calypso Monarch crown in 1998, and his condescending personality underscored the situation. These complexities were at the root of his estrangement. He kept his distance and many of his compatriots, in turn, kept him at a distance. Travel, if nothing else, require camaraderie. The road requires sharing and compromise. From New York to Boston to Montreal and back to New York, with hundreds of miles of ole talk, banter and shooting the breeze to pass the time. Prowler hardly mixed.

None of this, however, detracted from his obvious talent. And Roy Lewis was a talented man. His detachment might have turned away some people, but no one could say that he was not the polished professional in the way he prepared himself for every performance and the way he carried himself on and off stage. And it is how I will cherish his memory, always dapper, always on time and no matter what the distraction might be, once he hit the stage, his trademark dimple and broad gold-toothed smile would catch on instantly and make you a believer in his music and charm. Calypso has lost a genuine troubadour, because Mystic-Prowler was first and foremost a student of the art form, a vintage connoisseur who lived as a depository for the living record of the classics and soul of the nation. At 59, with his career still in ascension, and with a fruitful collaboration with songwriter Gregory ‘GB’ Ballentyne, we could only speculate what might have been for this bard. And yet another star has gone out from Calypso’s bright constellation.

DAWAD PHILIP
Domino Productions,
Brooklyn, NY