Stalin brought to tears on 75th birthday

While the nation wined down its celebrations for 40 years of being a Republic, Black Stalin celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday among friends, family, and admirers, all of whom gathered to pay tribute to the living legend .

Stalin, who suffered a stroke in 2014 that doctors said rendered him unable to sing the same way again, was dressed in characteristic African garb and sat beside his wife, Patsy Calliste. He smiled and was even brought to tears as young people and veteran calypsonians and musicians serenaded him with his own, long list of classic calypsos .

One of the “Black Man’s” - as he was affectionately referred to on the night - grandchildren, Keegan Calliste, opened the celebrations by playing the National Anthem on the steelpan. The national instrument featured prominently for the rest of the night, the highlight feature being a surprise appearance by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe who accompanied Sugar Aloes and Chucky Gordon while they sang Stalin’s “Play One”, “Love yuh own”, and “Mr Pan Maker.” Junia Regrello, Deputy Mayor of San Fernando, praised Stalin for covering the development of pan and the plight of pan people more comprehensively in his work than any other calypsonian .

Regrello ended his address singing the chorus of his favourite Stalin tune, Sufferers. “Sufferers just want to know wey the next food coming from.” This point was driven home when Master of Ceremonies, comedian Damian Melville, dressed himself in tattered clothes and satirically critiqued the irony between the international fame of the steelpan instrument and the continued poverty and suffering of many steelpan players .

“Play yourself!” Melville ordered the lifeless pan, “you get big now, you going all over the place, but look at me! Play yourself! After I done play meh heart out for Panorama, I cah find a seat on the maxi. The captain tell meh to find a seat somewhere on the ground, but they make sure and pack you up neat and safe to take you home. Well here,” he said, tossing pan sticks into at the glimmering tenor pan, “play yourself!” Black Stalin, the prolific writer and holder of five Calypso Monarchs and an honourary doctorate from the University of the West Indies, continued to be celebrated with appearances from Brian London, reigning Calypso Monarch Devon Seale, and penultimately by another of his grandchildren, Keevan Calliste, winner of the first Junior Ex Tempo Monarch, earlier this year .

The night was closed off with a grand finale by another calypso legend, David Rudder that the 400-strong crowd waited four hours to experience. All artists that appeared expressed their deep gratitude to the Black Man for his contribution to the culture .

Junior Bisnath, one of San Fernando’s most untiring artists and champions for culture, asked patrons to write their names and well-wishes on a wooden plaque during the intermission and after the show. Bisnath said it would later be framed and engraved by him and given to Stalin to be kept at his San Fernando house where he continues to grow stronger .

Works and Transport Minister, Fitzgerald Hinds, represented Prime Minister Keith Rowley in his absence. Hinds said that the night was to celebrate “the life, the works, the philosophy, the contribution, of a great son of the soil.”