Calypsonian Mighty Composer Dies At Age 83

The ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty has been plunged in­to mourn­ing for the fourth time in re­cent weeks with the death of the Mighty Com­pos­er.

Born Fred Mitchell, Com­pos­er passed away on Wednes­day morn­ing at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex where he had been hos­pi­talized for the past two weeks with a heart con­di­tion and oth­er health is­sues. He was 83.

Born in Ica­cos on June 8, 1935, Com­pos­er’s first stint in en­ter­tain­ment was as a mem­ber of the Singing Mitchells fam­i­ly group that sang cho­rus lines for Spar­row’s Na­tion­al Record­ing Com­pa­ny pro­duc­tions.

In 1964, he launched his ca­lyp­so ca­reer at Spar­row’s Orig­i­nal Young Brigade.

His great­est suc­cess­es were in the 1960s and ‘70s with hits in­clud­ing Work­ers’ Lament, Sup­pos­ing, True or Lie, Black Fal­la­cy and Child Train­ing.

He was a foun­da­tion mem­ber of the first Ca­lyp­son­ian’s As­so­ci­a­tion in T&T as well the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­z­tion (TU­CO) where he served as an ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber for many years.

Apart from be­ing an ac­com­plished ca­lyp­son­ian, Com­pos­er was known for por­tray­ing the Red In­di­an char­ac­ter, parad­ing in the tra­di­tion­al mas on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day in San Fer­nan­do.

In his lat­er years, Com­pos­er, a mem­ber of the Or­isha faith, al­so be­came known as Ag­ba Olu Sino Amono.

In Ju­ly he was ho­n­ored by the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee (ESC) with a con­cert, Shikamoo—An­ces­tral Rhythm, for his con­tri­bu­tion to the art form.

This was fol­lowed on Re­pub­lic Day with the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver) for his loy­al and de­vot­ed ser­vice to T&T in the sphere of cul­ture.

Com­pos­er’s death comes just weeks af­ter the pass­ing of fel­low ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Shad­ow, De­Fos­to and Lord Su­pe­ri­or.

SOURCE: T&T Guardian