Young music engineers have to develop a desire to learn from those more knowledgeable in the craft, says nine-time calypso monarch Mighty Gabby.
He was speaking at an interactive session entitled A Living Legend Speaks On Barbadian Music – Its Past, Present And Future, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Wednesday night.Gabby, who was being interviewed by television personality Peta Alleyne, singled out engineers Norman Barrow, Maxi Baldeo and Eddy Grant as people who could point the young engineers in the right direction.
He said young people were important to the entertainment industry but they must bring professionalism, patience and love to the field.
Too many young engineers produced demos as opposed to songs, he said, and each instrument must be recognized for its worth in the particular area. Gabby said the future of Barbados’ music lay in first-class recordings.
He also highlighted the significant contribution culture made to the economy through the Crop Over Festival, and chided cultural ministers over the years for cutting the budget of the National Cultural Foundation.
He said that Barbados had to get serious about the arts and stop being afraid to endorse themselves.
During the almost two hours of interaction which attracted audience participation at the end, Gabby also lauded the contribution that the late Jackie Opel, the creator of the spouge beat, made to music in Barbados in the 70s.
“We wanted to establish something [musical beat] that was ours. We had it. Young people at that time felt we wanted to identify with something that was our own. The Guyanese and Trinidadians were looking up to it.”
Gabby also told the audience that his popular and controversial hit Jack came about because Barbadians felt threatened when controversial remarks by a tourism official were made about what defined a beach in 1982.
