By Michael Mondezie
‘Boy, Aaron Duncan? Mighty Sparrow? This is one of, it not the greatest things, I’ve done in music to date.’
The incredulous tone in that fervent declaration from Aaron Duncan is enough to let the whole world know he is waking up this morning feeling like a kid in a kaiso candy store.
Duncan will have one of his biggest musical dreams come true when he releases ‘Legacy’, a collaboration with calypso legend The Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco).
What makes the moment even sweeter for the 19-year-old calypso/ soca star is it’s a song he completely wrote and produced. The recording and music video, shot in New York, USA, brings full circle a promise made to a then six-year-old Duncan by The Birdie in 2010.
Duncan first met Sparrow after becoming the youngest winner of the Junior Calypso Monarch that same year. The two went on to share the stage at a concert held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in 2012. A snippet of their duet of Sparrow’s ‘Education’ features in the music video of their 2022 collaboration, set for release on Tuesday morning.
‘He (Sparrow) told me whenever I ready to do a song together, he would do it. But I didn’t have the facilities. I wasn’t a writer or producer, as yet, so it never happened,’ Duncan told the Kitcharee during a telephone call on Friday.
Intriguingly, Duncan, who would win three more times to amass an impressive four Junior Monarch titles, says he knew the time was right to start on the project after having a dream one night in April of this year.
‘I woke up one day and had a dream I had to do a song with the Mighty Sparrow. I called him and I said I’m ready, I want to do a song with you. He say: ‘Once I like it I will do it,” Duncan related.
THE TRUE LEGACY IS THE MUSIC
The ‘Legacy’ single and music video is a beautifully constructed, sentimental piece of music packed with nostalgia and intrigue. The Birdie, surrounded by youth, seems to be in his element and genuinely enjoying himself.
After several false flag rumours of his passing earlier this year, It is heart-warming to see Sparrow performing to camera again. One line that stands out is when Sparrow sings: ‘This is when the people know That the mighty Sparrow is alive and kicking with meh boy AD’ Duncan says while he is aware of Sparrow’s iconic status and his own day-by-day growing legend, the real legacy they are referring to in this song is the shared heritage of calypso music.
‘It’s really all about the legacy the music holds between both of us. The coming together of generations. And its calypso history month so it’s prefect,’ he beamed.
Watching Sparrow operate at close quarters has been a privilege, Duncan added.
‘It was a great experience. I didn’t get to work with Sparrow in his prime, but it was still an amazing thing for me to see Sparrow execute. We had to bring the studio to him. We had to bring people to record him. I was so determined, I doh care what it took, I had to make it happen,’ he said.
With the recording completed and in hand in May, Duncan said he wasn’t satisfied. He told his parents, Lydia and Sylvester, he needed to shoot a music video for the project with Birdie.
‘My parents say, ‘How we getting a music video? Sparrow quite in New York!’ I say well we have to go New York,’ he recalled.
The production was shot last month, on September 7. Duncan says it’s his ‘greatest music video ever’.
‘I can’t wait for you guys to see it. Even though he can’t walk and had to sit and sing, the energy he brought to the whole experience was magnificent. I want to see what I can experience again to beat that. It will take a long time,’ Duncan declared.
Paying tribute to Sparrow and having him reciprocate that love was the best part of the entire process, Duncan said.
‘He kept congratulating me and telling me I wrote a great song. He was happy to see that a young person like me is acknowledging the greatness that is the Mighty Sparrow. We appreciate what we have now, but we don’t look back at what it came from. Sparrow is one of the icons to help innovate and promote soca.
‘And this is one of my first collaborations. I couldn’t start with anybody better. This was a great opportunity for me and I was so happy when he said yes. Even my own father didn’t believe me until he actually heard the song.
‘He always says he is the biggest fan of Sparrow. He used to pay big money just to see Sparrow sing, now today, his own son singing with Sparrow. That is legacy!’ an emotional Duncan concluded.
