COLIN POWELL’S LOVE OF SPARROW’S MUSIC

By KEN ALI 

I remember the evening – it was in April, 1998, I have reconfirmed – when Colin Powell hugged and kissed Mighty Sparrow. 

Powell was at the Diplomatic Centre in Port of Spain to endorse a mentoring programme and museum collection of Dr. Eric Williams, a guest of then-Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. 

He applauded and sang along as Birdie delighted the audience with some of his memorable calypsos, including the risqué Phillip, My Dear. 

Sparrow did a number in tribute to the first Black United States Secretary of State. 

Powell later said that “of all the honours I’ve received, this is the best.” 

He said he not only loved “the good calypso,” but “the naughty stuff too,” which he listened to even after he became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

He was America’s youngest head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

He told the audience that “my aides didn’t understand the lyrics, and they were too dirty for me to translate.” 

Powell said he took in Birdie’s music while weighing vital issues of national security. 

He described Sparrow as the “Mount Olympus of Calypso.” 

On another occasion, he publicly endorsed Sparrow and calypso, this time when Harry Belafonte, the Jamaican-born balladeer, branded the American soldier a “house slave” for supporting the decision to invade Iraq. 

He said he was not a fan of Belafonte, but of Sparrow. 

Powell was born, and grew up, in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrants, and described himself as a product of “the Caribbean Sea.”  

But in the midst of widespread tributes upon his passing (“a distinguished and trailblazing professional soldier”), some are overlooking his flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq War. 

There was no question, however, about his musical influence – calypso’s maestro, Sparrow.