Call for late cuatro man to receive national award

ACCLAIMED cuatroist Robert Munro should receive a posthumous national award, says musician and videographer Mikkhail Gibbings.

The 73-year-old musician died at the Port of Spain General Hospital on Thursday after a period of illness. He was the subject of Gibbings’ 2015 documentary short The Cuatro Man which was featured at the 2015 TT Film Festival and the St Lucia Arts Festival of 2016.

Gibbings told Newsday yesterday he was devastated when he heard news of his death.

“I would leave Port of Spain via Victoria Square to pass in front his house and see if he was sweeping leaves off the street so I could stop to talk to him. It will be difficult to drive past and not see him there playing cuatro and singing to any number of guests who were at his house.”

He recalled, his father used to tell him about Munro when he was younger and, as he grew up playing guitar, he idolised him and the late Fitzroy Coleman. While doing his film degree, Gibbings wanted to do a short documentary on a local instrumentalist.

“Instrumentalists in Trinidad suffer from a near-criminal lack of recorded material and public recognition. I knew Robert Munro was already a legend within the cuatro community, so I felt he was a perfect candidate.”

He said, however, Munro had a very big personality and he (Gibbings) was intimidated. For the documentary they sat on his porch and Munro spoke for six hours straight.

“He made me lunch and dinner. He showed me how to play some chords on the cuatro and he treated me like family.

“After day one, he said ‘call me Uncle Robert’ and he called me ‘son’. He has treated me like family ever since. He is truly one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. Unpretentious and caring. I have seen him give the last of his food to beggars passing on the street in front of his house.”

A few years ago, Gibbings and a few other people went to the Culture ministry to try to get Munro nominated for a national award.

“We got word shortly after that our application was rejected.”

Gibbings said he still believes Munro, the “father of the cuatro in Trinidad” and a daring musical innovator, should receive a national award.

“He took dozens under his wing and taught them everything he knew. He played along with Kitchener and Sparrow. He played for presidents and prime ministers throughout the region. He toured the world and returned to his family home around Victoria Square every time he was done just to spread his knowledge to all who would take it.”

Munro in the documentary recalled being asked why he had not yet received a national award.

He replied: “I say I not lobbying for it. Other people will have to lobby for me. Because let me put it to you–I met all the prime ministers we had. All the presidents. They all heard me perform. They all acknowledge right. Well then use your good offices to promote it. But you know what going to happen? It will take a foreigner to come down here and then we will accept it with open arms.”

Gibbings’ father and veteran Caribbean journalist Wesley Gibbings posted on Facebook “saying farewell to cuatroist extraordinaire.”

There were numerous tributes and condolences on social media including from one of the young cuatroists Munro mentored, Dominic Thompson. Tributes were also paid by Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters and Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation president Lutalo Masimba.

There are no details yet on funeral arrangements.