Thanks for the music, Mr Cape

ON Thursday evening, Roy Francis Cape, the legendary bandleader of the Roy Cape All Stars, died after a stroke. He was 82.

A musician for 50 years, he founded his band in 1980 and led it effectively until 2014, after a cancer diagnosis. Mr Cape also suffered a hip injury in 2019.

The band, which changed its name to D'All Starz in 2017, reflected Mr Cape's approach to music. He'd worked in the era of the local combos and big bands, each of which carried the name of its bandleader, but his choice of All Stars to round out the name would become clearer over the decades of its existence. He credited the late calypsonian Leroy Calliste ̶ Black Stalin ̶ with coining the name.

Roy Cape was a firm and precise bandleader, insistent on the highest musical standards from his musicians. Still, he was also a coach and nurturer, taking young artistes like Kurt Allen, Destra Garcia, Nigel and Marvin Lewis, giving them a foundation of musicianship, presentation, professionalism, and discipline.

That work would continue throughout the band's existence, with the All Stars burnishing the careers of Nadia Batson, the late Ricardo Drue and Dexter "Blaxx" Stewart.

Roy Cape came from humble beginnings. After his mother passed, he became a runaway street child before being sent to the Belmont Orphanage, now St Dominic's, where the self-confessed "bad boy" was introduced to the music that changed his life.

The change was profound. He was awarded the Humming Bird Medal (Gold) in 2004. The University of the West Indies conferred an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree on Mr Cape in 2011. A book about his life and the evolution of calypso music in which he played a pivotal role, Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand, was released in 2014.

The Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation honoured him with the Calypso History Award in 2021.

Through all these experiences, Mr Cape kept an eye on the children he saw coming up after him.

He worked with the Ministry of Culture in 2013 as part of its Music Schools in the Community programme and inspired by that experience, set about doing his part.

A lifelong believer in the transformative power of music, he founded the Roy Cape Foundation in 2016.

In 2023, he returned to Diego Martin, where he'd lived for years, to bring music classes to Diego Martin Government Secondary School.

Across his many years as a professional musician, Roy Cape led with a heart full of music and a yearning to share that joy with everyone. In his last decade, he chose to specifically share its transformative qualities with the children of this country, generously and with hope.