As the en­tire lo­cal mu­sic fra­ter­ni­ty mourns the pass­ing of vet­er­an mu­si­cian and founder of the Roy Cape All Stars band, Dr Roy Fran­cis Cape, his son is sug­gest­ing that he be giv­en a State fu­ner­al.

The sax­o­phon­ist, arranger and band leader, af­fec­tion­ate­ly known in the in­dus­try as “Pap­py,” died at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex (EWM­SC) on Thurs­day. He was 82.

His son Christo­pher told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that his fa­ther was rushed to the hos­pi­tal via an am­bu­lance af­ter he com­plained of body pains on Thurs­day.

He was tak­en to the Ari­ma Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and lat­er trans­ferred to the EWM­SC. He died around 5.30 pm.

Cape’s griev­ing son said, “I know he will be missed by a lot of peo­ple and my heart goes out to all who miss him. One love.”

While fu­ner­al arrange­ments are yet to be con­firmed, Christo­pher said his fa­ther de­serves a state fu­ner­al. (See page 12)

Trib­utes to ‘a leg­end’

While it was known he had been bat­tling prostate can­cer since 2014, many so­ca artistes and fans said they re­mained at a loss for words and were sad­dened by Cape’s pass­ing.

A dis­traught so­ca star De­stra Gar­cia told Guardian Me­dia, “I am heart­bro­ken. I knew that this time would come but no mat­ter how much you pre­pare for some­thing like this, you can nev­er re­al­ly be ready.

“I have lost a mem­ber of my fam­i­ly. Pap­py was like a fa­ther to me. Com­ing in­to this busi­ness at such a young age, he tru­ly fa­thered me as a pro­tec­tor and as a men­tor, all through my ca­reer.

“Last we spoke, I was in Cana­da two weeks ago and I told him I’d come see him when I got back. I got a call from Jo-Ann (his daugh­ter who lives abroad), who told me he was in hos­pi­tal and that I should go see him right away, but even though I went im­me­di­ate­ly I didn’t get to say good­bye, I was a mo­ment too late. It’s all still fresh. I’m just try­ing to come to terms with all of it right now.

“But, He was char­i­ta­ble, kind and loved by all, and he def­i­nite­ly made his mark in this world. He will be missed.”

So­ca star Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez was al­so emo­tion­al about Cape’s death.

“He was def­i­nite­ly not just a leg­end, but an icon and like a fa­ther fig­ure to many peo­ple and we all know that his band played and backed and sup­port­ed a lot of the mu­si­cians, the old­er ones and some of the new­er ones,” she said.

Vet­er­an so­ca artiste Ron­nie McIn­tosh said his re­la­tion­ship with Cape spanned many decades. He said he holds fond mem­o­ries of the Roy Cape All Stars band per­form­ing dur­ing many So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tions in the ear­ly 1990s.

“It’s a big one for the in­dus­try. Pap­py was al­ways sup­port­ive in terms of ad­vice and that kind of stuff. Many artistes came through the hands and mind of Roy “Pap­py” Cape. He will be missed.”

Asked to de­scribe the mu­sic leg­end in three words, singer Col­lege Boy Jesse, who is now part of the re­formed All Stars band. said Cape was “orig­i­nal­i­ty, leg­endary and great­ness.”

Sev­er­al en­ter­tain­ers took to so­cial me­dia to ex­press their love for Cape.

Austin “Su­per Blue” Lyons, whom Cape played back­ground mu­sic for and who shared a close friend­ship with him for decades, said, “When I hear the pass­ing of my great and lov­ing friend Dr Roy Cape this one hit me very hard. Every week we talk and laugh about the old times we had trav­el­ling and per­form­ing all over the world. May you Rest in Peace. Fly with the An­gels above. Un­til we meet again.”

So­ca star Machel Mon­tano said, “Dr Roy Cape, our lov­ing “Pap­py”! A gen­tle, kind, fun and ex­pe­ri­enced leader, teacher, fa­ther, boss, friend, guide and men­tor! He taught so many of us and gave us all his un­wa­ver­ing sup­port and count­less op­por­tu­ni­ties! Through gen­er­a­tions, his name re­mained the same and he was al­ways con­sid­ered the best. He had the best laugh and smile but most im­por­tant­ly he re­al­ly loved the mu­sic and the peo­ple he played with and for.”

An­to­nio “Bun­ji Gar­lin” Al­varez said, “Many of us got to tell you thank you many times over while in life, now we say thank you again for your af­fect­ing lega­cy in your pass­ing. May you RIP Mr Roy Cape.”

Many oth­ers, like Kurt Allen, Anslem Dou­glas, Kes Di­ef­fen­thaller and Na­dia Bat­son, al­so paid trib­ute to the mu­sic icon.

Sev­er­al gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, in­clud­ing Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, al­so paid trib­ute.

“Dr Cape was not sim­ply a mu­si­cal icon in Trinidad and To­ba­go, he was an Am­bas­sador of all the re­mark­able things that our coun­try sig­ni­fies. He rep­re­sent­ed and show­cased the best of our tal­ent, cul­ture and mu­si­cal of­fer­ings on an in­ter­na­tion­al scale. With his ca­reer and life’s work span­ning well over half a cen­tu­ry, it can on­ly be de­scribed as a labour of love,” Mitchell said.

In an on­line post, Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings said of Cape, “His ex­tra­or­di­nary tal­ent as a mu­si­cian, band leader, and sax­o­phon­ist touched count­less lives and left an in­deli­ble mark on ca­lyp­so and so­ca mu­sic. Be­yond his re­mark­able mu­si­cal achieve­ments, he was a beloved fig­ure, recog­nised for his hu­mil­i­ty and gen­eros­i­ty.”

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said he will al­ways be re­mem­bered.

“He was a man who shared wis­dom, and I was priv­i­leged to be on the re­ceiv­ing end. RIP Dr Roy Cape. Your lega­cy will nev­er be for­got­ten.”

Cape leaves be­hind his wife Cheryl and chil­dren Jo-Ann, Ju­lian­na and Christo­pher.

Roy Cape’s jour­ney

Born on 36 Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain, Cape moved to near­by com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing John John and Up­per Laven­tille Hill. He al­so lived on the streets and was even­tu­al­ly placed in an or­phan­age, where he was in­tro­duced to mu­sic. He over­came his hard­ships us­ing his love of mu­sic to be­come a glob­al mu­si­cal pow­er­house.

He found­ed the Roy Cape All Stars in 1980.

Cape led the band for over five decades and backed sev­er­al so­ca artistes, in­clud­ing De­stra Gar­cia, and Dex­ter “Blaxx” Stew­art and Ri­car­do Drue, now both de­ceased.

He toured and record­ed with ca­lyp­so greats such as the Mighty Spar­row, Lord Kitch­en­er and Black Stal­in, his close friend for many years.

He was one of the mu­si­cians ac­com­pa­ny­ing The Mighty Sniper on T&T’s un­of­fi­cial an­them, Por­trait of Trinidad.

Cape al­so spent over five years in the Unit­ed States, where he played with sev­er­al in­ter­na­tion­al bands. He sub­se­quent­ly re­turned to T&T to con­tin­ue his life’s pas­sion.

He re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird (Gold) Na­tion­al Award.

In 2011, he was award­ed an hon­orary doc­tor­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

Cape al­so delved in­to the lit­er­ary world, launch­ing his first pub­li­ca­tion ti­tled Roy Cape: A Life on The Ca­lyp­so and So­ca Band­stand in 2014.

He was di­ag­nosed with prostate can­cer that same year.

He re­tired from the band in 2017.

In Ju­ly 2019, he start­ed the Roy Cape Foun­da­tion Mu­sic School in San­gre Grande, which fo­cused on de­vel­op­ing mu­sic pro­grammes in at-risk com­mu­ni­ties.