Scores pay final respects to Roy Cape

Senior Reporter

kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt

The Government is working on honouring Dr Roy “Pappy” Cape.

The musical icon, who for years attracted hundreds of people to cultural events at venues like the Spektakula Forum, did it again yesterday, as hundreds gathered in the capital to pay their respects one last time to the man with the saxophone who left it all on the stage.

During his funeral service held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Energy and Energy Services Minister Stuart Young, acting then as Prime Minister in Dr Keith Rowley’s absence, challenged Minister of Tourism and the Arts Randall Mitchell to properly honour Cape’s legacy.

Young said, “It is the greats like Roy Cape who moulded us as an independent people, who, through the culture and the development of the music and the arts, gave us a foundation as a people of Trinidad and Tobago… And the Government recognises that and our challenge that I gave to Minister Mitchell here this morning is how do we ensure that this important foundation that the giants such as Roy Cape and Black Stalin, who gave us a foundation as an independent people, how do we make sure that the younger generation benefit from that as well and those important lessons are not lost.”

When Guardian Media asked Mitchell how the Government plans to honour Cape, he indicated that nothing was set just yet.

“We will see what we can do to honour him, but we must,” Mitchell said.

Meanwhile, recommendations poured in for a national award to be given posthumously and for investment in the Roy Cape Foundation, which the musician set up to help youths in the communities.

Speaking to Guardian Media, however, soca artiste Machel Montano was sure how Cape should be honoured.

“He should receive the highest award. Roy Cape is one of one, so he should receive the highest and most importantly, we should just support his foundation,” Montano said after the funeral service.

Similarly, Cape’s longtime friend Austin “Superblue” Lyons said, “Crown the legend!”

In 2014, a cancer diagnosis forced Cape to step away from the limelight but he continued providing music education to at-risk communities through his foundation.

During the funeral service, the saxophonist was praised for his decades-long devotion on and off the stage to calypso, soca and mentoring many in the entertainment industry.

In addition to how many doors he opened for fellow musicians, he was also remembered for being a good husband, father, grandfather and an overall good man.

Delivering the eulogy, his youngest daughter Jo-Ann Cape-Julien said, “Daddy didn’t only gave away money, he also gave away his time, talent and knowledge to bless others. He was always about the people. He had a big heart and helped anyone who reached out to him. He guided and helped many local musicians in the early stages of their careers. He was complex and imperfect, but a good man he was.”

Following the service, soca artiste Edghill “MX Prime” Thomas told Guardian Media, “He was a mentor. He was an influence to all of us, a national treasure … His legacy is music and being a humble man. It’s all well and good to be great at something but he was a great man first. A great father, a great husband, a motivator, and a humble lion, but a lion, nonetheless.”

Soca artiste Kees Dieffenthaller said, “Roy Cape was an institution and always opened his doors to the young people and this culture, so his legacy will live on through us. We see the work that he’s done and we will be giving that full hundred and carrying that on to a next generation.”

Minister of Social Development and Family Services Donna Cox added, “We want people to use Roy Cape’s life because he grew up in an orphanage and look where he is today. Having an honorary doctorate, doing well, in charge of a band so I think that once the youths see that, they should be able to aspire to be what they want to be and use it to their fullest potential.”

Calypsonian Karene Asche said, “His legacy will live on. It will live on. He did everything that he needed to do. Outside of being a musician, he still shared that peaceful side of him.

“From an orphanage in Belmont to stages across the world, Dr Roy Cape’s life and journey is one that will be forever etched in our nation’s history.”

And when words escaped others who were close to him, they paid tribute through song.

During the service, National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters sang Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ I’ll Be Missing You, while soca artiste Destra Garcia ended the service with an emotional rendition of Whitney Houston’s, I Will Always Love You.

Peters revealed that he and Cape were biological cousins, while Garcia said she shared a very close father-daughter relationship with Cape.

Though he will no longer grace a stage physically, one thing was evident yesterday, he will always be loved.

Cape died at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, on September 5 at age 82.

He leaves behind his wife Cheryl, daughters Jiliana Landeau and Jo-Ann Cape-Julien and son Roy Christopher Cape.

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