A Living Legend
Walter Ferguson
celebrated his ninetieth birthday on May 7. Three days later, he received a
lifetime achievement award from the Association of Central American Musicians
(ACAM). It was well deserved. A storied Calypsonian, Walter Ferguson has
witnessed his status being elevated into that rarified air of “Living Legend”. In
the interim, he has inspired several generations of musicians. One of his most
notable students is Manuel Monestel who, besides being a music historian and
having a solo career, is the leader of the highly popular calypso band
Cantoamerica.
The essence of
Calypso music is in its rhythm and its humor, not necessarily in that order.
The seed of this musical style sprouted around Barbados,
Trinidad and Ciudad Colon, Panama more than two centuries ago.
It spread, literally by word of mouth, to other Caribbean ports, including Kingston, Jamaica,
where it later spawned the nucleus of reggae music.
Walter Ferguson is
perhaps the last Calypsonian to learn his craft in this traditional, organic
manner. Born in Guabito, Panama in 1919, he moved to Cahuita, Costa Rica
at an early age with his father, Melsh, who was a cook for the Banana Company
there. For years, Ferguson, or “Gavitt” as he is
affectionately referred to by his wife and family, plied his trade with an old
Martin guitar, creating songs and exchanging them with other wandering Calypso
minstrels up and down the Caribbean coast of Central
America. Walter even recorded “Calypso Caribbean: Costa Rica” a
vinyl album of original songs in the early 1970s, which quickly slipped into
obscurity along with its composer. Subsequently, he was known to travel with
blank cassette tapes and a portable, battery-operated recorder and microphone.
He would make up songs on the spot for travelling visitors and supply each
purchaser with a one-of-a-kind tape. Oh, to have one of those cassettes now…
In a sense, the
travelling Calypsonian was like a news reporter. Their songs all deal with
events and local characters that everyone in the Caribbean
towns knows and can relate to. The difference is that the “news” was crafted into
catchy songs, usually with a twist of humor to make it a little more palatable.
With time, the
legend of Walter Ferguson had garnered legs of mythic proportions. Finally, in
2003, he broke his recording silence of more than thirty years, agreeing to
record a CD for Papaya Music, who had “discovered” him living in his family’s
hotel in Cahuita. Papaya has an austere reputation for its integrity in
capturing and preserving authentic Central American music. At the time of their
initial contact, Ferguson agreed to the
recordings, but explained to Manuel Obregon, the president of Papaya, that he
was eighty-four years old and had no desire or intention to go to a recording
studio in San Jose.
So Papaya brought the mountain to Mohammed, so to speak: they packed up and
transported their recording equipment to Ferguson’s
beloved Cahuita, where they set up a makeshift studio in the family’s hotel.
Mattresses, rugs and
blankets were employed as soundproofing in one of the hotel rooms, to muffle
the sounds of the local pet parrots and dogs, the passing buses and trucks on
the streets. The result was titled “Babylon”,
the first CD by one of Calypso’s forgotten kings. The disc is comprised of
thirteen original tunes with only Ferguson
accompanying himself on his old Martin, in a style he dubbed as “Porch Reggae”.
“Babylon” portrays everyday life in the little Caribbean
towns along Costa Rica’s
southeastern shoreline, with characters passing along from one calypso number
and into the next, like images in a comic strip. The first two pressing of the
disc sold out in just a few months. “If you’re coming to interfere,” sings Ferguson, “I’m going to
tear off your pants and your underwear”. Anyone who can rhyme “interfere” with
“underwear” and get away with it is OK in my book.
One year later,
Walter Ferguson was revitalized. Once again, Papaya had to unplug all the
refrigerators in a four block radius of the Ferguson Hotel in Cahuita
(ostensibly, according to Manuel Obregon, to get the hum out of the wiring),
quiet the pets and set up their hotel room/recording studio. For his second CD,
titled “Dr. Bombodee,” Ferguson
dusted off some of the songs he had nearly forgotten from his purported two
hundred fifty song repertoire. One of those gems that needed very little polishing
is “One Pant Man”, which Ferguson wrote after the young woman he was living
with accused him of being so poor that he owned only a single pair of pants. Along
with nine other original songs on the second disc, Walter also renders his
version of “Old Lady” by Papa Houdini, whom Ferguson considers to be his mentor. He also
pays homage to traditional Jamaican music with his rendition of “72 Weeds”, a
song with a ridiculously funny list of local plants which, if recited correctly,
will cure any illness.
Walter Ferguson’s
songs have an air of innocent pranks and jokes, a very healthy humor that some
doctors might prescribe to their patients to forget all their own ills for a
while. A perfect example is “Going to Bocas”, the first cut on Dr. Bombodee.
“The young gal claim that she don’t want me no more,” laments Ferguson, “then I notice she start to dash me
things out the door”. Well, I guess having your things “dashed out the door” is
usually a good indication that you are no longer wanted…
Papaya Music was
clever enough to include in the two recordings some of Walter’s casual chat in
between the songs, which definitely displays his endearing nature. I imagine
being at these recording sessions must have been similar to finding Leadbelly
or Mississippi Fred MacDowell playing on their front porches fifty years ago.
After the recording of Dr. Bombodee, Ferguson informed Papaya
that it would be his final recording. In my opinion, Walter Ferguson should be
proclaimed a Costa Rican National Treasure.
Both Walter
Ferguson and all Papaya Music CDs are available at Jaime Peligro in Playa
Tamarindo, Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly sample the music for the
customers. All comments concerning this article are welcome.
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