Thursday, March 28, 2024

Community pays Griffith respect

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Barbados’ music fraternity, including calypsonians, has been paying tribute to highly rated musician, Police Inspector Anderson Griffith.
Griffith, a 54-year-old trombone-player, tutor and arranger known in the music arena simply as “Salters”, died suddenly in the United States last weekend.“His death was a great shock to me,” former calypso king Gabby told the DAILY NATION. “Salters was not only a first class musician but a first class human being. He was one of the quietest people I ever met. He never had a bone of aggression in him. “He made a tremendous contribution to the musical landscape of Barbados.”Manager of the Celebrity Tent, Ridley Greene, recalled that Griffith was music director of the tent for about two years, worked with the House of Soca for many years and was a long-standing member of the Barbados Festival Band.Greene said Griffith had arranged calypsos for several artistes. “He had a passion for folk music of all kinds,” Greene noted. “He was a perfectionist. He was dedicated to precision and excellence.”Veteran calypsonian Pompey said Griffith’s passing was a major loss to calypso. “He arranged two songs for me for this Crop-Over Festival,” Pompey reported. “The one which I sang (Sunday) night at the opening of our tent was ‘Nothing For Free’. The music arrangement for that is very sweet.”The other song arranged by Griffith, filling in this year for Andy Williams, is ‘The Apocalypse’. Pompey said he is hoping one or both tunes will propel him into the Pic-O-De-Crop finals – a fitting tribute to Griffith.Calypsonian and former House of Soca tent manager Adonijah told the DAILY NATION: “I worked with Salters for many years in House of Soca. He was my friend and he was always a very helpful person in terms of giving advice. “From my very first performance in a calypso tent, from that night, he never stopped giving me advice. He would always feed his advice to calypsonians. He was a very good musician and a good man.”   Festival co-ordinator at the National Cultural Foundation and former cultural officer for music, David Jordan, recalled that Griffith was a founding member of the Festival Band and first trombonist up to the time of his death.“He was what I would call the silent leader,” Jordan commented. “He led by example. . . . He was the sort of person that people would look up to. “His contribution musically as well as his mentorship over the years would be a great loss, not only to the NCF, but to the institution, the festival band.” Musician and former chief executive officer of the NCF, Antonio “Boo” Rudder, called Griffith “a competent trombone player” and a musician who had made “a significant contribution to music” working with students and tents such as House of Soca.“He obviously had a clear vision for what he wanted in life and this was seen when he took leave and went to England to do his Master’s.”Griffith obtained a Master’s in Music and Culture from the University of Surrey.It capped several years of work in music, going back to April 1970 when he enlisted as an apprentice in the band of the Royal Barbados Police Force.Four years later he joined the Force as a constable, moving up the ranks to become an inspector last January.On its opening night Sunday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, the Digicel Big Show paid tribute to Griffith with a minute’s silence.

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