In Memory of Walter Ferguson: Humanity-Made Music

“King of Calypso” Passes Away at Age 103

With his raspy, gravelly tone, he took care to build a soundscape of the Costa Rican Caribbean.

How can know so much about someone you've never met? The answer, surely, will be that there are people who seem to have fallen from astrolites — humans who seem to have an aura and a talent that radiates from the invisible.

I remember the first time I embraced the dream of meeting Don Walter Ferguson, widely known as “Mr. Gavitt.” In those times, about 10 years ago, the journalist Diego Delfino had uploaded on his Facebook page a tremendously casual image of himself with the legendary musician. It had the aura of a postcard. It was unique: he was there in the photo next to an absolute legend.

Over the years, my desire to meet Mr. Gavitt grew, but there were limitations, including the distance to his residence in Cahuita. In addition, it would be an arduous task finding a form of contact that would allow a literal stranger to shake hands with such an eminence.

I still did not lose faith. I devoted myself to listening to Ferguson’s music during those years, trying to study it. I sought to find out how a calypso benchmark was made and, in the long run, a legend of Costa Rican creative inventiveness.

When I joined the newspaper La Nación as a head journalist for arts and culture, I once again dreamed of that chance to meet the music icon. One of my colleagues, Carlos Soto, was the owner of the music source and managed to visit Ferguson on the occasion of the Magón Prize being awarded to him in 2018.

Last chance

Envy appeared — the good kind of envy … Carlos knows it well. What a chance he had! Deep inside of me, I supposed that this was my last chance for a “meeting” with the musician, even if channeled through someone else. I was not mistaken; I could never know Walter Ferguson in person. But the satisfaction with what my colleague told me about the interview was so valuable that I still cling to his words as if it had been a meeting from another dimension.

“My mom used to tell me that I was going to be a great composer,” Ferguson told Carlos. This recollection offered precious further evidence for the theory that Mr. Gavitt (who, by the way, was born in Panama) was an astrolith.

My colleague Carlos told me that the living room in Don Walter's house was always filled with foreigners. It was no wonder that every time there was a festival in the Caribbean, Ferguson was the dedicated one. Such news caused many international visitors (and of course, Costa Ricans) to show up in the living room of his home to ask him “things” about his songs and express their admiration for him.

Ferguson claims to have composed more than 150 songs, although he only recorded about 40 — more than enough testimony to notice his verve. With his raspy, gravelly tone, he took care Caribbean.

Click here for the rest of the story

Wata,” “Callaloo,” “Carnaval Day” and many other songs portraying life in the villages of the