By Peter Ray Blood
Veteran calypso administrator and Calypso Revue tent manager Sonny Woodley died at his Morvant home on Friday, succumbing to respitory failure.
The affable Woodley, 78, held the helm of the vintage tent in recent years following the demise of longstanding friends and business partners Aldwyn Roberts (Kitchener) and Carl “Jazzy” Pantin.
Artistes concerned about job security at the Revue Calypso tent for the Carnival 2007 calypso season have been assured that the tent will operate as usual, “at full capacity and efficiency.”
This assurance came yesterday from surviving Revue management director Michael Osuna (Sugar Aloes), who had been convalescing following major surgery last August in Antigua.
Interviewed yesterday, Aloes said: “The Revue is a living entity in calypso and shall continue to live now and beyond, long after we have all gone. Although the doctors have banned me from singing, I can speak, and I am a whole lot stronger, and will be around the lead the Revue. I am a lot stronger now as, for Christmas, I was able to eat all my favourite things; so, I am ready for the tent and Carnival 2007.”
Aloes also assured that the tent will have one of its strongest casts this year, including Crazy, whose One Foot Cock and Cold Sweat are two of the most popular calypso releases for C2K7. Aloes revealed that the Revue cast will also include stalwarts past national calypso monarchs Chalkdust and Denyse Plummer, Skatie and Baron.
He added that the tent will have its traditional premiere in Arima on January 19, with its first night in the nation’s capital scheduled for January 20, at SWWTU Hall, Wrightson Road.
Also talking to the Guardian yesterday was Woodley’s widow, Eunice. Alluding to the very close friendship her husband shared with Kitchener and Pantin she said, “they must be having a good time up there. Kitch and Jazzy must have been only too gld to see Sonny coming through the gates on Friday night.”
Woodley leaves to mourn his wife, Eunice, and four children. Funeral arrangements will be announced during this week as relatives of the deceased tent manager continue to arrive from abroad.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
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