By Stuart Wilson
The Cayman Islands, along with the entire Caribbean, are mourning the loss of the leader of the Tradewinds Band - musical and cultural icon, Dave Martins, who contributed a vast amount to the fabric of the Islands’ cultural landscape over the course of many decades.
Dave Martins came to the Cayman Islands from Guyana during the early years of the Islands’ ascent on to the international stage, when tourism and finance were burgeoning industries and the cultural aspect of the Island nation needed to keep pace with the material wealth of its other industries.
During that time, he initiated the Batabano carnival, along with Rotary, in addition to designing ‘Cayfest’, and producing ‘Rundown’, a comedic show that took a satirical view of the happenings of the day, allowing Caymanians to learn to laugh at themselves whilst simultaneously becoming a more introspective society through the lens of culture.
His leadership extended to roles as the Chairman of the Cultural Foundation, the Executive Director of the Pirates Week National Festival, and President of the Cayman Music & Entertainment Association.
Many in the Cayman Islands will remember Dave Martins for his song about the islands’ yearly Pirates Week festival entitled: “Pirates Party”.
With the lyrics stating, “The pirates having a party a kind of a masquerade, in Grand Cayman….”, the song was the soundtrack to the childhood of many who grew up in the Cayman Islands.
Dave Martins was also the mind behind Swanky’ the popular Caymanian kitchen band. This was formed as a result of Mr. Martins approaching young fiddler Samuel Rose and encouraging him to put together the ensemble, as someone would need to fill the void that would be left behind after the passing of well known fiddler, Mr. Radley Gourzong. He also gave the band their first ‘gig’.
The Caymanian Times spoke exclusively with Mr. Jeffrey Japal, who played keyboards with Dave Martins and the Tradewinds Band, starting in 1981.
“I started playing with Dave at the end of 1981in Toronto, Canada. The first time the band played in Cayman was October of 1981 and I joined shortly after in November. We did a two week stint in April 1982 at Galleon Beach, as well as Pirates Week in 1982 and 1983 and then stayed and worked in Cayman on a one year permit, before eventually becoming residents and living in Cayman as of November of 1983,” noted Mr. Japal.
He said over the last two or three years, Mr. Martins (90 years old) was slowing down a bit.
‘His body just slowed down with old age,’ he remarked, adding that Mr. Martins was still doing a little bit of playing but the change of pace brought on by age was definitely getting to him.
Regarding funeral plans for the musical icon and legend, Mr. Japal said, “I’m waiting to see what his wife Annette has planned for him. He is one of the most popular people in Guyana and his song ‘Not a Blade of Grass’ is like a second national anthem in Guyana and is taught in all the schools there.”
“There is no one name out of the whole Guyanese population that is more well known than the name Dave Martins and he has done so much in Cayman as well that the powers that be will probably sit down and put something together for him here.”
Mr. Japal added that just about everything cultural in Cayman benefitted in some way from Dave Martins’ input.
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