Caribbean instincts

In my time as a musician travelling about, one of the spin-offs was the development of friendships, in diverse places, that would not otherwise have come my way.  One that stands out is my relationship with Barbadian radio broadcaster Vic Fernandes – we have become like brothers over the years – and in a recent email exchange Vic, who has an enquiring mind, reacted to my saying that writing songs was an almost automatic development in my life, not something that I had set my mind to. Vic’s position was that instinct was something he saw operating in a pervasive manner in Caribbean societies, and he pushed me to write a column on the matter, to elaborate more.

As he put it, “I once heard Gary Sobers say that our players train too much and should rely on natural talent and wondered about the comment. But then he is Sir Gary, and we do see that instinct he refers to in so many aspects of our way of life: the mechanic who can fix anything that has an engine, the many self-taught musicians, our home-grown chefs, and yes even my industry of