Barbados Today

Veteran entertainer Geoffrey Biggie Irie Cordle has described Adrian Boo Husbands as a “true stalwart” who effectively linked musicians of different generations.

“[He was] a true stalwart who bridged the gap between the older and younger generation of musicians, and the funniest guy I knew,” Cordle said of Husbands, whose sudden death yesterday morning jolted the entertainment fraternity.

Speaking after the launch of this year’s Love, Poetry and Song Concert, Cordle described his shock and confusion after learning of Husband’s death shortly after 4:30 a.m. Thursday.

He was asleep, Cordle said, when he received a call from Barbados Jazz Festival founder Gilbert Rowe who told him, “Boo gone”.

Still a bit groggy, he did not make the connection.

“I said, ‘gone where?’ he said, ‘Boo passed.’”

Still the information did not sink in and he tried going back to sleep, Cordle said.

“I tried to get back to sleep but then I called back five minutes later and asked him, ‘you just called me and tell me that Boo gone, Boo died?’ Gilbert said, ‘yes’. I couldn’t believe it,” a visibly shaken Cordle explained.

“Boo is a very integral part of the Barbadian musical landscape. As far as the younger generation and the older artistes are concerned he was the connection between them and us.”

In addition, he said, Husbands had an uncanny sense of humour and was never shy of making fun of anyone or anything, including himself.

However, he said there was also a serious side to Husbands, whose one aim was to get all musicians to come together and play for the love of the art form.

“I think what Boo really wanted was for all of us musicians, young and old, to come together and play music; as he always would say music must play, and that was why he started the Beach Cabinet sessions at Browne’s Beach on Sundays. “Every so often on Sunday evenings
. . . he had jam sessions with Nicholas Brancker, Turo [Arturo Tappin], me and Mikey [and we] would go down and play some music, eat some roast breadfruit and have a good time. I think that was what Boo was all about: musicians coming together and playing music, and that is what we will continue to do,” he stressed.

The man described as the people’s songbird anticipated “a lot of music” at Husbands’ funeral, but he could not say whether a special concert would be held in his memory.

However, he said “we will honour him in some way because he is one of the big boys in the industry”.

Husbands was an accomplished trombone player, the founder of Coalishun and the manager of the Headliners calypso tent.