EXTEMPO giant and popular parandero Big B (Leroy Birch) would have wanted it no other way!

The grand send off last Monday afternoon for the 56-year-old cultural icon to the great beyond, became one of rhythm and rhyme, that his friend Roman Catholic priest Fr. Clyde Harvey did during his homily in a concelebrated service, did extempo.

Fr. Harvey even took a jab at calypsonian Gypsy for saying that it was the first time extempo was being performed in church.

He noted that Big B had performed his art at his church (San Fernando R.C.) before.

The priest sent the congregation into an uproar and got sustained applause when he referred to Gypsy’s tongue as a “political” one.

Big B’s extempo pals Abebele, Sheldon John, Gypsy, Lady Africa, Lingo, Allrounder, among others also did their tributes the extempo way.

The talented musician who hailed from Quarry Village, Siparia, but had made his home in San Fernando, succumbed to a heart attack at the San Fernando General Hospital last Friday morning.

Long before the sun had set, hundreds of persons from all walks of life, had begun filing into the St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Harris Promenade, San Fernando to pay their last respects to a man whose name over the years had become a household one.

The massive crowd that spilled out into the road danced and chanted to the beat of the rhythmic drums, soaked in sweet parang music from his group La Divina Pastora of which he was founder.

They sang along to the short choruses performed in true Best Village style and even provided back up for extempo singers.

Big B up until his death, had been involved in Best Village activities.