Trinidad-born Basdeo Partap, popularly known as Bass, who had been suffering  with dementia for several years, died at the Credit Valley hospital in Missisauga on March 24 last. He was 74.

Partap  first came to Canada on the  migrant farm workers program  in the late 1960s.

He returned to Canada in 1975 as a landed immigrant and worked for many years as a machine operator at a plastics  extrusion company in Brampton.

Partap took a keen interest in real estate  and became a landlord investor in Brampton, Guelph and New York City.

But  among  paranderos in Canada,, he is best remembered as one of the founding members  of  Los Pajaros, a popular family-based parang group which was formed in  1993.

His cousin,  Terryanne  Cassar, told The Caribbean Camera that “Bass was taught by his grandfather, a travelling musician, to play the guitar but taught himself to play the mandolin and cuatro.”

“He was passionate about his music,” she said.

Joan Alexander, long-time promoter of the annual parang soca lime in  Toronto, recalled that Los Pajaros played at her  “Christmas time events” for many  years.

“He (Bass)  was a friendly, easy-going person,” she said.

Cassar said that Bass  ” travelled with Los Pajaros to New York, Houston, Boston, Miami, Ottawa, Montreal and other cities, bringing the joy of parang to the Trinidadian diaspora at Christmas time.

” His involvement with the group led by Dr.Glenn Cassar, lasted approximately 20 years, until his ailments affected his ability to continue with the band.”

Partap  leaves his wife Joan, his children Ken, Lisa and Sally and their spouses, seven grandchildren and one  great grandchild.

A funeral service for the late Basdeo Partap was held  last Thursday in Mississauga.