A Tale of Two Brothers and Their Band
by Dalton Narine
Published with permission from Dalton Narine.
Submitted to When Steel Talks by Dalton Narine.
Always, it seems, something’s going on down there in Cocorite. In the late 1940s and 50s, a steel band took shape in the backyard of Edgar and Carmen Pouchet’s home on the Slipway. The family had come from Newtown, next door to Valentino’s steel band, and accordingly, Edgar Junior Pouchet had an inkling about steel band men.
When he was 13, Junior and brother Everard, 12, stumbled upon and old mucked up tenor that lay half-buried in an old lady’s yard up Fort George Hill. Junior is the oldest of seven boys and four girls (“When Mommy shouted food’s ready, it was like roll call and if you didn’t reach on time, your meat gone,” Junior’s brother Edwin remembers.)
The 24-note pan might have afforded Junior a kind of baptism in pan, considering his plans for the instrument. But it couldn’t carry melody. Not because he washed it in the sea. So when neighborhood friends heard that Junior have a pan leh we go an’ see it, they laughed at the “strainer” he presented.
Carmen saved the day, however, when she snagged a red, white and blue Tripoli tenor for $25. Now he had a sweet pan. Everard wanted one, too, and his birthday was nearing. Soon, a four-note bass, a second pan and a guitar pan joined up. The Pouchet brothers studied at St Mary’s College and a couple of the players were school mates.
But Gold Coast, a growing ensemble of 14 teenagers named after the West African country that became Ghana after its independence, lacked musicianship. They attempted to straighten that out by enlisting Leroy Boldon, a St. Mary’s colleague from Behind the Bridge who brought along a Trinidad All Stars player he introduced as Strong Back. With six songs in their repertoire, the plan was to show off the band in the J’Ouvert of 1952. Edgar, a manager at Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, accommodated the group by driving them to the Queen’s Park Savannah, but Gold Coast ran afoul of the planned route by happenstance that morning.
“A couple of fellas that we brought in included a flag man and a guy with a brown bag,” Junior recalls. “He pulled out a bottle of rum and a small glass and gave each of us a sip, though none of us ever drank. Next thing you know, the flag man say, ‘All for town,’ and we had to cover our faces with our sombreros or sailor hats when we passed in front St. Mary’s because the priests had warned us about playing in a steel band. On our way home, we dropped by Valentino’s and everybody on the block was shocked. They say, ‘Look, the Pouchets have a band.’”
Replies
Pan Times,
Thank you for this re-visit. Memories are made and revisiting them gives us the pleasure of reliving our individual lives. I agree, if we made a movie of each person's struggles and happiness it would be a time memorial for the history archives. I have visited many panyards and struck up conversations with pan die-hards and the stories I heard really need to be documented. So happy to see that Dalton is moving ahead in that direction.
Brenda H.
Condolences to the Pouchet family again..Edwin I know Junior will be waiting for you to open one of the best steelbands in Heaven. May both of you Rest In Peace.
RIP Edwin Pouchet. Condolences to the Pouchet family. Another big loss to the Steelband fraternity!
Reunited once more. What a loss to us. What a gain to heaven. May their talent live on. Long live the leacy of Junior and Edwin! Long live beautiful steelband music!
Yes, our pan lives on, must be great Panorama in the Heavens with all the big bards!!
To the families of the Pouchets, all the guys of the "Silver Stars" family, to all the Trinis like me whose
first jump was with this sweet pan, relive the memories with a smile for a man who left us the great gift of music, if music is the food of life, play on, may eternal rest be his. We have got the music at Walt Disney World in Orlando at many of the Resorts and water parks, Junior we would all miss you but the time has come to rejoin our Master and play on, enjoyed the come back of the Silver Stars and the midnight jump up!! Thanks for the memories
Another Soldier has passed. Let us continue to recognized these men and women as Field Generals. Let us honor them while they are still with us. Condolences to the Pouchet Family, Sliver Stars and all in the Pan Movement. I was entralled as a little girl in South Trinindad with the music of the Pan. I eventually broke with tradition and ended up in a pan yard in 1972. My love affaire with Pan continues to this day. It started because of Pioneers like Mr. Pouchet. May he rest in peace. His contrributions with live on for generations to come. Peace!
I never knew the man but i know his music and that would live on
for ever in the players that played it.. R.I.P
Mr Pouchet....
A gentle giant has passed and left his mark for all to see and hear. I met Junior and Everard as little boys at "Tranquill" and cherised his friendship for over 65 years. On behalf of the Harvard Harps, for whom he arranged a jouvert morning bomb tune, our profound sympathies go out to his family. He will be missed, but his memory will live on.
Dalton, as a small note, Selwyn Gomes went abroad with Tropitones in 1955.
RIP Junior, saw you at Disney in Florida awhile back.
Thanks Dalton for these words, that from the outset sound like a movie's screenplay.
We should preserve these stories that make for good drama - I'm sure each steelband man have similar interesting tales to tell.
Like myself, Junior became a true brother to many, and will now be sadly missed, yet his music shall etrernally live on in our hearts.
I had the most fun playing pan under junior pouchet in silver stars on a friday night was like going to a party to practice around the carnival season i also met the master panist Len Bougsie sharpe who taught me let it be in silver stars pan yard I will never forget junior pouchet may he rest in peace.