There was no need for the lamb to lie down with the wolf. It was close, though. Who’s to say the low spark of steel band boys and girls wouldn’t have come into play, helping to render the Rama less a matter of entitlement and more so a festival that joyed us all a few weeks after the sky almost fell on the Savannah’s big do.
I noticed bands streaming festival colors. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Beauty is nice but never touching. So I listened rather than watch.
Trinidad All Stars on the drag about to hit the stage - photo by VIDOPSTRINIDAD ALL STARS
A decent church-going fella, this arranger named Leon Smooth Edwards. Also a tough guy in the panyard. Tough guys don’t dance. But you bet Trinis and pan lovers around the world can’t hold their excitement until Trinidad All Stars (TAS) trots out a slo jam a la Woman on the Bass, the band’s folksy masterpiece. The republic seems to have cornered the future of the confectionary market in a piece of music that lasts eight minutes but, like Woman on the Bass and Curry Tabanca, it could be years before the latest treat turns mouldy. If ever.
Deep in party lore, wherever a lime gathers for a sweet time they still dance their ass off as if celebrating Annie Lopez, the first female Desperadoes bassist and heroine of Scrunter’s funky story, Woman on the Bass.
Smooth, of course, doesn’t language like that. In another lifestyle he’s Cool Hand Smooth.
For years, Smooth has been walking around with this thing he calls “idioms,” which shadow him around like Bass Man. The only time we all get to see his idioms — and hear their Song of the Sirens — is on Carnival Saturday night.
If you hear the neighbor, likewise Town, erupt in a new old phrase like, well, “Boy, de band played out of its skin, yes,” they may not be aware that Smooth’s idioms are akin to Duke Ellington’s saxophonist, Paul Gonzalves, having a lark in the middle of Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, during a performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz festival. It was such an electrifying suite the vinyl LP continues to make a name for itself.
“Full Extreme” was pan’s Diminuendo & Crescendo. And that’s no hyperbole. I’m not straying on the edge of arrogance here. At all.
In a culture where a radio host once titled his show “Bring yuh music and come,” Smooth traveled to the Rama with a slice of bendy kaiso riddums and a mouthful of road march vibes.
Girl, the people come together over the melody, and Smooth took the beat to the usual extreme movements of the hips. Everybody get it. It was hot, yuh hear.
If you didn’t catch it you can see yourself doing the waylay waylay long after the mas. And as long as Woman on the Bass drop een a fete or a lime with her half sister, ha lord, is doubles we feastin’ on.
But we still at the Panorama. And Smooth is building a rapturous gig, trill by trill; weaving refreshing counterpoint passages of temperament and passion.
Whoa! He's laying down an ornate red carpet for us to wine and jam.
Oooh, didja hear that? The rhythm slipped off to the side and then came back in.
Not to worry. It was a device to bring in the Carnival flavor. A jam improvisation.
In the end, the arranger left us with an unusual use of the chromatic to serve the song’s coda.
It busted its own groove, the rhythms welling up, then relaxing like Las Cuevas waves. A final spasm of belly to belly violence rubbing up amid the thunderous roar like at Maracas.
No cymbals had was to crash. Not even that lickrish showboat line, "Tah-da!"
Ay, man. To paraphrase LL Cool J, “Mama said, 'knock you out.’ "
Well now, no arguing. It sure was a classic joint.
Cut the lights.
Back to Smooth. hear him speak pan and panists.
“There’re a few guys out there on the cutting edge,” Smooth acknowledged. “I expected anything from them. I never take them for granted.”
Smooth doesn’t sweat the small stuff. Why wait for the results when he could be in his bed fast asleep.
(And about the anomaly of delivering the results. World-class competitors at meets receive theirs right away. What happens in the lengthy time between the final band’s performance and the announcement. What’s going on backstage? That’s too much time for error. Deliberate errors. The judges leave the Savannah soon after they submit their ballots. Tell me, does Wells Fargo impound them for safekeeping? A squad of police officers? A churchy granny?)
DESPERADOES
It was a stern opening to the Rama, the smooth sound of Desperadoes.
“Good Morning” salutes the night with a whiff of curry. You know Trinis. We curry anything, wild or not. Hummingbirds, nah.
A few days earlier, Smooth believed that Zanda was feeling his way through.
“He has a good band with him,” he said. “But in the ring, I could tussle out with him.”
Zanda: “I’m a composer. The creator draws me to greatness. What drew me to Desperadoes was the totality, the warmness of the music and the rhythm.
“Here’s how I relate to “Good Morning,” he said about the band’s winning song in the preliminaries and the semifinals.
“I’m dealing with giving account to the slave master on how his plantations are doing. It’s called the chantwell, the account given in calypso style. They used to sing it.”
Zanda’s life and lifestyle is a story founded on music and architecture. He joined Siparia Deltones in 1967 and wound up as the band’s arranger. In time he would start Third World in 1969, host Kool and The Gang during their stay in Trinidad, perform at Queen’s Hall, study music in Canada, become a member of the QRC Jazz Workshop and work gigs with Desperadoes in the 1970s and 1990s as well as back up Lord Kitchener and the Roaring Lion.
That Zanda would arrange a popular song and win Panorama for Desperadoes in 2016 was not at all beyond the pale.
Replies
Great read Dalton. I would have loved to have heard about the real story behind the Pelham and BJ co-arranging this year in Exodus.
Any chance of asking Curtis why is Diaz still associated with Desperadoes? I couldn't imagine Rudolph Charles allowing such a publicly disliked character to be associated with Desperadoes.
And what about the three Americans with Skiffle. Okay I know I'm getting greedy here. Thanks for the great article.
bugs
bugs: You and me does get along real good on this forum. But when you start encouraging a NATIONAL ICON like DALTON NARINE to come on here and start taking SUBTLE pot shots at MY PRESIDENT (The RIGHT HONOURABLE KEITH DIAZ -- the GREATEST and most honest PRESIDENT in the history of PAN TRINBAGO) -- I am forced to enforce the SIDELINE CONCUSSION TEST and keep you off the forum (field) for the next month!!!
Claude we are fortunate to have Dalton rubbing shoulders with the WST Forumites from time to time. I know he is a very busy man, so I won't ask him to lead that "Forensic Investigation" that begins tomorrow of your buddy Rolly Polly and D'Foto.
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Thanks, Bugs. I'm curious, too. Diaz IS a Desperado. Don't let the ol' Starlift lifestyle fool you.
The truth Dalton is, I find even his remote association with Desperadoes as an iron man unsettling.
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