After seeing the discussion on "REMEMBERING SPREE SIMON" I realize that there is still controversy over one of the most important parts of the "HISTORY OF PAN" On many oceasions when there is controversy with an historical event there is no one alive to set the record straight, we are fortunate to have [in my opinion] the most important person ALIVE to set the record straight. Ellie Manette is often the other name assosiated with the invention of the pan and is still alive, I am sure that he will be only too happy to tell us about this part of History HE made. WST it is with urgency I am appealing to you, please locate this man and do an interview. When ELLIE TALKS PAN PEOPLE WILL BE LISTENING.
PS This year we have the PROPHET OF PAN, ARCHBISHOP OF PAN, we are looking for the INVENTOR OF PAN to get the true HISTORY OF PAN so we might as well call this year the YEAR OF PAN.
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Sid I once read that "A FOOL SAYS IN HIS HEART THERE IS NO GOD" at sometime or the other we all could remember shouting Oh GOD! We live in a time when it is not politically correct to talk about GOD but we all know if one has to look at their dying kid on a hospital bed they cry out for GOD, man only cry out for GOD when he know he is not able. In the early days with Tambo Bambo they used to CHANT not sing, chanting is spiritual, this is where pan came from, so my borther if you want to show the GOD in pan more power to you.
Cecil it is EXTREMELY bigoted to assume that because a person keeps their "religion" to themselves, that they don't "believe" in "GOD". FYI - I know "GOD", but I also know we ALL are given the FREEDOM to choose, and I defend the right of the atheist, as much as I defend my own. This forum has NO place for lengthy sermons, and ALL the self-proclaimed "righteous", may be in for the same surprise the "Scribes and Pharisees" got, when their "Savior" told them to "GET AWAY FROM ME! HYPOCRITES AND PARASITES". A wolf in shepherd's clothing, is more dangerous than when in sheep's, and I am "Godly" and "spiritual" enough to, AT LEAST, recognize an IMPOSTOR! You CANNOT be "born again", until you pay the "wages of sin", which is: DEATH!!! (And that's according to the book, many consider "God's Word". Not my words.)
I would like to direct my attention to pantum,I know discussions like these get heated sometimes but only because there's alot of passion involved, whether right or wrong we are discussing and that's a good thing.Maybe this is a start of something that will go on for years and it sure will enlighten the new generations better than we have been.I've been waiting for years to mention this but didn't have the opportunity so hear goes:Back in the nineties I attended a concert in Totonto which was held in a church.All stars steelband was the featured band playing hyms so beautifully that if you closed your eyes you wouldn't be able to tell it was a steelband.Then out came a vocalist I never got his name but with him accompanied by the band provided a symphonic sound surpassed by none.I mean he didn't even use a microphone but yet the balance was studio type production.I was so inspired by that performance that I wrote a calypso about the event and the infinite use of pan.I never released the calypso but my brother Coleman Diaz recorded it just to have and maybe have one of the pros produce it.I called it Pan Rebellion.May be someday it will be heard but in the mean time let's not quarrel let's not fight let's get together for we all must unite for the sake of the survival on pan.Let's encourage the upcoming youths to push this artform to its limit and show the world what pan can do.I have seen it Won't you all join me to spread the word?...Robert Diaz..
Diaz, thanks for directing you comment at me. Again, while most choose to ignore and devalue the importance of the "movement", that has been my focus. Again, when I make a claim, I back it up with primary sources. And, again, rather than, rebut my claims with sources, others choose to attack my person, disrespect my dad's contribution, disrespect my positive contributions in this forum, and totally go off on religious and philosophical tangents. They come at me with frivolous sarcastic remarks, and I call them out. SIDDS, for example, has NEVER acknowledged my dad's contribution, and I take PERSONAL offense to that, both as George Goddard's son, and as a pan activist. He has also disrespected peoples right to choose their identity, their "image" of "God" and "spirituality", and their cultural worldview, and I, and many others, do not appreciate his condescending tone, as if speaking to "his flock". My sense of humor, says, "Flock him", and, it is EXACTLY my honesty, and ability to articulate my thoughts, that is causing all this hate against me. Again, EVERTHING we post on WST is time-stamped, and I write not only for the now, but also for posterity, so that EVERYONE can get a clear understanding of what the LEGACY of GEORGE "SONNY" GODDARD is all about.
GHOST
Pantum,I know only too well the frustation you endure.I too have a lot of experience being ridiculed for trying to push my culture.My brother Paul came to Buffalo 40 yrs ago bringing with him a band he formed in the Bahamas called "Caribbean Extravaganza"We play island music modified to suit the American audience.On one of the few occasions that we had a trinidadian in the house he happened to over hear a young member of the audience asking for an autograph.LOL..yes he laughed out loud and added this coment"all you eh bet all you fooling people nah..what the hell..autograph?..well I never hee hee hee" Now in contrast to that behavior another patron approached us quite intrigued by the sound we were getting from the steel pans complimented us big time and hired us to play at his daughter's wedding.So you see friend there are hee hees all over, that's why we have to be strong in order to prevail over imature statements that's trying to hold us back.When talking about pan the name Goddard can't be left out and that's not divine talk that's fact.I looked it up in the library.Our fathers who left legacies depend on us to to realize it....let's not let them down...Robert diaz.
Thanks, Diaz, for your encouraging response. The more they attack, the stronger I get. Respect. I will keep fighting, and when they were busy feting, I was in training. I am their "inconvenient truth"! Hotep (Peace). GHOST
I will be devils advocate here. Before WST we didn’t have an OPEN FORUM for the Pan fraternity worldwide and although by its very openness it allows distortions of History (of Pan) at times,,, I do feel that we are (as a international fraternity) better off WITH IT. KUDOS to WST. Nuff Respect. This forum gives us (all) the ability to EXCHANGE VIEWS on the instrument and music we love. It creates a dump bin of information that at some point in the future can be sifted and analized and put in perspective. I do have one beef tho, a tympanic (rhythm) instrument is NOT fully a musical (melodic) instrument. Only the Marimba family, the Pianoforte family and the Pan family of instruments encompass that double trait. The du dup was not a musical instrument it was entirely and singularly Tympanic. Spree was the first DOCUMENTED by the newspaper (the Gazzette) sometime in 1946 or 47 to have played and been observed to play a song (God save the King) (George VI) for the Duke of York (I think it was).. Pan was playing songs before this. Spree didn’t come out of nowhere. Remember we had an 8 note ping pong sunk concave, in 1939. What do u think was being played on those 8 notes?? Thanks Paddy Corea
Paddy since we are playing devils advocate here I would like to draw attension to the fact that in the interview with Ellie he said that Spree was the first person to PLAY a tune on that small pan, he did not say anything about who MADE the pan.
Cecil, I thought he said that Spree was also NOT the first person to play a tune, and Ellie's claim that he was the first to use the 55-gal drum, is "a lie".
BTW - Neville Jules used to be my next door neighbor in Malick, Barataria. Who knows what street he lived on?
If you tell us what street YOU lived on maybe we might be able to tell you what street he lived on.
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