For decades, my ONLY DREAM for PAN was to see a SOLO PERFORMER from TRINIDAD touring the world, filling concert halls and showcasing PAN MUSIC. And for the record, once again, I am not in the STEELBAND TING. I want ONE PAN PLAYER on stage with a BACKUP BAND. That is the product that I think could MAKE MONEY and EXPOSE THE PAN.
But now you are stuck with TWO PROBLEMS: Defining the product (THE ACT) and finding the right talent. And, clearly, we as TRINIDADIANS have not been able to solve those two problems. And I think that we are still miles away from UNDERSTANDING THAT MARKETABLE VERSION OF THE PAN.
Personally, I have spent decades asking myself: How would you fashion that product, Claude. And I never did construct AN ACT. Meanwhile, I have seen many of the GREATS OF PAN perform live -- and still walked away not filling THE ACT VOID.
As great and successful as ANDY NARELL is (and everybody knows what a big ANDY I am) he did not fill the void in terms of a COMMERCIAL PAN ACT.
Which brings me to THE MERRYMEN.OF BARBADOS: A group of less than talented musicians who honed a COMMERCIAL CALYPSO ACT over the years; playing for KINGS, QUEENS, WORLD CELEBRITIES -- leaving GENERATIONAL WEALTH for their familes while TALENTED CALYPSONIANS die everyday .. broke and begging the government for handouts.
Now I know that THE MERRYMEN had a platform and certain built-in advantages -- but PAN TRINBAGO is the WORLD'S BIGGEST PLATFORM in terms of MARKETING PAN MUSIC GLOBALLY ... and they have been unwilling and unable to take advantage of that platform and LAUNCH a GLOBAL PAN STAR. Think of what $5 MILLION DOLLARS (of the $60 MILLION stolen $$$$) could have done to MARKET PAN MUSIC. But even so, the TALENT FOR THE GLOBAL STAGE is lacking as I have tried to demonstrate in so many ways on THIS FORUM over the years.
I think I just digressed!!!
Just like EMILE STRAKER believed that there was a demand for GLOBAL CALYPSO MUSIC when he dabbled small time in the music in CANADA -- I believe (I KNOW) that there is a GLOBAL MARKET for a well-conceived COMMERCIAL PAN ACT.
And when I saw THE ACT produced by WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE -- THE COMMERCIAL PAN ACT (which I have spent years trying to define) suddenly crystallized in my mind.
Anybody who tries to compare what ANDY DOES (or any other PAN PERFORMER for that matter) to this VIDEO -- that I am TOUTING SO ROBUSTLY -- does not understand the concept of a COMMERCIAL PAN ACT designed to FILL GLOBAL CONCERT HALLS and spread THE GOSPEL OF PAN around the world.
And it is because of this FUNDAMENTAL LACK of UNDERSTANDING of the GLOBAL PAN MARKET that TRINIDAD PAN finds itself WITHOUT A PAN STAR shining brightly in CONCERT HALLS AROUND THE WORLD.
Once again I encourage the 1.4 million PAN LOVERS in TRINIDAD and the 20,000 members on WHEN STEEL TALKS and the 700,000 TRINIDAD EXPATS around the WORLD, plus the adopted PAN LOVERS from continent to continent -- to take a time out and look at the VIDEO with analytical eyes and you will see that THIS VIDEO offers THE KEY to defining a SOLO COMMERCIAL PAN ACT (with the right back up band) in CONCERT HALLS around THE WORLD.
Of course, you still have THE MARKETING PROBLEM -- and PAN TRINBAGO holds the key to that challenge. But when you pass up KERON VALENTINE and LAWFORD DUPRES and ROBERT AMAR and put the key in BEVERLEY'S HAND -- I am sure to be coming back on THIS FORUM three years from now asking my redundant question: WHERE IS THE MUSIC?
Replies
Claude...
I made 4 attempts to give a tip but i keep on losing my dialogue so i ain't trying no more.
Brenda H.