International Steelband Foundation
“Big 5 – The Steelband Concert 3rd Edition”, under the distinguished Patronage of Prime Minister the Honourable Dr Keith Rowley, brings together Desperadoes, Massy Trinidad All Stars, BP Renegades, HADCO Phase II and Republic Bank Exodus. The much-anticipated annual event takes place at the Grandstand, Queen’s Park Savannah on Saturday 26 October. Between them they have won the National Panorama title forty-five (45) times since it was first held in 1963. These 5 bands have also dominated the National Steelband Music Festivals, World Steelband Music Festival, Caribbean Panorama and World Steelband Panorama.
Traditionally the BIG 5 celebrates individuals who have contributed to the Steelband movement. Teddy Guerra and Pat Bishop were honoured in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In its 2019 edition, Big 5 will celebrate the legendary pan inventor and arranger Neville Jules.
Neville Jules was born on May 21st, 1927, in East Port of Spain. He first went to Hell Yard – the genesis of the steel orchestra, as a 14-year-old and joined Second Fiddle. He quickly rose to prominence because of the speed of his hands. He was the first person to play a pan with two sticks: it was Neville who mastered a special 3-Note Tenor Kettle, slung around the shoulders and played with two sticks held downwards.
By 1943 it was Neville Jules who launched the process of forging ‘pan’ and ‘pan craft’ away from the mere crudity of back-up rhythm i.e. tenor-kettles, cuff-booms and du-dups or bass-kettles into the modern musical instruments that exist today. He took us away from “beating pan” to “playing pan” and was the first person to move away from the sound of the military bands of that era - the bass-kettles and tenor-kettles – to voicing melody, harmony, as well as rhythm on pans. The prowess on their instruments led the band from Hell Yard to be renamed Trinidad All Stars.
Jules invented the Four-Note Ping-Pong, the first melody pan, held on the shoulder and played with one-stick. By the time other pioneers joined the process he had taken the Ping-Pong on to eight notes, utilizing the convex/concave tuning combination, then onto 14, then 16 notes. Neville, achieving the 8 notes of the full musical scale, triggered a creative explosion as numerous pioneers joined the effort to increase the number of notes. Jules then went on to develop his “family of pans” i.e. tune-boom, Cuatro (Guitar) Pan, Alto Pan, Grundig, Trombone Pan and 2-Bass, then 3-Bass, 5-Bass (High and Low), 6-Bass, and later Tenor Bass, which he specifically developed for his tune of choice for the 1954 Music Festival.
Always known for its discipline, few things exemplify this characteristic as well as when Neville developed the ‘Bomb’ concept – the playing of European Classics in calypso style. All Stars pan yard was then located on Charlotte Street near Duke Street, above the Maple Leaf Club; this floor was referred to as the ‘Garret.’ After the end of pan practice at 11 p.m., members would return an hour and a half later to practice in secret. The Bomb tune was learned with bare fingers in the garret where only one section of the band at a time could be accommodated; the whole band played together for the first time when all the pans were brought down and the ‘Bombs’ were dropped on J’ouvert mornings. Trinidad All Stars has won countless Bomb competitions and competes annually in the eponymous Neville Jules Bomb Competition.
Neville arranged for Trinidad All Stars in every decade from the 1940s through the early years of the new millennium. This is testimony to the power of his creative genius. That the band is at its core a creative, dynamic, disciplined unit, and tenacious in purpose is because of the culture that Neville Jules instilled in the band by his actions.
According to Les Slater, chairman of the T&T Folk Arts Institute based in New York, “Jules relocated to New York in 1972, ending his marathon run as the All Stars leader. His expertise in the art form would soon benefit school-age youngsters in Brooklyn, after he was engaged as a steel band music instructor for several public schools in the borough. He later was instrumental in setting up a Trinidad All Stars outfit in Brooklyn that made his abilities accessible to an even broader base of steel band music enthusiasts, including adults and children. The connection long established between Jules and his band in Port of Spain has remained intact and, remarkably, even into his eighties, he was furnishing music that Trinidad All Stars performed.”
Slater added, “Jules was present practically at the dawn of the period of experimentation in the early 1940s that saw the steel band come to fruition. His leadership of Trinidad All Stars, from the post -WWII period and through the 19505 and 60s added a few memorable chapters to steel band lore in Trinidad and Tobago. Directly responsible for the band’s musical output, Jules made history when he led the way in reconfiguring a number of classical compositions to fit the calypso genre – a trend that would be soon followed not only by other steel bands but the country’s leading dance orchestras as well. That path carved by Jules led to the so-called “bomb” tunes played by steel bands on Carnival day – a practice that endures to the current time. Also the tuner of the band’s instruments for many years, Jules was responsible for the tradition that came to be associated with Trinidad All Stars of a distinctive, readily identifiable bass sound. These and other features made Jules a titanic figure in the leadership ranks of the steel band world.”
Neville Jules was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Silver) for long and meritorious service in the field of culture and community service in 2018.
Tickets for “Big 5 – The Steelband Concert” at the Grandstand, Queen’s Park Savannah on Saturday 26 October are available at NLCB Booths nationwide.
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