I am 72 years old and i have lived with some CULTURAL DREAMS that i thought I would LIVE TO SEE MANIFEST. But now I have to face the COLD REALITY that I will GO TO MY GRAVE without ever seeing the fruit of MY IMAGINATION.
I always thought that I would sit down one day and watch a MOVIE from TRINIDAD and when the movie was done I would modify my favourite line from BLOW OUT and speak out loudly saying -- Now that's a MOVIE.
And I always thought that I would live to see a TRINIDAD PAN PLAYER touring the world and WOWING GLOBAL AUDIENCES with HIS MASTERY OF THE PAN.
Finally, more than the FILM and PAN, I was QUITE SURE that I would live to see a TRINIDAD CALYPSONIAN hybridize THE CALYPSO/SOCA to meet the taste of GLOBAL AUDIENCES and rock DANCE HALLS AROUND THE WORLD.
All those dreams have turned to ASHES and all my hopes into BITS OF CLAY (I stole that line from an old POP SONG).
I make lot of references to SMOKING CALIFORNIA SENSIMILLA -- but I don't really smoke grass. However, with all that CULTURAL DISAPPOINTMENT -- I may just have to give it A TRY.
I could live with all THE DISAPPOINTMENT but it is the ARROGANCE and the constant BOASTING that I have had to listen to for so many decades with the deceptive line: WE SO TALENTED!!!
Well, at least i live to see ONE CULTURAL THING that I always believed to be true in the face of decades of ARGUMENT: I always knew that TRINIDAD PAN PLAYERS approached SOLOING THE WRONG WAY. I am not trying to BEAT A DEAD HORSE -- but I GOT PLENTY ABUSE standing my ground ON THAT ONE.
Still, i think that we have ALL THE INGREDIENTS to produce a WORLD CLASS MOVIE -- just not the VISION and DIRECTION. And THE GOVERNMENT has poured a lot of MONEY into the FILM INDUSTRY -- for political purposes more so than WINNING OVER GLOBAL AUDIENCES.
Ah better wake up tomorrow with NEW DREAMS because all my TRINIDAD CULTURAL DREAMS are DEAD!!!
Replies
Despers - BIG5 Pan Concert
New Wave Steel Ensemble - Stardust
Black Stalin - Pan Shootout - 'Play One'
Earl Rodney / Pan Masters
Robert Greenidge Steel Pan Solo
About the soloing they should listen more to what [Cobo Jack] Emanuel Riley did.
Ellie Mannette & Invaders - Wizards of the Steel Drum
Tracks: 1.Pajaro Cho Gui, 2. April Love, 3. Come Back To Sorento, 4.Teensville, 5. Count Five
Personnel: Ellie Mannette -- cellos; Emanuel "Cobo Jack" Riley, Clyde Boothman & Winston Phillip -- tenor pans; Ray Holman (doubling on tenor), Errol Zephyrine & Clayton Green -- double altos; Sidney Joseph, Ancil Joseph & Bailey Jaggernauth -- double guitars; Trevor Charles- bass; Oswald Best -- maracas; Irwin Ross- tumbas; Leno Rogers -- cymbals; Kenrick Smith -- bongos.
Claude, thanks for the confession/unloading, too much to process. What an insight, they say 60 is the new 40, and 70 the new 50. They say one should start counting backward when they reach 70.
The MOST IMPORTANT relationship you'll ever have in LIFE is the relationship YOU have with YOURSELF.
Please help me understand or expend your statement on "SOLOING." I know you are a music critic/producer, is it about technique? Excuse me if I sound simple-minded.
"I always knew that TRINIDAD PAN PLAYERS approached SOLOING THE WRONG WAY."
Will have to continue this one in another conversation.
"I could live with all THE DISAPPOINTMENT but it is the ARROGANCE and the constant BOASTING that I have had to listen to for so many decades with the deceptive line: WE SO TALENTED!!!
Shadow - Dreaming