I was at the PRELIMS in 1965 when GUINNESS CAVALIERS came down the drag with a CLOUD OF DUST and BOBBY MOHAMMED atop a TRUCK with COWBELL in HAND conducting a REVOLUTION IN PANORAMA MUSIC.
I had never heard anything PAN like that in my life before.
That was a THRILL!!! I was MESMERIZED and the memory stayed in my head as the THE HIGHEST THRILL in PAN. Except for SILVER STARS on the ROAD FOR CARNIVAL and the CARNIVAL FETES.
(For whatever reason I love that HERKY JERKY style of arranging that Junior Pouchett did with SILVER STARS.)
But, today, when I go back and listen to this arrangement of MELODY MAS by Bobby Mohammed -- I find it depressing. There is no LOCAL CHARACTER in the MUSIC and it is a failed attempt to WHITEN THE CALYPSO. And as a CALYPSO LOVER -- I want CALYPSO in my CALYPSO.
And this is the problem I have with DUVONE STEWART and what he does with the CALYPSO/SOCA -- WHITENING THE MUSIC over 50 years later and people calling that MUSICAL PROGRESS.
The COLONIAL DAYS come and gone (and least in my mind) so I say that we should arrange CALYPSO in CALYPSO for the PANORAMA and to hell with the CLASSICALLY TRAINED JUDGES who are expecting WHITENESS in we CALYPSO especially at CARNIVAL TIME.
My favourite NEW YORK ARRANGER (Kendall Williams) is trying to break that trend -- but dem people too brainwash to realize that PAN has matured beyond the 60s HOPES OF PANORAMA.
Read all dem thesis on PAN that dem WHITE YANKEES writing and you will see that they want to go in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION to EMULATE THE ROOTS --while we are still stuck in a 50s and 60s of legitimizing THE INSTRUMENT.
Well, I doh know nothing about MUSIC -- but even me ... I have matured MUSICALLY beyond that!!! So I really expect better from them GENIUS ARRANGERS!!!
TRINIDAD is an INDEPENDENT COUNTRY and we have WE KINDA MUSIC which has proven itself AROUND THE WORLD. So why are we ashamed to DELVE INTO IT -- especially on the SATURDAY NIGHT BEFORE CARNIVAL? And allyuh want to know why the AUDIENCE is dwindling.
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30 years later, the QUALITY OF PANS have improved DRAMATICALLY -- so it would be nice to see SOMEONE from TRINIDAD CRACK THE NOTES with AUTHORITY.
I have watched some WHITE PAN TUNERS in AMERICA tune PANS and their focus has always been on how HARD you can HIT THAT NOTE and still maintain the PURITY OF THE TONE.
So it would be nice to see a TRINIDADIAN apply that approach and do a PAN RECORDING. Of course, you need to be able to COMPOSE a tune with GLOBAL APPEAL and in that AREA we are GROSSLY LACKING.
That is why I keep asking: WHERE IS THE MUSIC -- especially with all the MUSICAL GENIUSES that we have IN TRINIDAD!!!
Not to mention that NOBODY anywhere is the world has COME CLOSE to ANDY'S BRILLIANCE!!!
Ah bet allyuh doh know that DUVONE'S success today is a result of ANDY'S BRILLIANCE!!!
But I don't care about the relationships and the politics!!! All I care about is GLOBAL PAN MUSIC and the FAILURE of our PAN GENIUSES to achieve that SKILL LEVEL.
... and when it was time for us to MATURE and represent OUR MUSIC with the OUTSIDE INFLUENCE ... ANDY NARELL came down to TRINIDAD and was able (with his vast MUSICAL EDUCATION) to hear the VIBE OF THE ISLAND and convert it MUSICALLY to the GREATEST EXPRESSION of the SOUL OF TRINIDAD in WE KINDA MUSIC!!!
And our MUSICAL GENIUSES are YET TO COME CLOSE!!!
(TRUMP STAYING ON SCRIPT TONIGHT -- AMAZING!!! 4TH OF JULY SALUTE!!!)
THIS CALYPSO is so RAW (so EXPRESSIVELY HARDCORE TRINIDAD and CARNIVAL) -- the job of the arranger at CARNIVAL should be to make it even MORE SO!!!