The New York Times
New York, USA - Their racks of steel-pan drums strung together, the musicians of the Despers USA band trudged alongside as the entire operation — drum racks, stage, cooking tent, portable toilet — rolled down Washington Avenue in Brooklyn last weekend. They were under tremendous pressure, but there was no way to rush to their new home with that teetering cargo.
“It took us over an hour,” said Odie Franklin, an arranger for the band, and the dean of a public high school for 10 months of the year. “We were blocking traffic.”
Last week, days before New York’s championship competition for steel-pan bands, Despers USA lost the rental deal on the yard it had been using for rehearsals, a patch of vacant ground next door to a flat-fix storefront on Classon Avenue, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. So they relocated a mile away, in a space on the corner of Franklin Avenue and Montgomery Street.
read more
Replies
I hate to air this, but we are the ones to be blamed. I performed with this band from 1975 through 1979. Back in 1994, I advised the Powers That be, to purchase that said double lot instead of renting. No one saw my vision.
All Brooklyn Steel Orchestras should have been owners of their own pan yards and more.
Love Peace and Pan
As in TnT, The Steelpan family has to struggle to survive. I wish Odie and Despers USA, all the best. in the upcoming competition. It's a band I always look forward to hearing, because I really like Odie's music.