Glenroy Joseph - Pan Enthusiast, Pan & Calypso Media Cataloger & Collector- speaks on Pan & Panorama 2012
Global - In an exclusive interview with When Steel Talks - Pan Enthusiast, Carnival, Pan & Calypso Media Cataloger & Collector - Glenroy R. Joseph shares his overall views on Pan, Panorama and more...
“Panorama is both a curse and a blessing. It is a blessing because it has produced great music, great memories, and legendary arrangements and performances. It is a curse because single minded focus on Panorama has helped to diminish the steelbands participation in Trinidad's signature festival, the Carnival, at great detriment to the Carnival itself.” ...Glenroy Joseph
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Good news, pan people.
To all the fans out there wondering what the legendary TASPO steelband sounded like, our intrepid cultural sleuth Terry has tracked down a mini album from that historic band, which he has sent me to be digitized and posted.
I don't know how he does it, folks, but that's what he does. I got it in the mail today, and I will be posting it ASAP.
Others could talk, but my friend Terry delivers.
Thank you again, Terry.
Good one Glenroy...not in agreement with your view of Panorama judging as a "mission impossible" though...but that is another story...
CORRECTION: The last Steelband Festival - Pan Is Beautiful XI - was held in Trinidad during November 2008. Pan Is Beautiful XII scheduled for October last year was cancelled.
Pan'tum & Reuben: I am a serious collector of Caribbean music in all AUTHENTIC formats and would gladly pay for any pan CD & DVDs, if they were readily available: For example: CD/ DVDs for Pan Is Beautiful (World Steelband Music Festival) held every 2 years (usually) since 1980, are unavailable beyond the 6th one held in 1992. The last one was held in T&T in 2010..and NOTHING in any music format!!
The MANY collectors, (not pirates), who HUNT for rare PAN & Calypso on ebay and other venues would gladly pay for online tracks, CDs or DVDs if there was a supply through a reputable source. VP Records, for example, provides Jamaica's mento/ska/rocksteady/reggae. Hopefully, Trinidad Music Store will be the internet venue for selling years of PAN & Calypso music , AND that artists/performer(s) SHARE in the proceeds. I hear Garvin implying: TALK alone is not enough!!
Terry, your willingness to pay for purchases is commendable, and my comments were not directed at any one person. I am a "who the cap fits..." kind of person. I was also not referring to "linear income" - sell one item, get some money, sell another, get some more money, etc. I am referring to the opportunity to provide "exponential income" via royalties. A private collection should be "private", and once it is publicly aired in the media, royalties should be due the performers, arrangers, writers, etc., Maybe, the pan professionals need their own royalty association (like ASCAP or BMI), that can ensure that whoever publicly airs any audio or video recording of any performance by any steelband (Worldwide), pay royalty dues, the proceeds of which would be distributed to the performers on the recordings. These proceeds can be payable in the form of "dividends" (every quarter or annually), and managed by a fund group. Members can have the option to withdraw their earnings (taxable income), or "reinvest" them back into the fund, and receive "tax incentives" or other benefits for doing so. This royalty group would also act as "watchdogs" and lobbyists on behalf of its membership. I know a lot of people think that politics has no right in pan, but, apparently, they have not been privy to Eric William's view on the subject. If we do not have strong "political" representation, as well as proper protection of our recorded works, the pan industry will never live up to its fullest potential. Unless, we also have a "workers" (i.e. maker, sinker, tuner, blender, arranger, performer, scribe, etc.) union, then the pannist* will continue to be marginalized, exploited, and discriminated against, especially in the class-based and skin color-coded society of Trinidad & Tobago.
Finally, Terry, I am focused on ideas, not events nor people, and I call things as I see them. "Pirates" came from your thought-process, for that word was not even in my mind. I appeal to people's consciences, and your introduction of that term, could be seen as a "Freudian slip". For a long-time collector to claim that they would "gladly pay", after not paying for numerous years, is, to me, conveniently ignorant, and serves the intended viewing audience's interests, and not those of the performer. I admire your faith in "the MANY collectors"; me, I'm from the "Show Me State", and I say they should show the money! Keep collecting, Terry. The audience awaits. The music lives. Now if we can find someone willing to collect the royalty funds. The performer awaits...The musician dies...
Your first paragraph lucidly details measures to thwart the 'Pirate'; my word used advisedly.
The culture of entartainment, be it modeling, acting, R&B, Jazz, RUM & COCO-COLA, Houdini, Paul Robeson through Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston et al (even in aid of catastrophies..Haiti, Katrina) is fraught with 'PIRACY', or maybe 'PEONAGE' ? is the better word.
But until the much needed regulations and union are in place, what should the consumer 'audience' of PAN do this weekend? Turn off WST or CTV or have a no show in North Stand?...Don't buy a CD or DVD?. How do we, (IN THE MEANTIME), 'pass de hat' to ASSURE the 'workers' compensation?
At least, 'the music (of yore) lives' through those of us who purchase it for personal enjoyment and SHARE with others, be it by hand, mail, You-tube or WST.
I do support, as opposed to being 'conveniently ignorant' of, the need to protect those 'victimized'.
But, music IS my love, so I play on....so it never dies.
T:)
Why so defensive, Terry? Again, if the cap fits, wear it. I don't know you, and cannot account for your actions or intentions. I am not sure I can be willing to consider "RUM & COCO-COLA" as a "culture of entertainment" I should be proud of, because that "culture" was for the "entertainment" of foreign (mostly white) drunken sailors, looking to spread their venereal diseases with "Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clementina,", where "both mother and daughter, working for the Yankee dollar". Of course, calypso addressed this culture, but to consider alcoholism anything other than a disease, in MY opinion, is irresponsible. As far as the concerns of the "audience", again, that should not be the concern of the (true) pan body. The NFL and NBA were not concerned about fans, during their lockouts. As we speak, the oil workers union are considering the non-violent action of boycott. So, to ask me, a defender of the artistes and artists, to patronize those who see being "entertained" as "culture", is expecting too much. For you to conclude that I am suggesting that the poor audience "turn off WST,or CTV...", shows that you have not understood what I stated in my comments. You just felt attacked, and went into fighting (words) mode. Re-read my previous comments, my colleague, and you will see I am WAY beyond those measures, which I know from past history (with Rudolph Charles and Witco Gay Desperadoes), is a sacrifice we seem to be incapable of. Things only hurt us enough to cry about it, not to do something about it, and ANY change in conditions, would ONLY come be a united and collective sacrifice. This is the MAIN reason, pan is pretty much the same, in a socio-political context. Surely, the elite LOVE being "entertained", but the cultural expressions of a people are far more than entertainment, and indeed the plantation owners of Bahia, learned that the hard way. We agree music "never dies". Nor does it have to pay bills.
I mentioned the RUM & COCC-COLA song, written by Lord Invader & Lionel Belasco, plagiarized and copyrighted in US by M. Amsterdam and a huge 'entertainment' hit (1945) by Andrews Sisters... as one of the MANY instances of 'Pirates' looting (exploiting) cultural expression.
I sincerely expect favorable response from your government to your earnest suggestions re royalties and, that your active efforts for a pan 'workers' union be realized...soonest.
"...entertainment for you, martyr gone for me." Third World, 96 Degrees.
Well said Terry.
And for those who may not know, Terry is a true collector of Carribean culture who has probably spent a small fortune following his hobby and supporting the culture.
He has been extremely generous in sharing his collection with me, so that I could post some of his rare , hard to find stuff for the enjoyment of us all.
I first met Terry online when he outbid me for a rare copy of the 1969 Panorama finals album on EBay, an album he generously shared with me so that I could post it and share it with the pan people.
Without Terry's generosity, I doubt that many would have even known that this music existed.
And I feel that I must reiterate that people like myself, "Is De pan in Me" and others who post videos and music do not do it for personal gain.
WE do it to recognize the artistes and performers, and to expose and promote the culture.
Personally, I would find it morally objectionable to profit off of these performances, especially the videos, when I know that most of the artistes involved received little monetary rewards.
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