"High Mas" How did this arrangement win Panorama?

"My main concern is setting this thing forward as an example to what can be done with this kind of music, what changes can be made and what kind of music can be acceptable."

Master arranger Clive Bradley....http://youtu.be/UrYA5-Pxclc

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  • I am wondering if (and I am saying IF) Andy should win ah Panorama, you think we will be saying the same thing? 

  • Finally, I think people are beginning to understand some of the things I've been trying to say.

    The mobile steelband on the road was an artform unto itself, and deserved to be preserved as art 

    It is the way we all fell in love with the steelband, the dynamic steelband on the road , not the static steelband on the stage.

    This is how steelbands should be introduced to the world, participating in Trinidad's signature festival, the Carnival parade.

    I am not one to succumb to conspiracy theories, but I know that many in Trinidad ware displeased by the fact that the steelband changed the Carnival from being a middle class affair to one dominated by young black men brought to the streets by the steelband.

    These people were happy to see the presence of the steelband lessened on the streets.

    Notice who participates in the Carnival today?

    Once the steelbands left the streets, so did most of the young black men who supported them.

    I'm sure that made certain people happy, with all those pan fans "contained" in the Savannah and in Skinner park.

    Take a good look at the participants in the Carnival today, compared to the heyday of the steelbands in the sixties and seventies and tell me I'm wrong.

    • G.J,

      I always enjoyed playing on the road or in fetes,rather than playing on the Panorama stage,as the connection with the listeners was more intimate.

      Glenroy what is the difference between a Timex watch, a Bata Bullets,a Texan jeans,a Chinese merino,a piece of brown paper, a stationary bike .....and..... a Michael Jordan limited edition,a high end Levis jeans,an original Fendi or Armani shirt,two smart phones,a Movado watch,and a "bling my ride" CRV/SUV?

      G.J, consider this a stupid question.

           

    • Well put, Glenroy! It's called: TAKING IT BACK! Returning the Mardi Gras to the bourgeois class, but stealing the lumpen's steel drum in the process. Which racial group/s in Trinidad and Tobago do we really think enjoy/s Carnival? Carnival IS Colour; SKIN COLOUR! If your're White; you're alright; if you're Yellow, you must be a nice fellow; if you're Brown, sick around; if you're Black...TAKE THE STREETS BACK!!!

      Ghost Who Saw The Plot A Long Time Ago! (To take ALL we got!!!) And Andy Narell just sits back thinking, "Man, I didn't know it was this easy to take what they have away from them. Jeff...get ready; these dumb natives about to make us GODS!" (Sorry Othello; you're too Black and Afrocentric! You're too "controversial".)

      BTW - If he came with the "Last Word" last year, what "word" is he coming with this year? I thought the "last word", would mean that was the LAST we would hear from him. I guess because no one took him seriously, he has to come up with more "last words". Or is it "LOST WORDS"? Anyway, ah gone; ah arranging ah polka tune for when the All-Genre Panorama start. Next year, ah plan to do a rap tune with no pans; just electronic replicas and me, cussin' to de beat! (Can I get a "Ho"?) lol.

      • George,

        It's Christmas we give yuh ah HO...HO...HO. ah hope yuh could handle 3 HOs [that's ah Joke  George].

        Glenroy the "Race Card" have to be be played if we are getting to the bottom of the plight of the Steelband in carnival.

        We have to be careful here the people in the Mecca doh like yuh to bring up RACE and CLASS.

        • LMAO! Cecil, you really made me laugh for the first time today. And, an emphatic "YES"! The challenges we face in the steelbands and Carnival ARE ALL ABOUT RACE AND CLASS!!! Maybe, allyuh drinking too much puncheon in Trinidad. You all can't see straight...like our drunken, thieving, lying, nepotistic, corrupt leaders in government and in the "world government for pan".

          Ghost Who Knows Is Your Time Now! (You told us so!!!)

          • It looks like there is no need for the little Black Boy with the garbage can anymore.

  • In my many years involved in the Trini musical scene,I have experienced five extraordinary musical moments.

    Starlift going down the bull track playing DuDu YeMi with a cloud of dust circling overhead.

    Shadow having to escape mobbing fans by ducking under the stage in Guardian Sports Club and crawling to the back.It was the first time I saw a local artiste mobbed as would happen with the MJs,Beatles,etc....I believe Clarence Carter was the headline act that night and he performed his then hits "Slip Away" and "Patches".

    Carol Addison being mobbed by screaming fans at the WICO grounds,was another time as was very proud of a TT crowd reaction to a local artiste.

    Shadow again,at a calypso tent clash in the Savannah.....He was mobbed and carried around the stage,all the while singing and answering the perceived "threat" of  the sweet "Tourist Leggo".

    and this one......

    The crowd silence was hair and pores raising, as Nutones went very slow (demanded by the crowd and track officials ) playing down the bulltrack .....complete strangers asked the band pushers to allow them the privilege to push the racks, and they did so with such care and reverence,that I knew the music had touched the souls of those who heard it  .When the band approached the point where bands are required to stop playing,the bulltrack crowd again demanded and the track officials seconded that the band continue playing and Nutones played almost right on to the stage....

    The complete silence before the band played was a very spiritual experience,and as someone said, Bradley through Nutones did the ultimate,he made the audience an active part of the music and the audience enjoyed their role,which ever role they choose to play.

    I say.......music won on this night.....as it did on those other occasions I clearly remember.   

    • Oswald,


      Thanks for sharing your observation, I’ve heard others describe similar reactions witnessing the live performance, my guess is he also created got a similar type of reaction when he unleashed Shadow’s Wop Cocoyea with Despers in 2004...http://youtu.be/-vMXE0WOJmc


      Pan Times explanation also helped identified some of the missing link when they described and I quote…”Bradley also understood the role religion plays in the daily lives of the Trinidadian people both consciously and subconsciously. After all - this was church service in the Savannah and Bradley was the Priest. By the time Bradley gets into the Shango fighting rhythms beneath a heavy brooding minor mode, it was really all over. Bradley transitions seamlessly into the last celebratory movements (Hallelujah and Amen), that dare any Christian adjudicator (practicing or not) to give Nutones anything but first place.” Here’s the slow version of High Mas from David Rudder’s cd….http://youtu.be/6T02vaKIOJU


      The power of Obeah in the music, he left a lot of people possessed that night, this also explains why he was able treat Shadow’s music with such ease.

      I'm also interested in hearing more about the "politics" behind awarding or rewarding of the Panorama Prize.  I hope A.L. Nunes could expand more on his comment "Bradley (leader of the judges elite trio) I often got the impression Bradley was not treated well by the establishment. I'll leave that for another discussion.  Thanks all for the contribution I've learned a lot like Glenroy would say this is we Think-tank.

      • ODW,

        The politics of panorama, and Bradley "not being treated well by the establishment" - is one of the sadder chapters in the history of Trinidad & Tobago panorama and Trinidad in general.  The Trinidad class-schism and racial dysfunctionality around all things steelpan robbed one of Trinidad & Tobago's greatest of the true recognition he should have been afforded.

         

        Bradley was punished for having the audacity to contribute to the legitimacy of the pan instrument and its people by lending his genius to the steelpan movement. That he was light-skinned and a brilliant college graduate who was already successful in music, heightened his crime. That he would chose to embrace Desperadoes and by extension the people from "The Hill" was scurrilous and sacrilegious. He had to be to punished for his betrayal of the Trinidad 'elite.'

         

        WST met with Bradley every year for our annual interviews and we had a special relationship with him from the early 80s on through. The injustices Bradley suffered are too numerous to enumerate. Bradley suffered many hurts. A book could be written on this subject alone.

        However, outside of Trinidad, Bradley's genius was recognized and appreciated. Interestingly enough in the WST interview with Max Roach (who was rarely impressed by anyone) about Pan and the greatness of Trinidad Panorama, it is Bradley's arrangement of "Stranger" that stands out to him - in addition to the solo-playing ability of Len "Boogsie" Sharpe who reminded Max Roach of "Bird."

        Ironically in his last year Bradley had finally started to receive the recognition due him - but in foreign territories - as chairpersons of the esteemed musical departments of the University of Connecticut and Princeton visited Pantonic's yard to watch and hear the genius of Bradley up close and personal. They had big plans for Brads. But then he died suddenly.

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