It is a shame that a big band like Skiffle Bunch cannot produce some young Trinidad Arrangers from their sponsored band. You have over a hundred players every year and the question is. Why can't you train some of them in music and arrangements? By importing Foreign Born Arrangers just to win a Panorama shows bad management and a lack of shame and a slap in our country's education abilities. There is no excuse for your Band's decision. Stalin, Merchant and Relator knew this from their past songs. Pan in Danger and we are importing our own culture. Imagine some of these Band Managers do not have the common sense to see that pretty soon we will be importing our own culture and it was started by these South Bands. Bands are using FOREIGN Tuners to make their pans and arrange in contrast to the fact that most of the drums comes from the South. Pan Trinbago and some other band officials fail to incorporate our Steel Pan technology by using our best Tuners to teach young and upcoming tuners. All they do is to wait until they are dead to give them a lot of stupid Speech. Check it out, we are running short of all the best TUNERS that was born in the WAR ERA. Right now you have TOP PAN TUNERS Without a WEBSITE AND FACEBOOK PAGE to sell their products.  Besides Gill's Pan Shop and two large shops. The TOP NAMED TUNERS DO NOT HAVE A SITE AND THEY ARE NOT EMPLOYED AND PAID TO TEACH THE ART BY ALL THE GOVERNING BODIES IN T&T.

They are getting paid to teach people out of the country and the so-called smart Trinidadians does not realize that they are not taking care of their own but walk about we are the smartest and the best. WAKE UP STEEL BANDS AND PAN TRINBAGO

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  • Maybe Dunbar should learn the background of the 3 arrangers that Skiffle is using. ... they all were born and raised in pan and one of the arrangers whole family from desperadoes steel orchestra.. Look up the Franklin family...
    • Dear Mr. Kernel Simon:

      Mr. Dunbar is not interested in the background of the arrangers.  This about his personal fears. This about the morning after a non Trinidadian arranger by his definition does well or God forbid wins Panorama. Notice Mr. Dunbar never said these young American were unqualified or were not good or their arrangement was not top notch Panorama music.

      bugs

  • Hinkson! I am not against Pan Music going world wide. All I am saying, is, if you are running a large band like Skiffle Bunch and Birdsong in the land of Steel band and we boast of a high education standard we should be teaching and pushing our own to become top arrangers and tuners. We should not be importing arrangers and Pan Tuners when we started the whole Panorama arrangement system by using our own musicians and Steel Pan makers. That structure was created by us and many foreign music writers have scored many Panorama arrangements that are played  and sold by foreigners. I could call many top class musicians who can arrange and write music in Trinidad. Leston Paul, Errol Ince and many others. The next thing you will do is to import Sports men and women to represent Trinidad because they want to be on top by winning. DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE OR TALENT IN THE MUSIC AREA? If so why don't you help them be independent and self sufficient. It is shameful to depend on foreign talent to be productive in something we created. This is my opinion on the matter. Thank you.

    • Dunbar, It's simple, if yuh want to be the best, yuh do what yuh have to do. Do you know those boys that's arranging for Skiffle parents are from T&T?do you realize how pan people move around today, players come from Japan, Australia Canada, England. USA to play in T&T for Panorama, we have a Global village so yuh won't hear me complaining about foreigners, they say competition is healthy. 

    • Ah like how yuh stand yuh ground, John Dunbar. But it is not a TRINIDAD against the WORLD ting. Trini PAN LOVERS (EXPATS) had a very big role to play in making PAN INTERNATIONAL. I agree with you on ONE LEVEL but as an EXPAT,myself, I have witnessed first hand how much work has been put in on the outside WORLDWIDEWEBBING the PAN.

      So if Mr. Hinkson EXPATTING in Montreal and he have ah child who born in Montreal but Mr. Hinkson take the pan in his BLOOD and pass it down to that FOREIGN SON and then the boy take to the PAN and get some  formal music education on top of the PRACTICAL PLAY and the boy love the PAN as much as any TRINI born in TRINIDAD and the boy have talent and a band in Trinidad hear the boy music and ask him to come and arrange for them -- yuh against that?

      Ah waiting for your response!!!

      Claude

  • How we can expect pan to progress if we adopt an insular attitude. Are the pan persons (Tuners, arrangers and players ) to keep their skills confined to T&T. If so, then why play jazz, classical or other foreign music and why undertake global tours. Global exposure it what will drive pan revenues and consequently a greater ability to make living from pan spawning more youth interest. Importing an arranger is not a crime as many of the small island import arrangers from T&T. Duvone won in St. Vincent and Amrit in St. Lucia. If every country adopts Mr Dunbar's attitude then T&T pan society will suffer since it has the most to offer the pan world.   

  • Pan cannot become a global entity, if it remains local and doesn't reach out to the global community...you can't have it both ways.  Take a look at English football (soccer) as we know it today, it was mainly an English thing at one point, until they opened the doors to the world....now it's the most played sport in the world and has events such as the World Cup...can the English still say, "we invented it"? Of course, in much the same way as Trini's will always be able to say, "is we ting".

    Pan, as Claude says, is one big family.

    BTW.

    That's a good name for a Pan tune, "One Big Family", so someone should write that...lol

  • Mr. John Dunbar: One could argue that these "FOREIGNERS" that you are complaining about have done as much as (or even more than) the locals when it comes to GLOBALIZING and GETTING ACCEPTANCE for PAN. It is all just ONE BIG PAN FAMILY TO ME.

    • Claude why are you being so nice today? Mr. Dunbar is the director of marketing for which band?

      Since 1980 over 99% of the panorama wins have come from five bands.  Since all of these bands already have established arrangers, Mr. Dunbar's statements about Skiffle looking for a win is silly. The math says that is not going to happen.  I however look forward to the Americans defying the math. 

      bugs

    • On point!

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