Trinidad & Tobago Guardian
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.
Perfect pitch, goes a musician joke, is throwing the banjo in the dumpster and hitting the accordion. Seriously, though, it’s a perfect combo when Jonathan Scales throws in the banjo with the double second pan, considering his hard inquisitive compositions on his latest CD, Character Farm & Other Short stories. Scales, an American whose only Caribbean gene is our national instrument, has been pushing a radical departure from pan music in its 70 years of evolution from the bamboo, sweet oil tin and biscuit drum project, to today’s curious and refreshing galaxy of steely notes. Scales, 26, studied composition for saxophone at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. But he’s been hooked on pan since the day a friend steered him to the university pan side.
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