by Wesley Gibbings
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - There are echoes that haunt panyards. You won’t know about this unless you have entered one and stood behind a pan. So, do not call the police if you see me passing such premises slowly in my car, windows down, one hand cupping an ear as if to capture the failing strap of a loose face mask.
After almost 40 unbroken years of Panorama competitions, pan performances and pan talk, I heard the echo last year as I took my place (“like Boogsie”, I told everybody) behind Birdsong-branded double seconds and between the instructions of the incomparable Derrianne Dyett, and the discordant jumble of other beginners.
Who could have told then what the future had in store for all of us?
The year 2020 came to test pan, both as a musical instrument and as an agent of social cohesion and change, in ways not previously experienced or envisaged. Even in its manifestation as the best thing we do, tougher challenges would have been extremely hard to find.
A determined pandemic barely missed Panorama 2020, but its careful management has ensured that in 2021, the practice of pan will comprise invention and ingenuity – qualities that have given the instrument its true value both as creative platform and as largely unrealised economic prospect.
Replies
With all due respect, while what is being said about "pan" - the instrument - is important - and while I agree with the views expressed here, there is something on which I would like to comment.
As a panman, I often wonder about the lack of concern for the interest of the panman/panwoman. At the end of the day, the instrument cannot play itself.
If consideration, recognition, and financial renumeration/emolument/ payment were provided for "services rendered" or "work done" by the people playing the instrument, then the instrument itself would have a great future.
As an example: In relation to the two concerts (with Desperadoes and Ebony) featured in the article above, how much were the players paid for work done?
Best wishes for the New Year.