Panorama ‘murdering silence’
Q: Let’s go back to Boogsie for a moment. You started to say earlier that he is an anomaly...
Robertson: Boogsie recognises that his competition is not All Stars, Renegades or Despers, but Silver Stars, which represents people who don’t know anything about Pan and want to feel comfortable. Because music is like that. So when the band does all these runs and all these chromatics and all this juvenile harmony, people who are slightly inebriated are comfortable, for it has nothing to do with music.
If we don’t know about music, we’ll be playing pan—on pan. And if you’re musically inclined, it is music. Pan is an instrument that we’re trying to define as not an instrument, but something special. Anything that has 12 notes is an instrument. And you better learn music because you shouldn’t be playing the pan, you’re playing music... We have this new crop of arrangers who don’t listen to good music. I always tell my students “intent is more important than anything else.” So here we are at a junction...because we’re in mob rule. Everybody at the Savannah has an opinion, even though they don’t have the wherewithal to have an opinion about the music. They don’t know harmony or rhythm or melody. To them, it’s either something’s sounding good or not.
Maybe that’s why [the judges] have curtailed Boogsie. He is musically intuitive and he knows the cultural thinking in his genre. If your music is good, you don’t need a gimmick. The judges mark you, 10 for performance, 20 for...to me, that is suspect. I’ve been hearing a lot of regurgitated stuff. And that is not a surprise. But Boogsie is the epitome of creativity, and he’s not going up against All Stars, but Silver Stars. It pains him to do that. Going against somebody who doesn’t have that creative thing like Bradley, who once put a fist fight in a (New York) band into the music he was arranging, as it was happening.
It is disingenuous, therefore, to have a competition and you claim you’re looking for excellence.
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From Raf Robertson cd 'Branches' Panorama Night and Pan In Harmony...enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqrjoZO8JXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl8ufC3Gt2E&feature=related
Steve: Texaco West Stars had some great tenor plays in the late sixties. I spent an entire carnival day in your band listening to this player on a double tenor, buying him drinks and listenting to him play. Those were the days. What you have to understand is that everybody want a piece of the pan NOW. People who were miles away from the instrument when they had a chance to be close, now want to jump in and express such deep love and concern for the instrument.
Naipaul say that coffee only taste good to the Trinidadian after it cross the Atlantic twice. Pan only get meaning for a lot of people after they cross the Atlantic once.
Don't forget that Raf say he listen to pan for the first time when he was in England!!!
Hello Steve! Just to set the record straight my view is that Mr Robertson is attempting to give an objective view. The interview is not about 'why your band did not do better'. Far from it!
As far as composing tunes for panorama is concerned, well I don't know if this was his purpose, but check out 'Pan for Carnival' (1998) by Raf Robertson and Alvin Daniel. You may wish to go to 'You Tube Renegades Pan for Carnival' and view / listen to Renegades' rendition on panorama final night 1998. Also, check a 1998 Calypso Compilation by Major and Minor Productions for the original song, vocals by Shanaqua. If I have put you into research mode, why not check 'That's the Culture on David 'Happy' Williams' Ping Pong Obsession (2000).
As far as panmen becoming musically literate as you put it, for quite a few years now Mr Robertson has been involved with the Birdsong academy, working with young people towards the development of their musical prowess.
So Mr Robertson has and continues to pay his dues.
I often wonder, what is art, and how should we appreciate it?
Is art meant to be analyzed, intellectualized, criticized and only appreciated by those educated and taught how to appreciate it?
Or is art to be enjoyed and appreciated by the masses based on an instinctive, emotional response to a thing of beauty?
Is art supposed to entertain? is art supposed to appeal to our senses?
I find this question applies to all art; the movies, paintings and music and even food.
I've seem movies that attained high awards, but to me were like medicine.
I knew they were supposed to be good, but I was not entertained and there was no enjoyment. .
Famous paintings have left me scratching my head, trying to figure out what the critics saw.
Reminds me of the old story of "The emperor's new clothes".
This also applies to music, and in this case Panorama music.
So all you music experts could get as technical as the wish about music. About semi-demi quavers and the like.
We, the uneducated , unsophisticated masses use our God given senses to tell us what appeals to us and what doesn’t.
What we like more and what we don't like.
I think that's the way it should be.
Glenroy, you correctly answered your own question. Art is a human activity to be enjoyed by humans. Modern civilization has developed the means and the technology to better analyze art but artists have been around as long as there were humans.
The art critic is useful in better describing an artistic expression. Through study, experience and writing abilities critics may be better able to identify subtle intricacies of an artistic expression. They may be able to identify an artist influences, style and technique. The critic is particularly useful in documenting art and also to educate the curious among the masses. But when it comes to appreciating art that is in the eye of the beholder. Even among the educated critic differences in artistic relevance is to be expected.
You are totally correct in observing that no amount of explanation could get you to like a piece of art that does not appeal to your sensibility. The artist has failed in his/her job to reach you. It does not necessarily make him/her mediocre or untalented. Just as if you don't like jazz does not make Clive Zander a musical dunce. It's just not your style and you are perfectly justified in expressing that lack of an emotional connection.
So yes art is for the human masses and the most successful artists are those who connect with the masses the most regardless to how much knowledge they have of the nuts and bolts of an artistic creation. And yes, that is the way it should be.
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