Raf Robertson was a dear friend. And I wish to share an interview about Panorama that I had with him at Veni Mange Restaurant on the eve of the 2011 finals.
Published with the expressed permission of the author
As large and medium steelbands prepare to compete in the National Panorama finals, respected local musician Raf Robertson has sounded a warning about the lack of proper musical standards in the competition.
Raf Robertson
Here are the hard-hitting views the Birdsong arranger expressed to writer and filmmaker Dalton Narine.
A recorder wasn’t planned, yet Robertson didn’t flinch when it joined in...even when Panorama came up.
Robertson: When you don’t know yourself, you have an illusion of yourself. Because you don’t get to see yourself.
Q: An illusion, or delusion?
Robertson: Well, both. A perception is something that comes from you, and a perception is not the truth. So when you see yourself, you go into shock. Look, Trinidad is the mecca of mediocrity. We live a lie. Trinidad is the greatest, etc, and we know that is a lie. For example, the arts is imprisoned by commerce. People like (Len) Boogsie Sharpe are like little islands in this sea of mediocrity. And (Clive) Bradley’s music, too. His genius was being able to function between his constraints, because he could not do what he wanted on pan. No creative freedom on The Hill...
Now, Panorama has become a performance competition, so you’re playing for people who aren’t musical. They’re there to have a good time and they want something to relate to. But the music of Panorama is not generally arranged from the heart. Many bands arrange to suit the performance. Take a band like (Trinidad) All Stars, the arrangement should have something to do with the tune. You could put a motif, or whatever, not so? They start off with a chromaticism—and, the visual image of the players performing that chromaticism will dull anything relating to the tune. Just like Silver Stars, the reigning king of performance in the Panorama.
Q: But doesn’t performance play a role in the competition?
Robertson: No, no, no, no. The tune should be arranged as improvisation, and the music should inspire the improvisation, not the performance.
Q: You mean “structured” improvisation, don’t you?
Robertson: Frozen architecture, that’s what it is. Within the sound, there’s an arrangement, and the arranger has to get there. If you’re not required to go there, because, for one thing, the judges...Look, I entered the competition [this year] and I came last.
But you don’t compete if you’re not in favour with the judges’ decision. So, I have no...but that does not stop me from knowing that the judges don’t know. I happen to know a few of them…
People are basically dishonest and not dishonest with malice. Dishonest from a cultural perspective. Hear what, if you ask a Trini how to get to Manzanilla and he doesn’t know, he’ll never tell you he doesn’t know. In his purview, not knowing is not good. Mind you, not knowing is the beginning of knowledge, eh.
Q: Where’re you going with this?
Robertson: A journalist in France went to Lyon to cover a rock festival, and the editor told him, “You spent six hours at a festival and you had nothing to write?” He said, “Sir, with all due respect, there was no music there. They were murdering silence.”
- See more at: http://www.panonthenet.com/news/2015/dec/panorama-murdering-silence.htm#sthash.P0ejwkpN.dpuf
Replies
The reason why Raff Robertson came last in that Panorama, he was drinking and smoking everything every night he was in the pan yard. I personally observed this and you cannot arrange a good song when you are very high morning noon and night.
John dunbar, the man dead, was there a reason to go there? Excellent music was composed, arranged and played by people who was stoned and drunk, so what's yuh point?
WHY? the character assassination, here's a good example of WHY we can't have intelligent discourse to help elevate our culture, this is the mind-set that continues to hold us back.
To base that as your reasoning for his band coming last in Panorama says a lot about how your thought process works. I RESPECT the work arrangers do, the commitments to the bands and the endless hours they put into their work, the price paid for any kind of family life they have because of the LOVE of their MUSIC, and you doing this for the LOVE of CULTURE???
Listen to the word-smith David Rudder as he shows us how to appreciate what some of us take for granted, out of PAIN this CULTURE was BORN. Dedication A Praise Song.
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This interview by Raf Robertson was very similar to views expressed by many top arrangers in the past, so I am definitely not surprised. You open your mouth and critique, you basically offend the judges, and you will have a good idea where you will be placed in the panorama finals. I experienced the same thing on this very forum. Once you are not on the same page with the 'group', well you know the rest of the story..The lesson here for all is to listen. Many people don't take time to listen and not doing so you would not understand what is being said.
I couldnt agree with you more. Too much "pretending" to know what you truly dont know. But as Raf said admitting that you dont know something is the first step toward acquiring knowledge. The steelband world would be much better if more people in it thought that way.
This is the Wisest and Most Profound Pan Interview that I ever Heard. Raf was Shooting Straight from the Hip with No Holds Barred. I had a Lot of Respect and Admiration for Him before He Passed, after Reading this Interview . I Have Much Much More. Rest In Peace. Oh Wise One. Bless. Thanks for Opening Our Eyes. Thanks for Everything.
"Tear it up" he did, it was an excellent interview, " the Mecca of mediocrity" goes to our core.
Yup! he got it right..............and we don't like it........... because we are so accustomed to wallowing in mediocrity.
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.
Look, Trinidad is the mecca of mediocrity. We live a lie. Trinidad is the greatest, etc, and we know that is a lie.
For instance, this present Pan Trinbago office would be good for the 18th Century.
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