The Trinidad Guardian

St. Joseph, Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - A disappointingly poor production coupled with the embarrassingly small audience in attendance devalued the laudable concept of paying homage to female members of the steelband fraternity at Panwomen Is Boss, an all-female Pan Jazz concert, staged at the La Joya Auditorium in St Joseph, on July 28.

It was produced by Pan Atlanta Networks, Inc, the most recent initiative of Trinidad-born economist, bandleader and pan activist, Dr Ajamu Nyomba (Carl Thomas).

....Scheduled to begin at 6 pm, the programme got underway one hour later, before an audience of just over fifty patrons, prompting show host CG (Derek Silman) to ask, rhetorically, “why is it everything to do with culture always have a lot of problems?”
read more

You need to be a member of When Steel Talks to add comments!

Join When Steel Talks

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Tonight at NAPA the National Steel Symphony Orchestra present 'Pan on a Higher Note' FREE OF CHARGE.....

    • Gavin, lets see what happens tomorrow when it's Pan For A DOLLAR Note. lol

  • I ran into Roland at Patraj Roti Shop at 3:15 today with a set of brand new pans ready to ship-out - Claude apparently you never witness the POWER of the steelpan - In the 80's in Los Angeles we had a contract to play pan in the California State Fair, this special Saturday seniors citizens from a home was the welcome guest to our show, when we start jamming pan I got cold-sweat witnessing seniors in their 90's in the wheelchair trying to get out of the wheelchair when the musical SPIRIT of the pan get to their soul, pan is the most spiritual music ever!!!!!! it would wake up the dead.

    In realty the majority of pan die-hard in this day do not PAY to attend a pan show, they only talk how much they love the pan. I notice in the last 5 years Trini's come home for Panorama and finals night they on the drag liming instead of paying to enjoy the show in the Grandstand or North Stand - don't give no bull-shit you hear the band on the drag, the bands coast on the drag, the competition are on stage TRINI'S ARE CHEAP WHEN PAYING FOR A PAN SHOW.

    The last paying pan-show I attend was Pamberi last month in Barataria - did any WST members except Ajamu attend the show???????

    • Then yuh must have known Ken Lawrence, eh Garvin?

      • I know Ken and his brother Gerald, Loogie, Einstein, and others. Ken die about 12 years ago.

        Sidd, when coming to support a paid pan show - TRINI'S ARE CHEAP no apology......

        • Gavin, Just like when ah Trini Hire you to play at their function, They say, I know you aint going to charge too much, we ah all Trini's,

  •   We need to ask ourselves, if we had the same Promoters, same Advertisement, same Venue, and the performers were  the likes of Boogzie, Robert etc and the attendance were the same, then its telling us that our own Country not supporting our art form. It's a funny thing tho', our art form is well accepted all over the world.

    • Bebe,

      I will also add to your comment " our art form is well accepted all over the world," and respected.

      There are those who's appreciation for pan is just limited to the big name performers  that you mention and as "bigmacttwi" say "will only support ventures featuring certain bands post-Panorama." This event was the first I've heard about and the concept behind it shows the promoter is a visionary " Panwomen Is Boss, an all-female Pan Jazz concert"  a concept that will be a great marketing tool to promote outside T&T.

      On this site (WTS) we see many young women doing impressive work with the instrument many of them, their names unknown to us until we saw their performances in the church, the concert halls, in schools and at steelband events across the country. I can't understand why we still continue to be so short-sighted when it comes to supporting this great art-form and its potential earn our gifted artiste name recognition and financial resources.

      • odw Sir, People will ALWAYS support the Big names in anything Arts and Cultural. Its up to the show promoters to find the MIX so that a show will be successful. People will always look for moneys worth. This features all over the world.

    • I have supported Pan shows with the likes of Ray Holman, Andy Narell, Boogsie Sharp at $300. & $400. a ticket and more with sellout crowds, the show started on time, no more parking space available, lines to get into the show, people formal and elegantly dressed. At the end of the show, promoters had to blink and dim lights on the audience to leave the compound, right here in Trinidad and Tobago. So what really went wrong at your show in St Joseph Sir?

This reply was deleted.