For the record, I did not just wake up yesterday morning and see the WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE PAN ACT for the first time and suddenly decide that I would like to see a PAN STAR taking THE PAN from concert hall to concert hall around THE GLOBE.
I have been posting on that subject for years!!! And the objective has been two-fold: To showcase the music to broader audiences and to BRING IN MONEY with the instrument. I am sure that if a TRINIDAD PAN PLAYER ever rises to this level of performance -- in a span of 15 to 20 years touring THE GLOBE they can do quite well for themselves financially.
But let me get back to my main point.
Everybody knows that I like ANDY NARELL and I hold him in the highest esteem -- but Andy's music is too intellectual in terms of what I would want to see in a GLOBAL PAN STAR. I want a very commercialized PAN STAR feeding simple and catchy music to the GLOBAL AUDIENCES. And this is the appeal that I see coming from WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE -- as he stays within his zone (but there is room for variations of his theme that could appeal to even wider audiences). He has AN ACT that could open doors to PAN -- doors that have never been opened before. In my mind, he just happens to be short of the right agent.
WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE is the first PAN PLAYER whom I have seen with the FULL PACKAGE and even so, in my ideal world -- I would look for a YOUNGER PERFORMER with a more COMMERCIAL REPERTOIRE. But at the same time it would be hard to match THE ATTRIBUTES that I saw WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE bring to the STAGE.
(And, by the way, going down the peninsula and playing with a RICH, WHITE HIGH SCHOOL BAND for a few dollars does not qualify as the WORLD STAGE for me. I pass that stage!!! I am looking for a PAN STAR who has passed that stage and has a SOLO ACT backed up with a band of PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS -- like WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE.)
Again, I would like to see a PAN STAR from TRINIDAD filling THIS GLOBAL BILL!!! But it is hard to get the point across that it is a TOTAL PACKAGE -- not just playing THE PAN. So it has not happened in all the years that I have been calling for it and it WILL NOT HAPPEN in my lifetime because the requirements are TOO MUCH given the backgrounds of the players (social and musical).
Now, if we had a REAL EXECUTIVE in PAN TRINBAGO and a REAL ERO with ADMINISTRATIVE skills -- once they saw an AN ACT of such GLOBAL QUALITY (ready made) they would use their DIPLOMATIC and CULTURAL CAPITAL and book WILSON JEAN-BAPTISTE some performances around the globe taking in a booking fee while they are sleeping at night and he is somewhere in another time zone lighting up a stage with THE PAN. This is ready-made talent waiting to be SHOWCASED. Not only that ... once in a while they could send a young TRINIDAD PROSPECT to join him on stage and get a little exposure and start learning about the social and diplomatic side of the persona that has to be developed to become successful in the BIG WIDE WORLD OUTSIDE OF TRINIDAD.
But with BEVERLEY at the HELM -- this kind of GLOBAL VISION is way too advanced for her backward way of thinking.
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