Steelband celebrates 40 years
Published:
Thursday, June 7, 2018
While the national instrument seems to be mired in controversy in its homeland, there are pan ambassadors worldwide bringing pride to the instrument.
One of these is Branches Steel Orchestra, founded in 1978 by a group of Trinidadians who migrated to Boston, Massachusetts.
Come Sunday, Branches will a host a gala to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band and its introduction of pan to Boston.
Replies
And ... WHERE IS THE MUSIC?
Yuh know, all ACROSS AMERICA there are THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of HIGH LEVEL MUSIC PRODUCERS who could make MAGICAL STEELBAND RECORDINGS with THE PAN (and even WITHOUT THE LIVE PAN, NOW). So I am at a loss to know why PAN PEOPLE (living in America) don't take advantage of these opportunities and start producing some QUALITY PAN MUSIC for the WORLD TO HEAR.
We have to move past THE SENTIMENT and NOISY CONCERTS and start using the MUSIC STUDIOS to POLISH THE SOUND and present it to the WORLD.
What good is all that practice? What good is all THE TALENT developed over the last 40 years if you CANNOT record a decent piece of PAN MUSIC?
It is so ironic that ask -- where is the music?
When we talk of Pan music icons like Clive Bradley, Pelham Goddard and Earl Rodney - we are talking about master musicians who defined the music, were great music "producers" in the true sense of the word. Those early recordings when they were both the arrangers and producers set some high standards. Some of best work of Kitchener, Sparrow, Nelson were done with these men in the role of producers. I don't why there was such a significant drop off in production quality.
But you are 1000% right - there are many producers in North America who could deliver a stellar production.
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