In three years of staging Badjohn Night—Defenders of Pan, this year saw the largest audience to attend the event.
Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz said his organisation decided to include this event in Steelband Month to document the positive role played by “badjohns” in steelbands of yesteryear.
At the August 14 event, held at the Renegades panyard in Port-of-Spain, Diaz said: “In schooldays they taught us all kinds of history; about Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan and Christopher Columbus, but nobody teaches about heroes and villains of Trinidad. The badjohn was not just the protector of the steelband he belonged to but he was a colourful character who brought respect for his band.”
The formal part of the evening, hosted by Pan Trinbago trustee Allan “Pablo” Augustus, featured accounts by three “badjohn” and Orisa elder Baba Erin Folami. Having covered past badjohns in the North and East Regions this year Pan Trinbago focused on the “defenders of pan” from the South Central Region. Giving vivid accounts of their colourful pasts from the head table were Henry Bernard (Melodians); Claude “Six Kerchief” Byron (Free French and Panasonic Connection) and Patrick Drayton.
The guests were introduced by former Pan Trinbago president Melville Bryan, now adviser to the organisation. To set the mood he gave a few accounts of steelband clashes of years gone by.
A smiling Bernard insisted throughout his presentation that he and members of Melodians were “never about badness” but strictly about playing “good, sweet music.” He added, his bridge of gold teeth in his upper mouth shining in the spotlight, “Melodians won everything in San Fernando and was the envy of other steelbands.”
Having the dubious nickname of Six Kerchief, unconfirmed accounts claim that Byron got his monicker for always having six handkerchiefs on his, more than one wrapped around a razor. Admitting that he was a “miserable” youth, the pint-sized, 76-year-old pan veteran suggested that he had to be brave, bold and bad to survive in the steelband world in the south.
As if to support his position, Byron, also nicknamed El Cid, recounted how his first steelband, Philharmonics, was completed destroyed by another band, All Stars, in 1958. With his brothers he subsequently formed Free French. A competent storyteller, Byron had his audience in rapt attention, his presentation punctuated by applause and laughter. Today Byron is the captain of Panosonic Connection, one of the popular bands in the South Central region.
Folami, who was raised in the bowels of pan in St James, proved to be a seemingly infinite repository of steelband history and lore also kept his audience enthralled as he gave a detailed, comprehensive and chronological review of what seemed to be every badjohn and steelband captain ever produced, especially in the west. One of his disclosures which seemed to surprise all was of Phase II Pan Groove leader/arranger Len “Boogsie” Sharpe playing pan at age three, with a special stand created to accommodate him.
Folami prefixed his presentation by stating that Orisa deity Ogun is “the God of Pan,” he being the god of iron and steel. He chided steelbands for not having a “stool” (monument) in panyards for Sango, Ogun, Obatala or Osun, all Orisa deities connected to pan. He said the continued ignorance by steelbands of the relevance and connectivity between Orisa and pan is one reason why the national instrument and musicians have been disrespected by communities and the state.
Folami also recalled the days when there were more pans in police stations than in panyards as enforcers of the law used to regularly confiscate instruments in raids and when steelbands ‘illegally’ ventured to perform in the street without the requisite permission.
At the end of the presentations, live pan music was supplied by Uni Stars steel orchestra. Also in attendance was DJ KC Klass is Class.
Diaz promised to accumulate the many accounts from larger-than-life figures in the steelband world and meet with the Ministry of Education to have them documented and taught to schoolchildren.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2014-08-21/defenders-pan
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