The Ivory and Steel Recording
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Actually, they made a record, did Winifred Atwell and Pan Am Jet North Stars. It created history – in black and white. Yet, like an Earl Lovelace novel, it exists in colour – that watershed recording of 1969. It was the first time a classical pianist of Atwell’s prestige had performed and recorded with a steel band. Forty years later, reaction to the music hasn’t diminished. People are more outspoken in defense of its historic and artistic merits. “You can’t define the pan from the piano,” Norman Darway Adams, a former Invaders defender says about a recording with the commonality of laypeople sharing its genius and masterstroke of musicality. Adams refers to the orchestration of harmonically tuned pans, how it fits to the eminence of a soloist – trained by a prodigy who mastered his scales in 1890s Siberia. |
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Global. - They already had a name that fit – Ivory and Steel.You need to be a member of When Steel Talks to add comments!
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From a Youtube comment on the performance...
Margaret Hinkson
In addition to hearing Ms Atwell performing a classical piece so superbly here, let us recognize also that the orchestra accompanying her is the steel band, a percussion instrument which was, at the time of this recording just about 20+ years old. Few steel orchestras since have matched the range of musical achievements which Pan Am North Stars did back in those days. It is quite a difficult task to accompany another musical performer on a totally different instrument. And North Starts have done this beautifully!
I would like to see our award winning film producer Dalton Narine take this to the next level, create a documentary on this historic and ground breaking collaboration for future generations to understand what can happen to people who are born with natural gifts and are taken for granted by some and exploited for financial gain.
RCA is now owned by Sony, is there a reason why this Historic recording cannot be reissued and Anthony Williams receive his due?
Update:
The Orchard is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution, marketing, and sales.[2][3] It is a subsidiary of Sony Music, based in New York City.[4] In 2019, the company sold off its film and television division, which was renamed 1091 Media.
ODW
Interesting that you are thinking along the lines of a film. Mr. Narine actually said something similar to WST recently. He felt that this story would have made a great movie.
I agree, compare it to the Biopic coming out on Nina Simone, who I’ve met briefly on two occasions , I believe Winnifred Atwell story is more compelling and inspirational. My hope is the GOTT along with private investors give him the financial support needed to make it happen.
Historic then. Historic now. I hope that pan lovers will read the comments that are posted on WST as many of those who comment are family, friends and fans of the pannists and those that they collaborate with. They are living oral historians, griots and not just story tellers and must be taken as seriously as those who write books. Winifred Atwell and Pan Am North Stars (Greatness and Genius) Yes!
Truly a Gem.
Is that Cynthia who went to school at Escallier??
Reading Cheryl Holders post brought back the memory of one of the most surreal musical moments of my entire musical life which occurred on that history making tour during a performance at a hotel. Atwell would do a portion of her concert with a trio in which I was the bassist and then she would do selections with North Stars. After the trio set was done, I quickly grabbed a bite and on my return to backstage ( I think the trio had another set with her) I heard what I thought was musac playing Rhapsody In Blue, but on getting closer, I was absolutely astounded (literally had my mind blown) to realize that I was actually listening to the steel orchestra playing a portion of the music where Winnie was tacit. You would think that after hearing that performance several times before, I would have immediately recognized what my ears was hearing. It had already amazed me that Tony was able to tune the pans to so closely approximate orchestral timbre, and especially during low volume or percussive passages, it was sometimes virtually impossible to tell that you were listening to pan unless you were visibly observing the performance. Growing up listening to and playing pan, desensitized me such that I was never over enthused by foreigners who raved about the incredulity of our invention - that one experience changed all that, I sometimes have deja vu goose bumps recalling it. I absolutely agree it's a special treat listening to the recording, but for anyone who had the good fortune to have attended the live performances, it was a rare and uniquely historical event.
Big shout out to Cecil for pointing me to this article and to his request:
Winnie was very much a lady, pleasant and easy going, but the consummate professional with an incredible musical ear to match her technical dexterity. She was definitely an innovator in her entire career, and in her quiet and dignified way was able to open doors that were closed to blacks and particularly black women. Ivory and Steel was just another of her ground breaking accomplishments. On that her first and only US concert, we had an extremely well received revue of the Carnegie hall performance. Following this she continued her phenomenal success with the audiences that followed her all over Europe and down under. We had a great and fun working relationship with much mutual respect. Being newly married she was characteristically quite understanding when I did not take her up on a very generous offer to continue on the tour. I was really well taken care of by both she and her husband Lew, one of the funniest people I ever hung out with. He was as nocturnal as could be and we simply had the best time in Suriname with some other acts that were appearing there.
Thanks Len.
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