Victor “Babu” Samuel is winning arranger! - Halcyon Steel Orchestra Wins Antigua & Barbuda 2010 National Panorama Title

[Pan Times]

St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda, W.I. - No one was happier last night when it was announced that Halcyon Steel Orchestra had won the Antigua & Barbuda 2010 National Panorama competition, than the Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, the Honorable Baldwin Spencer. It is well known throughout the Caribbean that Prime Minister Spencer is an ardent supporter of the steelpan music genre and steelband performing arts. Moreover, Halcyon is the band that will always be dear to him because of his close association with the music organization.

....Five steel orchestras competed for Antigua and Barbuda’s 2010 National Panorama Championship title at Carnival City in the country’s capital of St. John’s. The featured bands in the competition were Gemonites, Ebonites, Harmonites, defending champions Hell’s Gate and Halcyon.
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[Arthur Blenman]

Congratulation to Halcyon on their Panarama victory

[Owen Serrette]

Congrats to "Babu" and Halcyon on your victory.See you soon
Owen Serrette
Solo Harmonites

[Michael Murrell]

Congrats to you Babu on your win... I see you beat my friend Khan.
Anyhow Babu this is Buggs, we played in Scherzando together

[lennie tyson]

Hello my friend Babu congrats to you, your band and their supporters you are a vrey committed hard working pannist/ arranger we played alongside each other for many many years and I cherish those memories. Keep up the good works again my heart felt congratulations

Lennie ( STRETCH ) Tyson
PHASE 11 FOREVER

[lester simon]

The performances ranged from fair to excellent. I had one common concern regarding all the arrangements. An arranger should take a tune and tell a story, or rather, extend and embellish the story given by the title of the tune. Instead, almost all West Indian arrangers seem to take snippets of the tune and arrange and rearrange them musically following the winning, formulaic tenets of West Indian steelband arrangements.

In this regard, the winning arranger had a very simple story to tell: “Rock Me” and he truly rocked the house. Arrangers need to see themselves as architects, painters, novelists, dramatists, etc. and not just “pure” musical mathematicians. And, to appease the musician-mathematicians, especially Pythagoras (the “inventor” of the iron band), since arrangers must be musician-mathematicians, please be “applied” musician-mathematicians when you come out to play.

Dr. Lester CN Simon

[Eye4Pan]

"An arranger should take a tune and tell a story, or rather, extend and embellish the story given by the title of the tune. Instead, almost all West Indian arrangers seem to take snippets of the tune and arrange and rearrange them musically following the winning, formulaic tenets of West Indian steelband arrangements."
"Arrangers need to see themselves as architects, painters, novelists, dramatists, etc. and not just “pure” musical mathematicians."

Well said Lester......