#ChroniclesOfAPanorama
A showdown between a master and his protege is just one of the side stories of the 2020 Panorama. They had to break the habit of working together as both Duvone Stewart and Dante Pantin will arrange "Wrong Again " for their respective bands , Champions Renegades and Starlift.
"I am 1000 percent for Starlift- 2020 as I build my core I can disperse people for other bands.
"We can’t work when it comes to large bands" Pantin said in an interview last November.
"Duvone knows how I feel about those things. "He is going for his hat trick it is time to leave," he said even before the official announcement that he was heading to Starlift.
"Duvone doesn’t need Dante Pantin to win a Panorama. He has everything. All I did was make things easier for him.
"He is a virtuoso..a master of his craft", the protege said
"It's not a matter of copying him. I have been around him for the past ten years," Pantin replied when we joked about his conducting style.
"Everything I learnt from being around him would come out" Dante Pantin said in the interview a few days after he made an impact on but did not win the 2020 Single Pan Championships .
It was clear by his conducting style, at least, that he reflected some of the body language, even, of his pal.
It was his quest for the win with Shades in Steel, with his arrangement of Go Low ,knowing a victory would boost his rating ahead of the challenge of jumping into the Panorama Premier League arranging for Starlift.
And that's when Pantin swore there will be no collaboration, no working together with the man whom he has assisted in the past ten years during which Duvone's success as an arranger was firmly established with Pan Elders as the undisputed medium band champs for years.
"A lot of creative people find it hard to bring people into their space. I am fortunate that he allowed me into the space.
"There have been times when he had an idea and will play chords on the keyboard, play the pan and I might suggest something. We record and dont forget, we talk about the mood.
"For voicing, scoring, the arranger is the ideas man. I was the second brain in the room and as I am an arranger as well so we bounce ideas off each other ," Pantin said about his working relationship with Duvone.
"I dont believe in changing music and I learnt that from Duvone.
"When giving a product give your best. We
hold back a little for finals and it's fine.
"We can call that the Pan Elders effect, from prelims to finals, we do not touch a note," Pantin explained.
Pantin who studied briefly at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) said he realised it "wasn’t what I wanted."
" I wanted to hone in on one craft- composing and arranging.
"I signed up for some courses via Berklee to do voicing for strings, brass and woodwinds, the music for moving pictures.
"So I learnt to develop mood and how to create a mood- how to take a motif and twist it.
"The voicing is all up to personal taste which developed while working with Duvone and Renegades.
"Steel pan is a total different organic instrument in my view
"In strings they already have templates built for composers- like Bach and use his voicing," he further explained..
On the Saturday night for the Single Pan finals Duvone was there with Pantin as the video shows.
"He helped to set up the band you know, curve the band on the end.
"A lot of people have a problem with Duvone doing that with me.
"We are like brothers. I have worked with him for the past decade and I worked with him up to Hooking Meh", Pantin said.
Duvone and Dante are arranging for bands on the other side of town from each other. On Sunday night, for those who have not yet gone to the yards, it will make for an interesting experience .
Trinidad All Stars will fire the first shots in the grand battle to deny the Renegades a second shot at a hattrick when they play first tonight.
They play the same song as the Mighty Desperadoes who will be working overtime for the crown that sits on Duvone Stewart's head as he has been balancing the three he achieved in 2019.
Liam Teague, Amrit Samaroo and the NY trio at Skiffle are fresh and hungry .
And Boogsie Sharpe is being asked to prove himself for the umpteenth time.
Stewart has voluntarily handed up the medium title and does not have the small crown on his head.
All focus is on Renagades ...Duvone has more than Dante to contend with.
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