In a letter to When Steel Talks -
After again witnessing an almost complete domination by the DJ trucks, veteran and champion arranger for Trinidad and Tobago's Exodus Steel Orchestra asked this question , "Where is the Pan in Carnival?"
Pelham said, in a recent interview he asked the President of Pan Trinbago to immediately create a separate route for the steelbands so they would not have to compete with the loudness of the DJs. Pelham fears that unless something is done very soon, Pan will be phased out of carnival completely in Trinidad and Tobago carnival.
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On the drag Finals night I heard Skiffle play a beautiful bomb tune "All the way"
Maybe some other bands could follow their lead and learn another tune to play on the drag like old times.
It would be nice if Pelham could ask the membership of XO this question and also for suggestions on how to fix it.
Steelbands have always depended on others to speak for them and look where they are now, the time has come for them to chart their own destiny.
The only unique feature of Trinidad Carnival is THE PAN......
We can't compete with Brazil for bikini, or nice costumes or floats.......they will kill we with these.
But to have percussion producing sweet melody as only a PAN could....We Carnival is the only one......
When Pan gone, TRINIDAD Carnival is BOO, when compared to almost every one else......
Raphael O'Neal, you tell them.
This is not a a matter of nostalgia, or wishful thinking, Noah and others. Some of us have an historical perspective on the steel-band, its role in our culture and its rightful place in our signature festival, the Carnival.
I know many, especially the youth who think panorama is the be all and end all of the steelband.
In a way, I don't blame them, since that may be all they have experienced, but the steelband is and can be much more.
One still describes the Trinidad Carnival with the expression 'steelband and calypso", but today that expression is meaningless.
We can and should do something about that, but it would take action and initiative by all the parties with stakes in the carnival and the culture.
That would include the Government, the Carnival Development Committee ( or whatever they currently call themselves), The Bandleaders, PanTrinbago, the media and all interested parties who recognize the importance and potential of a better integration of the steel-bands into the Carnival celebrations. .
A neo-classical pan festival that needs and additional attraction- the Greens- to encourage support and attendance from Carnival revelers just doesn't do it.
And BTW, I love that "neo classical pan festival", but over the decades its music has become less relevant to the Carnival, which is why I have maintained that the festival should be moved to a different time of year.
Ah doh care what allyuh say....... pan make for de road on carnival day!
Glenroy, the biggest load of crap I've heard for the year is that steelbands should enjoy it's carnival home which is panorama.
With all due respect to this Pan Icon, Steel band music in the carnival of today is not soley muted by the volume of the DJs, it is the mas consuming public, and the ability to market the Carnival festival with high powered moving energy, where thousands of participants have to be continually engaged without stoping to rest, Pan players get tired, this cannot be said for DJs and their electronic systems.
So the question arises, is there a parallel carnival market for a more relaxed but engaging part of the carnival festival, where players operate on a ratio of 2 to 1 to avoid down time, and the band's music is handled by engineers to carry its sound through the masqueraders; it is here where,traffic control of a grid nature may assist in the flow of steelband, not jamming up against monster DJ systems.
So the steelband fraternity and the carnival mas makers or producers, must partnership to carve out a revamped Monday mas product,a combination of steelpan and acoustic type music as a new paradigmn, Panoroma must not be the only carnival Gig. Dig a little deeper. unless we are sitting back for other global steelband fraternities to show its business and marketing skills.
What we must recognize, is that steelband, as the sole medium for the Carnival parade was upstaged by the new "kid on the block", the the DJ and his bag of Electronic musical systems for reaching the Carnival playing masses.
Say you own a house and you start to build another one across town. During this time you get distracted and neglect the original home, which falls into disrepair - and then you default on its mortgage and the bank forecloses on it. You gonna burn down the new home cause you miss the old one and you are mad that you lost it? And then what, squat on the old property? Those new owners are really loud with their newfangled electronic music and all...
And this allegory gives too much credit to panorama for reducing pan's place on the road. Check out the boycott of 1979 or the curfews earlier that decade. And more importantly, the WORLDWIDE emergence of electronic music due to changing tastes and practical issues. Next thing you know, people will demand that the few bands still on the road play Rope and Flag Woman. Things aint the way they used to be... Simple as that.
No matter how hard people want to evoke olden times and nostalgia, pan no longer has the dominance or even respect on the road like it once did, and never will. Enjoy what it does have as its carnival home, which is panorama.
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