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  • Wayne john McDaniel Cofee street is one of my favorite songs, I also love we kinda music its a nice ditty a pan song, perfect template for pan , andy is one of the most prolific pan tune writers, if a beginner was to attempt writing a pan song, my advise is to study Andy's works, and some early boogsie, yet panorama was supposed to be about calypso, which till recently was and still is a tradition, an oral artorm , if words were added to coffee street, and it was not known as an Andy Narrell composition I might get picked in a tent, however if same is done to we kinda music, no, also if I used the backin tracks to carnival tabancca, and same it was not known as a bunji garlin song I will not get pick, Skiffle was good yet it lacked the fire to deliver ( not speed mind you) Birdsong has gotten close one time with a song called G, however they did not deliver the goods, its a band i love but they just haven't gooten over the hump as a challenger, it takes more than Arrangement to fire up, the band has to have an attitude, Phase, exodus and All Stars are the fire brands today, hopefully fonclaire might get back to where they were in the 80's, Skiffle had a better attitude as a single pan, they need work on attitude, watch despers this year, though phase is taking no prisoners this year  

  • Coffee St. had ah "wicked" arrangement but it was played by Skiffle Bunch (a South Band have not won a Panorama since the early seventies)...anyway I thought that Coffee St. was a better tune for Panorama and also Appreciation.However the judges would not give foreign arrangers like Andy Narell or Raf Robertson their just deserts..........allyuh dais all ah have......................ent?

  • Andy, can't wait to hear Bird Song play " We kinda Music " in the Pan Yard and at the Panorama competition.....Beautiful Verse and Chorus and love, love the phrasing...All the best my friend.....  

  • hang on ....let me put on my calypso hat tay lay lay was the first lil ditty composed by kitch, if that's calypso this is, trouble in Arima , the chouus is a refrain from the verse, those days they were called a lavue, or a lil ditty, calypso was now evolving as a comercial artform and today still continues as an oral tradition, we are not likely to challenge so called authorities due to our demi god attitude, if sparrow say so is so, Belefonte took a series of ditties and produced them as calypsoes, but got (and still do) resistance by trinis, Caribbean and other people, I take it this opens up the door for banna boat song, island in the sun jamaica farewell am just saying, its critical I enjoyed Carnival tabanca by Bunji Garlin nice song but it fits in none of the veins described at least "we kinda music is a nice lavue,so now have we opened up a fresh chapter and is reshaping panorama, my band will be playing billie jean next year right..... no pun intended. I love Andy, pan was built to play lil dittys and lavue from the get go "oh what a faithfull dog" "gimme lil water please come quench mih thirst" as a practicing calypsonian about to strap back on mih guns allow me to say this if I add words to we kinda music or similiar song I will not get into a tent no matter how good I performed it, it has either no verse or no chours its missing a part, if i made a ditty like tay lay lay they will tell me go finish the calypso and come back, still love andy and kitch tell a fella to finish his calypso one year, the oral tradition is or was a type of ballad with two stanzas, they changed the 8 line minimum since from the original requirements for commercial purposes, now almost any thing goes, but you still need a chorus or refrain, panorama had been traditionally a competition requiring bands to play a calypso, we went down that road and when Ray started playing his own tune the questions came does a tune have to be sung to qualify as calypso,what is calypso music how does it separate from other genres , big question ...... Excuse me am putting on my musician hat now, a waltz is not a waltz if it is written in 3/4 time, certain latin music bossa nova, salsa, meringue etc got to be in 6/8 ,Calypso cut time or 2/2 in other words the signature here is it's accents, what we hear in the clips is a repeat of the same thing we heard in the first stanza and an interpretation of the very same thing with a slight variation  there is some motivic development, for laymen its the same thing almost like in reverse or zig zaging and then going in a straight line but travelling the same direction all the time, it is up to the powers that be, not so much worried bout Andy's music but Carnival Tabancca may have changed the shape of panorama already, Musical wine was very av ant garde, so was sugar for pan by pandemonium, I got some killer arrangements for "day O" and "andre tanker's "Forward Home", 

  • you know I love your music ,Andy you are amongst the top composers of pan music, if there is such a thing,intelligent sound and well organized tight and tidy arrangements,statacato is great for percussion,however its a nice jam line and to gain recognition as a calypso you need to add a different stanza that will seperate verse and chorus instead of a motivic development of the first episode, come on bro you worked with Relator, you can do it, this is my favourite andy narrell jam,

  • I hope that this year Andy would have learnt from last year and put an arrangement to the tune from the start. Have a listen to the Last Word on WST Pan tunes for 2013 and what Birdsong produced on YouTube in the semifinals or in practice and strum for strum it is identical. I really love Andy Narell’s music, however it has so much arrangements in the tune itself and intricately nicely rendered it is really hard to tell when he puts in some form of arrangement unless he changes the key and speed.

  • Mr Marcano
    I think in the criteria there was some talk last year about music without lyrics and if instrumentals will qualify. This tune obviously has some calypso flavor to it and as such qualifies as a calypso, however the lac of lyrics is the sticking point. If you listen to the arrangement of the tune, you can hear some Kitchener melodies and some of Bradley there too. Andy is very old school and as a result would stick to the old school type of melody even if it were in a jazzy format.
    This sorry to say is an American interpretation of calypso and is called Soclaypso, first patterned by the Late Great Ralf McDonald with Calypso Breakdown for Saturday Night Fever in 1976. Following up on that Leston Paul and the New York Connection in the 80’s, did a series of compositions in that style, little less jazzy and more of the Soca flavor

  • Well Mr Maitland; if your point is that Narell has already fully arranged the tune is going to reproduce that same arrangement with Birdsong, then I guess the rules are silent on that. In fact a question along that very line was raised at the last Pantrinbago general meeting (whether an arranger can do a tune he did previously with one band in Panorama with another band albeit in another year of panorama e.g. Pelham Goddard with 3rd World and then with Exodus last year). Turns out the rules are silent on that. My query however has to do with whether, We Kinda Music qualifies as a calypso.

  • Mr Marcano


    You may think so, however Andy does not play with a chorus it is mainly verses and a hook. This tune is 24 years old and has been performed around the world even All Stars played it at Queen’s hall a few years ago. My point is he does not change much of the tune during panorama. All the compositions he played in the past were done AS IS and not any changes to the original.

    Coffee Street; Appreciation; We kinda Music played by Our Boys in 1990 Panorama.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxQLGAUy9Yc

  • Mr Maitland I believe you have the length of the tune bit wrong; in checking the length, only the  verse and chorus counts and that runs for approximately  a minute and a 1/2. Mr. Narell therefore has another six and 1/2 minutes to rearrange the music for the band. What has me confused though is the competition rule 6.1 states: "For the purpose of the competition, each participating steelband may select and perform any calypso, as long as the same selection has not been played by said steelband in a previous Panorama competition."  My question therefore; is this a calypso?  

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