May 2012 Blog Posts (7)

Maestro Paul "Pablo" Campbell pass away on Monday 21th May 2012. He arranged for Cordettes Steel Orchestra from the 60s to 90s, winning the music festival in 1967 un-sponsored category. In 1968 they placed 2nd and placed in the top 3 afterwards. He also arranged for Single Pan Bands like Nostalgic, North Eastern All Stars, Sipabatt to name a few. He tutored Tamana Pioneers from the 1982 until 2011…

The members of Sangre Grande Cordettes in collaboration with the tamana pioneers steel orchestra and other steelbands that Pablo arranged for will be hosting a tribute to him at the cordettes pan yard this afternoon. Starting at 8:30pm188585_1019752386454_1604510467_48163_4268_n.jpg

Having played steel pan for 10 years (I was a late-starter!!) and fallen in love with the instrument, it makes me really sad to see that so few schools in my area have steel pan. I really wanted to be able to give children the chance to have a go in the hope that I can inspire a new generation of players in my home town.

I've managed to get together a small set of steel pans and having run a workshop with a nearby scout troop, I placed them in a local secondary school (ages…

Hey everyone, the steelpan has a chance to win this contest. Vote and spread the word so people will start to see the tip of the steelpan iceberg!

Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/gigmasters/app_162850930432266

I was recently at an event for the Borough Day celebrations in Point-Fortin.  There I witness the treatment of one of our foremost pan tuners; a Chaconia Medal receipient, being turned away at a Pan event. Now I understand that this event was sponsered by a private company, however Pan Trinbago was involved. His name was not on a list by the door, an oversight by the individual who invited him. There were officials from Pan Trinbago at the door and none could vouch for Mr. Kellman, who I am…

I was recently re-animated about the possibilities of programming 24 hours of steelpan jazz and its variants for online radio, when I had to do a little research into the output of this sub-genre of our Caribbean jazz fusion experiment. Some hard realities; we had a proliferation of CDs during the1990s, both in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad, mainly North America. A smattering of offerings out of the UK and Europe did not hold much sway as we entered the 21st century. As a programming niche,…