Mr.Hoyte I will not dispute Donald's portfolio. I opine he placed psychics
and panmen on the proletariat, but then, I could be wrong again.
It has been a great pleasure hearing from you, sir, It is an honor and a blessing to meet a sage.
Peace and power.
What's that sound? Mummy what's that sound?
Those were my words at the age of four (or so my mother told me) while tugging excitedly on her skirt. Even before she explained it to me I knew I wanted to know more about steelpan music. Every year during Carnival I waited for when the bands passed. I begged my mother to let me join one but she wouldn't because of the late practice hours. Luckily, at 13 I got my first pan experience at a summer programme with a young but extremely competent tutor. I stayed with that pan group until it dissoved 5 years later.
Living a 3-minute walk away from Diamond Steel, one of the most popular and respected bands in St. Lucia, I was devastated when my mother refused to allow me at 15 to join them for the Juniour Panorama. But I would still stay up into the wee hours of the morning, listening to the rigorous practice from my balcony, mentally corecting errors and formulating suggestions for better arrangements.
At secondary school, there was a pan group led by the arranger of North Stars but the fee charged was relatively high although affordable. Plus my mother wanted me home by 4. I still cheered passionately whenever they put on performances.
I had two years of basic music education at my school and I intended to make the best of it. I couldn't sing so it was all I had to rely on. In the pan group, Culture Flames, I often attempted arrangements of popular dancehall songs like those by Dr Evil and Sean Paul, local soca songs like tose by Ricky T, and classics like Flight of the Bumblebee and Pan in a Minor.
PAN HYSTERIA?
Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago let out a collective gasp at the Trinidad Expresss newspaper report by Terry Joseph last month entitled "Pan Shocker" detailing the successful patent by two Americans, Maryland-based George Whitmyre and Harvey J. Price of Delaware for the "Production of the Caribbean Steel Pan." Readers were then hurriedly corresponding with newspapers and opining on electronic media talk shows on the temerity of these two Yankees—read: white men— patenting we own t'ing. "The sweat of the Black man's brow has now been owned by these Americans who have the considerable backing of the US government against all challenges," was how one writer approached TanTan, "much like how they try to thief Lord Invader's Rum and Coca Cola."
The patent document, available online at the US Patent Office's website, outlines the applicants' claim for using a hydro-forming process to make a pan that is consistent and efficient to produce, along with modifications to facilitate transportation, storage and tuning. A few things are apparent from a cursory look at the document:
- First, the patent was granted since April 10, 2001, a year before the article broke in the Express.
- Second, no reference is made to Trinidad and Tobago, but to the more general Caribbean. (We have since heard that the Trinidad and Tobago government is seeking to trademark the name so that all comers will recognise the birthplace of pan.)
The inventors also cite as their only steel pan reference, a pan tuning book written by Swedish pan enthusiast and tuner, Ulf Kronman. And this is where things fall apart! That book on pan tuning was the first such published internationally back in 1992. At that point, we failed to recognise the slow release on the grip of ownership of the idea and culture of pan. Collateral material—books, CDs, score sheets—and the assets of cultural production were ceded by inaction or executive fiat, to "foreigners" to reap the profits of our labours. We missed the boat in encouraging local participation in the process at that point. The international industry in cultural marketing was a void to persons in Trinidad and Tobago. Those trying to breach were called traitors; just ask Ellie Mannette.
DC-based Trinidad-born lawyer, Nigel Scott, who specializes in intellectual property matters first expressed to this writer that this is hysteria. Scott notes that patents are country specific, and so far there is only the US patent on record which speaks to the limitation of claim by the inventors. My counter argument to him that the US represents a large potential market for the inventors' manufactured instrument speaks to the difference in vision between Trinbagonians and Americans; where we see fête and bacchanal, Americans see money! Living in America, as we do, is to be bombarded with ideas and concepts which, useful or not, represent the hegemony of US inventiveness and marketing. By example, Spain will be forever known as the birthplace of the classical guitar, whereas the innovation of the electric guitar, an American invention, has been the catalyst for the rock and roll industry and by extension, the profitable global music industry. Market forces drive industries, not legalisms.
A challenge to the patent is forthcoming from the noises of government ministers, mainly Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis under whose portfolio intellectual property falls. The intellectual property protocols are still being negotiated by the WTO, but examples such as this show our vulnerablty. The legal culture in Trinidad and Tobago, which is not necessarily proactive but reactive allows for effective incursions by others into the creative assets of the islands. Challenges to patents, within the statute of limitations, are always part of the process of patenting. Examples from India, backed by large Indian corporations and research centres, show how Third World nations have successfully reversed patents for cultural by-production of native assets awarded to US companies.
In our case, much of the research on using the hydro-forming process to make a pan was done by CARIRI and the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine by Clement Imbert and others in the 1970s. Their reluctance or inability to apply for a patent on their innovations may be indicative of the malaise of the society. (Petty politics and funding have been suggested.) The hysteria that Scott speaks of is a symptom of the late recognition by our citizens to the gap between industrial societies like the US and Europe and "client cultures" like our own. At the end of the day, guitar music and instrument production, and its profit are the domain of America, not Iberia. Can we be far behind in this example? Unlike Spain, in the previous example, we do not have a documented cultural heritage of centuries to fall back on. A "work of mas" had to be defined by the Swedish consultant to the government on the reformation of our intellectual property laws in the 1990s! Such are our legal minds.
Intellectual property is not something to be glibly laid bare for all-comers to exploit. This patent, Production of a Caribbean Steel Pan, is possibly the first step in a series of patents to streamline the production of the instrument to take advantage of economies of scale between handmade and assembly line production. Quality counts in the ethereal realm, quantitiy counts in dollar and cents: whose side do you want to be on?
Source: Campbell, Nigel A. "Pan Hysteria?" TanTan 1(2) (May 2002): 4. Print.
One day in my yard in Rose Hill, Laventille, I was practising the tune Mambo Jambo on a tenor pan. A voice screamed
"Allan I don't want any panbeating in this yard!!!". The man was The Honorable (sic) Donald Granado, PNM's Minister of
Education ---what a paradox!!!.
A few days after I was practising with our newly-formed band led by Winthrop Thomas. At one point, the band stopped
playing abruptly and the players were laughing. I turned around and saw my grandmother had placed a dilapidated
suitcase on the ground and as she walked she said "yuh wanna be ah panbeater-----not in my house." That was the end of my pan beating.
It is quite a blessing that there were few "grammas and granados" and that others did not go to the few, if any, music libraries that were nearby.
The drummer in every band controls the tempo and provide the rythm. I have never seen one reading musical
scores while performing.
Frank Sinatra did a lot for musicians, yet they spoke about him punching photographers. A very famous singer was
arrested regularly for possession of marijuana. Billy Eckstine kicked 'arse'.....when they tried to make him enter from
the back of a concert hall.
Panmen perform pieces from memory - no scores......In a Monastery Garden, Capriccio Italien Opus 45, Marche Slave, etc., the Mighty Sparrow sang ballads with a calyspo tempo.
I give credit to anyone with an impeccable lifestyle, but we are "beings" -----some perfect, some not.
So how about we help to keep pan away from the doldrums from which it emerged!!!
Allan Gibson
I am going out of my mind trying to figure out how on earth can anyone reach the idea of making the prize for the King/Queen of Carnival, the same as that for the Panorama Champion.
As I see it, some calypsonians write and sing their own stuff, while others just sing the lyrics of others. Therefore, you are dealing with one performer/individual.
A steelband, whether small, medium or large, is a BAND ----many individuals.
When you consider a piece of music being played had to start with a composer, then an arranger working with tenors, seconds, guitars, basses etc. etc., long hours of practising, changing passages that were played many times, listening to the tone of the pans and presentation, you got to be out of your mind that all that work by all the players should share $2 million.
After the past years of turmoil with "whatever you want to call them", how can anyone have the audacity, the gall, the ...(censor) ...to reach such a conclusion!!!.
LISTEN PANMEN, the Mighty Sparrow's lyrics should always be remembered. He said, "the Queen get machines, radios and even motorcar, but all the KIng get is a brass crown on his head". The Maverick also went on to say "who want to go cud go up dey, but I aint goin no wey".
Wake up guys, you are the players of a great musical discovery. You are the ones to keep it going.
For the judges of pan music, here is what a great musical teacher named Professor Robert Greenberg said, "Music, like any pseudoscience, requires an adjectival palette by which we can isolate events that without proper terms we might not even be able to notice". He continued to say, "It's an interesting question to what degree language allows us to perceive things that are not language associated. I am a strong believer that if you've got the right word to identify something you can perceive it". He also went on to say that "musical creativity has provided a vibrant means of expression for grand spiritual, intellectual, political, social and economic forces throughout the history of our civilization".
Why must the beat go on??? Let's get it on!!!
Allan Gibson
Southern Marines Steelband Foundation’s 2011 Panorama season was a success when compared to the last four years. After a long drought a little rain came. We were able to come into the National Small bands Panorama finals, and place third out of eleven participants. That is good, thanks to the hard work of the arrangers, the support crew around the yard, the players who dedicated time for nightly practice over the long season, the cooperation of their parents and guardians, the good neighbours and those corporate citizens who thought it prudent to contribute towards our endeavours over the years.
Panorama 2011, to me was a disaster. It started very normal, with the national prelims in the Region. Then came the National Semi-Finals, where small bands were used as Mascots for the Large and Medium bands. How else would one describe a Panorama starting at 9:00 am, in Trinidad, on a Sunday, with people who went out the night before still in bed, and most of those who are up, going to church and Market, and not planning to leave their homes until after lunch? That’s the reality of a Sunday.
If the hard work of producing a Steel band for Panorama – be it Large, Medium Small or Single Pan Band – must have any meaning to the producers, the utmost respect and appreciation must be extended. Panorama must be held over two days, the Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 pm. The Saturday should be the Single Pans and Small Steel bands, and the Sunday, for the Medium and Large Steel bands. The effort and time that goes into preparation should never be taken for granted or compromised in any way.
Difficulties experienced by the Small Bands coming from South or far East and having to play early, in the present format, is accommodation. To start the show, the instruments and a number of players must over night in Port of Spain, where no facilities are available to accommodate them. Be there at your own peril. Yet the Steel bands coming in from the sister Isle, are provided, and quite rightly so, with Boarding and Lodging, and Transport to and from rehearsals prior to the show. If the present format is being maintained, the same facilities should be extended to the first four Steel bands coming in from over 20 miles, and having to perform early.
Then there is this party atmosphere created at the back of and in the North Stand. Who is responsible for it, is it the NCC or Pan Trinbago? How could they be so insensitive to the plight and sacrifice of the Pannist, by being allowed to show total disregard and disrespect for what we regard as our premier show? Would this be tolerated in any of the other Carnival shows, where they would not even invite a steelband to play by the gates and welcome patrons? (By the way, just the other night I saw the other National Instrument of T and T, playing outside of Skinner’s Park, welcoming patrons to the San Fernando City Corporations’ Premier Carnival event. No Steel band?)
Is dollars and no sense the name of the game? The Pannist, the main factor in the show, must be accommodated in an area with all facilities, just like in the festival after performance, where they can sit and enjoy the show like everyone else. Remember this is their show, and they had no time or opportunity to attend and enjoy any of the pre- Carnival shows.
The National Small Bands Final held at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima on Thursday 3rd March, was another debacle. The South/Central Region held National Preliminaries, had more status, and was better promoted than this National Finals. Could you imagine Steel bands coming prepared for a National Panorama finals and meeting the worst conditions one could imagine, for off loading and setting-up to do their sound check? And with all your preparations and decorations; pannists dress up in three piece suit and thing, and no videotaping of the show. Not one Radio station brought the show live to the local or international audience? As a matter of fact, there was no real promotion of the show in the media, print or otherwise.
I must express heartfelt thanks to Yoichi Watanabe and Kats Imai, the two gentlemen working with the University of Trinidad and Tobago, for their commitment and support of the Steel Pan Instrument. They were the only ones noticeably recording the performances at this National Finals. What a shame! Where are the DVD’s and CD’s coming out of this show? Are we saying that the Music of the Single Pans and the Small Steel bands have no real aesthetic value? Too much quality music is allowed to be lost in this Carnival atmosphere. This will never happen at the Medium and Large Steel bands Finals.
Most of those so called medium and large bands don’t even throw a tantrum during the year, yet the small and single pan bands that keep the thing alive throughout the year, and because of numbers, contribute more to the coffers of our organization, are treated with contempt around Panorama time. During the year, and especially at elections, they are the greatest assets.
The print and electronic media advertised the large and Medium Panorama finals as if that was the only Panorama finals held for the whole Carnival season. But most Steel band leaders make great sacrifices, without thanks or compensation, to prepare their units for the season. If our representative body is focussed mainly on promotion of Medium and Large Steel bands during the Panorama/Carnival season and the Single Pans and Small Steel bands are relegated to Mascot status, then this is cause for concern. If we continue to treat our own with disrespect and contempt, what could we expect from others? Who should we turn to for proper representation?
I am of the opinion that Panorama should be removed from the Carnival season thereby, giving all Steel bands the opportunity to get back into the Carnival and bring mas on the roads of Trinidad and Tobago. Some mas band leaders seems to be seriously against this suggestion, fearing that this would interfere with and cut into their exorbitant profits.
Who benefits from Panorama in Carnival? Definitely, not the Pannist. They seem to be pawns in a bigger game. Their involvement starts sometime before Christmas, and continues nightly for two to three months leading up to Panorama. While other interest groups in the mix are employed and making money during the season, the pannists are hard at work, hoping to make some money at the end of the day. The majority end up despondent and disappointed. They enjoy nothing in the Carnival. The thing they put so much time and energy into, serve only as a mockery to them at the end of the day. They are unable to attend any of the pre Carnival shows. On their big day, they hustle to load up the trucks and get to the venue. At the venue, they hustle to off load and are hustled onto the stage to perform before a very intoxicated frolicking audience. Then they are hustled off stage to reload their trucks and get out of town. Where is the joy or pleasure in all of this?
Put Panorama at a time when the music and the creativity of all the arrangers could better be appreciated. When a Steelband starts preparing after Christmas, it should be for the carnival with mas as the main agenda. I know that the tourist will be glad to come and jump on the streets to the sound of the National Instrument. Put the incentive on the road for Steel bands to enjoy a happy Carnival.
Put Panorama in October. Please be advised, that the STEEL BAND FRATERNITY need an immediate two weekend consultation on the way forward.
Michael L Joseph
President
Southern Marines Steelband Foundation
The steel pan still fascinates me as an industrial musical instrument that has the potential to be as commonplace as the electric guitar or portable electronic keyboard. Portability, short learning curve relative to traditional music learning experience, and ease of manufacture seem to be the factors that make the two aforementioend so popular. Some recent innovations by local entrepreneurs are intersting: The P.H.I.® by UWI-based engineers and the e-Pan™ by Toronto-based Salmon Cupid. Both are controllers for synthesizers as opposed to organic instruments, but innovation like this should be encouraged as the music instrument manufacturing industry in the US alone was worth at least US$2 billion in total domestic demand. Globally, the numbers can rival our budget, and the sky's the limit. Smarter persons than I would be needed to advise and move the process of exploitation further along.
Some other innovations of the pan harken back to the original instrument, then a small instrument moulded out of a kerosene drum with a playing surface on a convex shape, and played with the hands. According to the chronnology, the rudimentary pan was played with the hands then the raw stick then padded stick. The European innovaters Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer (PANArt Hangbau AG), started a "re-evolution", to coin a 3CANAL phrase, back to the future. Their instrument, the Hang was followed by The Halo, as well as the Hank, and its derivatives, the HAPI drum, the TurtlePan and the Zen Tambour. All are American innovations. There exists a community of "handpan" players, enthusiasts and innovators.
What has struck me about these new organic instruments is the size. Compact and portable are two features that seem to factor into the popularity of musical instruments. The size of violin versus a double bass may tell of its popularity as an instrument of learning and practice for a number of students outside the music school or auditorium space. So too, the trumpet, saxophone and many reed and horn instruments. I looked at pannist Mikhail Salcedo playing a G-pan family member instrument at Ibiza once, and was struck by its larger size relative to the conventional tenor pan that he normally plays; 26.5 inches for the G-pan compared with 23 inches in the conventional pan. Granted there was a wider range of pitches in the instruments even if there were some pitch problems on the lower notes. That evolution in pan does not seem to be moving in the direction of recent innovations in musical instrument design.
What's the phrase: "It's not the size of the instrument, but how you use it." Electronics manufacturers are churning out tablets and smart phones with 4 - 7 inch screens to view streaming movies on the go. In the right environment and space, one can view a movie on 65 inch LED screens in 3D. The same can be said of the G-pan family, as an orchestral instruments it may be apt, but the new innovations in design point to these compact "handpans", all of which are being created overseas. There is as yet no mass movement towards this class of instruments, but as the home of the steelpan, our vision should be on a horizon where anyone and everyone can buy and play a pan because it's easy to play, easy to handle, relatively inexpensive and readily available online and elsewhere.
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Further Notes by Nigel Campbell on Facebook
Let's hear it for Pan Times/WST.
I don't know about you guys, but I think that one of the most significant developments in the steelband world in modern times has been the development of the internet, and particularly, of Pan on the net, Pan Times, When Steel Talks or whatever they choose to call themselves.
Their role in promoting steelband culture around the world has been invaluable.
Their impact on this year's panorama is undeniable, from providing up to date information about all things related to the panorama events, to encouraging dialog and information exchange among pan people, to (IMHO) even helping to prod Advance Dynamics to improve their production values.
Their contribution to the steelband movement in general has been immeasurable.
I know I've said some of this before, but I feel so strongly about this that I do not think it can be overstated.
As a die hard pan lover , I cannot thank them enough, and I like to think that I speak for thousands of pan fans out there.
Thank you very, very much, Pan Times/WST.
AFTER MIGRATING TO THE USA IN THE LATE 60Ts AND BEING A PAN FANATIC. PANORAMA HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE LOVE IN CARNIVAL. I HAVE ONLY MISS 4 PANORAMA FINALS SINCE 1975. BEING IN GRAND STAND ON FINAL NIGHT GIVES ME GOOSE BUMPS AND A ERRATIC HEART RHYTHM, ESPECIALLY WHEN MY FAVORITE BAND IS COMING ON STAGE. EVERY YEAR I THINK THEY CAN NOT BEAT MY BAND AND THINK WE WIN THE PANORAMA FOR SURE. SO IS EVERYBODY WHO HAVE THEIR FAVORITE BAND. FOR SOME YEARS NOW IT SEEMS THAT THE JUDGING OF PANORAMA HAS CHANGE TO A DIFFERENT LEVEL.LEAVING ME IN A BALL OF CONFUSION, AS TO WHAT SOME BANDS ARE PLAYING. AH HEAR THEY SAY THE JUDGES JUDGING MUSIC AND NOT NOISE OR EXCITEMENT. I AM INVITING ANYONE WHO COULD EXPLAIN TO ME WHY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS OF PLAYING A CALYPSONIAN CALYPSO FOR PANORAMA, SO ALL MASQUERADERS,PANORAMA LOVERS AND SPECTATORS COULD UNDERSTAND THE TUNES AND KNOW WHAT THE BANDS PLAYING.THAT PEOPLE COULD JUMP UP TO, ON THE ROAD FOR CARNIVAL.. SOME WELL KNOWN BANDS ARE PLAYING TUNES THAT IS FITTED FOR PAN FESTIVAL OR CARNEGIE HALL CLASSIC (NO CARNIVAL SPRITE) IN THE TUNE. SEEMS EVERYBODY IS A CALYPSONIAN NOW AND WE ONLY HAVE ONE GENIUS ARRANGER THAT COULD TAKE ANY TUNE OR SOCIAL COMMENTARY AND MAKE IT A WINNING PANORAMA SELECTION. WILL WE GET BACK PANORAMA AS IT WAS INTENDED FOR ?NEED HELP TO UNDERSTAND.
