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(1) Skiffle changed their tune 6 days before the prelims and still placed in the top-three.
(2) St. Margaret Boys' won the Primary Schools Panorama for the 1th time since 2004.
(3) Renegades Youths with arranger Andrew Charles won their 5th consecutive Junior Panorama for a total of 11 wins since 2002.
(4) St. Francois Girls College with arrangements from Rorry Aleong won the High Schools Panorama for the sixth time in eight years. They now share the lead with St. Augustine Secondary for most wins with 8.
(5) Miss Vanessa Headley composed the music, wrote the lyrics, vocalized the melody, arranged and led Golden Hands to victory at the Small Bands Panorama.
(6) Pan Elders/Duvone Stewart won their 5th consecutive Medium Bands Panorama.
(7) Duvone Stewart led Renegades to their 10th Large Panorama win after a 20 year slump.
(8) Duvone Stewart is the only arranger to lead different bands to victory in all 4 categories. He now has 11-Singles, 1-Small, 5-Mediums and 1-Large.
(9) Invaders, Silver Stars and Renegades were all led by female captains. Special kudos to Mrs. Candice Andrews-Brumant for becoming the first female to lead a large band to Panorama victory.
(10) Skiffle came 2nd and became the first southern entity to place in the Panorama top-three in 27 years. Also, this is first time that American born arrangers have placed this high at panorama.
(11) This is the first time that Phase II/Len Sharpe have been defeated by another band when playing the same tune. Also first time since 1997/1998 that they were out of the top-three in back to back years.
This is a very popular christmas song for children here in Germany and a hit each year for my steel pan youngsters.
TeacherSteelPanKids from Germany
Introduction
Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe in Maryland by Harriet Bailey, a black American while his father was a white American. Apparently, his mother was working as a slave working for Mr. Stewart, who he (Douglass) believed he was his biological father, since at that time, the masters used to sexually abuse their slaves, especially women (Frederick 17-18). However, despite being brought up in such a slavery experience, he was determined to break the chains and succeed in life. In order to achieve this he started to seek ways of reading and writing, and the immediate help for this was the wife to one of his master, Mrs. Auld.
Body
The road to success was not smooth, since Mr. Auld was against the idea. He (Mr. Auld) warned his wife about teaching Douglass how to read. He said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.” (Frederick 40-41). Douglass contemplated this quote that if he learns how to read A, B, and C, he will manage to read words, sentence, and paragraphs, and that is his core aim.
Apparently, Douglass felt bad for these words especially due to the fact that it would be difficult for him to get another facilitator in pursuing his dream. He knew that it was rare for masters to teach their slaves how to read and write (good that they didn't have professional writing services that time :-D) . This means that for him to get another chance of being taught was close to impossible. Apparently, he didn`t gave up and he finally managed to coax white boys to teach him (Frederick 44).
Conclusion
Though Mr. Auld managed to convinced his wife concerning the dangers of teaching a slave on how to read and write, Douglass didn`t give up. Through his passion for education, he managed to succeed in life.
I have been trying to reach Pan Trinbago by telephone since last week. These are the numbers I have; 623 4486, 625 3556, & 623 6831. These are for the Head Office. The East Zone where I am located gave me 2 numbers, 369 6437 & 337 5095. All these numbers are out of service. This is the WORLD governing body for steelpan Really? Should I continue to be a member of this organization? Given all the other ills that have been aired publicly over the past several months. There are those who will say ," you don't jump ship when things bad, but dig in and help make it better". The only benefit I get for being a member of Pan Trinbago is the annual grant from the Government for unsponsored steelbands which is a tidy sum. It used to be 20,000 now under this new PNM administration it's 15,000 tt dollars. I am going to be writing to the Culture ministry to find out if it is possible to continue to receive the grant without Pan Trinbago membership. Some years now I have been totally fed up with the organization. Panorama is the only thing we propogate and Panorama killing most of the bands, yet no one looking for other avenues of endeavor. The successful steelbands are the ones who organize other events. Exodus who have a youth training programme, who ran successfully for many years Pan Ramajay, which should not have been stopped; Silver Stars with their annual Pan Parang and concerts; All Stars with their annual Christmas gig and Skiffle who have a number of development projects. I must mention also Southern Marines who also have a number of community-basd development programmes. By and large bands just sit around waiting for Panorama. Bad news for Cecil. These bands not even interested in coming on the road for Carnival. I think there is need now for a rival Pan body.. These guys have a monopoly and they abusing it. There are 4 World Boxing organisations, 2 athletic bodies,the I O C & the I A A F.When we had the Pan In Schools Co-ordinating Council pan was bertter run, because Pan Trinbago couldn't have things their own way. it's time to end the monopoly.
EBONITES.........Who?
Very few knew who they were or where they came from, but that J'Ouvert morning they claimed their place in Carnival history. The year was 1960 and the carnival music flavor, Pan, was ripe from diversity and discovery as the genius of the pannist blossomed. The gladiators in this arena were Trinidad All Stars, Invaders, Desperadoes, Hilanders, Starlift, Guinness Cavaliers, Casablanca and Tokyo. As far as John Public was concerned, out of the aforementioned the champion of the J'Ouvert Bomb contest will emerge. Among those the Pan Science innovators resided, their egos fermenting, adorned as they were with accolades from their respective clans and envied by their competitors.
There was a time previously when our music at it's budding stage was ripe with rivalry, tribal warfare and bloodshed, a time when the onus was on the Badjohns, it was "popular to be bad" like Mastafe at the Q'Dorsay and Cutouta at Green Corner," but not today, we no longer challenge for blood but for music, Pan Music, our weapons no longer the bull pistle, the machete or the long handle razor, no it was now Pan, sweet Pan.
In this cultured battlefield Ebonites occupied no statistical significance among the exalted, they were in limited circles, considered a stage act, revered for their dance hall music, they would be teamed up with the likes of Dutchy Brothers from south Trinidad or Carlos Malcolm and Byron Lee from Jamaica, known for music with Latin flavor. (Incidentally may I suggest a reality that needs mentioning, is the influential contribution that the mainland of Venezuela and the island of Cuba had on the musicians of Trinidad and Tobago in our budding beginning). Venezuela situated only seven miles south of Trinidad was close enough for an influx of immigrants from the mainland bringing with them their culture of music, but also their music bombarded our airways because of the close proximity of our island. In our musical evolution we encompassed whatever was available and audibly pleasing to our naked ear. Our souls though maintained the memory of the drum from a distant past, the rhythm so dominant in Latin music, the Cow Bell, the Chac Chac, the Bongos and the Congas all percussion instruments the essence of our heartbeat. Ebonites harnessed that flavor more than any other before or since.
St Paul Street Community Center, East Dry River, Perseverance Club of Maraval, Hotel Normandie of St. Anns, if their dance floors could speak what stories would be told about the musical frenzy that occurred within their walls. But Carnival Monday morning J'Ouvert was different, this was not the ballroom dance crowd, this was the grassroots of society, the carnival revellers, the jump up crowd, the mass exodus from Sunday night Dimanche Gras on to the feteing and the anticipation of the dawn, J'Ouvert morning.
Morvant was then a little remote community on the east of the city proper, nothing consequential happened in this sleepy out of the way village, there was one movie theatre, one grocery, one night spot, (Spinks Club), one community center for recreational activities, a playground for soccer and cricket. But there was a love for song and dance in the air, we boys learned new dance steps, the bolero, the rumba, the foxtrot, the spins, the dips, and we danced and sang to the music of our times at record sessions, and ballroom dances at the community center. And then.....Somebody pong a pan across the playground up Ramier Street and down Park Lane, and Ebonites happened. As though their musical destiny was preordained, they almost immediately dominated the dance hall circuit, the go-to-band for the marriage of steel and brass orchestration.
In 1956 there was a steelband contest sponsored by the Trinidad Music Festival, a contest for the classical interpretation of music, the judge was an English musical professor, Dr. Sydney Northcote, he chose as the winner, Katzanjammers with "The Breeze and I" by Ernesto Lecouna, however he expressed dissatisfaction at our ability to properly interpret the intended flavor of classical music because our instruments were percussion based, inadequate because of tone and pronunciation to convey the romantic and delicate mood intended by the composer. we Trinbagonians did not take kindly to this criticism, however inspired as we were in part, and so the Bomb competition was a rebellious desire to explore more vigorously this untouchable classical frontier. Neville Jules from Trinidad All Stars was one of the first pioneers in this endeavor. And so we ventured into the realm of classical music, challenging the geniuses. Chopin, Strauss, Beethoven, Liszt, etc. Neville Jules may have been one of the first to smash the proverbial glass ceiling with Minuet in G by Bach, and then it was open season, thence forth classical music flooded the arena, challenging, competing, aspiring to excellence.
A new phase a new stance was realized, we the people would determine and judge what is acceptable as our music by what is appealing to our ear, and so this classical music that was created in the coldest regions on the planet by the soul of it's environment we took and implanted our rhythm, our percussion, our souls, we put fire on ice, we inserted our hot blood into the cold veins of the music, and we danced the calypso dance to classical music, and our world was on fire J'Ouvert morning.
There were bands that John Public (The Judges) considered out of which the Monarch would be proclaimed, but this year there was a rumor of a stranger in the mix, Ebonites!
In the remote recesses of Morvant, Ebonites musical minds conferred, Captain Merlin Joseph; Pan Tuner, Wallace Austin; Musical Arranger, Knolly (Tom) Bob; Lead Cellist, Bassist, Lincoln (Hog) Hunt; co-arranger, Lead Tenor and Percussionist Wills (Beans) Austin. And so the sound of music that materialized out of the hearts of these anointed men manifested itself on the streets of Port if Spain on that J'Ouvert morning. The rendition of Johann Strauss' "Roses from the South" rained like honey on the streets of the city, although I had heard it rehearsed over and over numerous nights before in their secretive pan sessions, it never sounded as great as it did now, this moment in time was at the threshold of perfection and then the door opened and we stepped on sacred ground, we must have been possessed by the mythical Greek God PAN (See Greek mythology; PAN is the God of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, mountain wilds and RUSTIC MUSIC).
Supporter, onlooker, competitors all seemed joined in an elastic grip of frenzy that extended throughout the city on this J'Ouvert morn. Happy tears welled up in my heart and flowed from my eyes, and all around within and without as the music ricocheted off the buildings of the city so did the frenzy take us on a flight of ecstasy, and there all the proclaimed geniuses of Pan stood in suspended animation, in awe of this creative splendor that was Ebonites, "pom, pom, pe pin, pe pin, pe pom" echoed and called the world to bear witness to the revelation as Morvant Ebonites' Roses From the South spewed it's sweet petals all over the city of Port-of-Spain.
Winston Andrews (c) 2/4/16
I read recently where someone said Ray Holman is not being hired by any band. There's a RUMOUR that he will be back at STARLIFT 2018. Let's wait and see.
I just learned that a fellow by the name of CYRIL MATTHEWS, not sure of his first name just recently published a book about North Stars. He is said to be from upper Bournes Road in St.James, P O S. He claims he played with North Stars and knows Tony well.I want to know if JJJ knows this fellow and why he allowed him to write his book before him. I been telling JJJ for years write the history, he kept hemming and hoaring, dilly dallying, now look wha happen. I hatta buy this man book. JJJ lemme hear your thoughts on this one.
The Codrington Pan Family is giving away a new low C tenor pan at their upcoming concert.
The concert takes place on Saturday 14th October, 2017 at the Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC), UWI at 7pm. Tickets cost $150 for adults and $75 for Children.
The first person to sell 25 tickets will be the winner of the tenor pan.
Please check out our Facebook page for more info about the concert and how you can win other prizes. https://www.facebook.com/cpanfamily/ ;
I've been told on several occasions that there is a National Steel Pan Organization but I'm still waiting to see the evidence of such an organization. There are thousands of Pan Players across this country including those is Schools, Colleges and State and local bands, not even counting the individuals not associated with a band. I would have thought that what happened in New York would have brought the "National Organization" out - looking out for the interest of the players and intervening with WIADCA on their behalf.
My concern are all the young players who are left with a bad taste in their mouths after this fiasco - why should they want to be involved if they are not even appreciated on a basic level by the people who try to run what is the largest Pan Competition in the US. Its 2017 and this blatant disrespect by WIADCA was allowed - can you imagine 5 or 10 years from now??.
Unfortunately thats not the only Pan issue going on in NY - When I learned to play pan - I was told that the band I learned to play with was my Pan family, and like most families, loyalty is expected. I'm seeing that this is not the rule in NY - players are abandoning their home bands for other bands without even a discussion as to why they are leaving. I'm not saying players don't have the right to play with whoever they want too - I'm saying give respect where it is due.
With the challenges the NY Pan world have to go through - the last thing I would think it needs is disrespect among the Band Leaders and the players.
Time to pull it together people, talk is just talk - a bunch of hot air that goes nowhere.
I just saw where a woman trying to disrupt some groups preparations for the Labour Day parade. This will always happen because our people don't publicise the value and importance of our events. The labour parade puts millions of dollars in revenue in the coffers of NYC.Pan in particular helps keep a lot of people from mischief Music is one of the intelligences and especially with youth improves the operation of the brain, Concerning my new book I didn't give any details, but I will do so now. It chronicles events ,personal experiences and memories of the badjohn days and pan playing mas and pan on the streets as well as programmes in schools and notes on inventors of certain aspects of pan development. If you really LOVE pan it's a must read If I may say so myself. As Bob Gittens used to say if Gabriel don't blow his own trumpet nobody will do it for him.
"Steelpan Recollections" a new book I have written detailing events surrounding the national instrument while I was growing up in St James.
ON 4 OCCASIONS STEEL ORCHESTRA/ARRANGER HAS SCORED 97% OR HIGHER AT A PANORAMA FINAL.
(a) List the respective orchestras/arrangers
(b) List the years
(c) List the tunes
(d) List each placement, i.e 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.
(e) List the respective points scored
We note the passing of Lionel “Tanker” George on June 17, 2017. He was originally a member of the Casablanca Steel Orchestra and a part of that exodus led by Philmore “Boots” Davidson which established City Syncopators. He was an acknowledged skilled player of the guitar pan before he moved to the five bass with equally acclaimed accomplishment.
He is seated on the right and next to him is Carlton “Zigilee” Barrow Constantine of Bar 20 (centre) and Oscar “Bogart” Pile of Casablanca (1922-2008).
(1) FROM 1973 THROUGH 2015, TUNES WITH PAN AS PART OF THE NAME HAVE BEEN PERFORMED 66 TIMES AT CONVENTIONAL PANORAMA FINALS.
(2) BANDS HAVE WON MORE PERFORMING AT POSITION #1 AT PANORAMA THAN POSITIONS 2, 3, 7, 11, 12 and 13.
(3) OUT OF THE 54 YEARS OF PANORAMA FINALS, ONLY 3 YEARS STEEL ORCHESTRA PERFORMED A DIFFERENT TUNE. THE YEARS ARE 2006, 2015 and 2016.
(4) RAY HOLMAN and DESPERADOES ARE THE ONLY NAMES THAT WERE PANORAMA FINALISTS IN 1960'S, 1970'S, 1980'S, 1990'S, 2000'S and 2010'S.
THESE ARE THE GROSSED EARNINGS IN MILLIONS FROM 2007 THROUGH 2017 FOR THE LEADING 6 STEEL ORCHESTRAS AT PANORAMA FINALS.
ALL STARS 9.9
PHASE II 8.I
SILVER STARS 6.9
RENEGADES 5.9
DESPERADOES 5.8
EXODUS 5.3
WHO DO YOU THINK IS #7?
DO YOU ALL KNOW THAT FROM 1963 THROUGH 2017, LESS THAN 100 STEEL ORCHESTRAS ENTERED THE PRELIMS AT PANORAMA AND 69 HAVE QUALIFIED FOR THE FINALS?
{1} OUT OF THE 69 FINALISTS, 12 HAVE WON AND PLACED, 14 HAVE PLACED EITHER SECOND OR THIRD AND 43 RAN OUT OF THE TOP-THREE.
{2} TUNES WITH "PAN" AS PART OF THE NAME HAVE BEEN PERFORMED 66 TIMES BY PANORAMA FINALISTS FROM 1972 TO 2015. 44 OF THOSE TUNES BEGIN WITH "PAN"
EXCLUDED TUNES ARE "Panman" - "Panyard Vibration" - "Panic"
"Panama" - "Pandora" - "Play Mr. Panist Play" and
"Disappearing Panyards"
{3} MOST LARGE PANORAMA FINALIST HAVE WON PERFORMING AT POSITION #8.
{4} With a 5-judge panel,THE MOST POINTS AWARDED TO A PANORAMA WINNER IS 487, AND THE LEAST IS 462.
{5} With a 3-judge panel, THE MOST POINTS AWARDED TO A PANORAMA WINNER IS 293, AND THE LEAST IS 278.
Peace and Pan!
My Name is Cedrick Luces, also known as sircedrick I am a performing steel drum artist doing a one man show the past thirty years. In 1980 Bob Marley was in Miami undergoing Chemotherapy for his cancer, South Florida’s top radio station Y-100 had a live interview with Bob Marley, the radio DJ was Foote, and he invited callers to call the radio station to talk to Bob, I was the first caller to talk to him, I was already into his music and playing my steel drums along with his songs and thought that the steel drum would be a great addition to his music, so I asked Bob Marley how come he doesn’t have steel drums in his music and his reply was “Me no find one dat can fit in” (I have not found someone that can fit in). I have been fitting in playing my steel drums and singing Reggae music, and making a living doing this, for most of my life, so this album is a tribute to Bob Marley and Reggae music. D ISLAND PARTY introduces you to six of my originals, a mix of Raegge and Soka infused with the steel drum and my vocals. The concept is to feature the steel drum, more, in Commercial Reggae music, “The introduction of steel drums into Commercial Reggae music” I also include my renditions of some Bob Marley, Third World, UB40 and Bazil songs. You can listen to my music at www.sircedrick.com
Hi all.
Me
Does anyone have contact information for Dr. Anthony Achong ? Author of Secrets of the Steelpan.
Also if there's any other person measuring the vibrations of the various pans, I'd welcome their contact information too.
Many thanks.
Steel Orchestras have to get together and brainstorm how to get into the Transportation and the Chroming of Pans Business.
I may not have the dollar, you may not have the dollar, he/she may not have the dollar. However, if WE get into COLLECTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WE WILL HAVE THE DOLLARS.
From 2007 through 2017, The Large Bands Panorama Finalists have grossed $60,750,000.00 in prize monies.
It is time the Steel Orchestras work so they can benefit.
The Truckers, The Chromers, The Pan Makers, The Arrangers, The Decorators, The Managers, The Captains and now we have The "Drill Masters." This is the breakdown from the top top high to the low low, to the crackshots and then to the steel orchestras/robot players.
