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Desperadoes Steel Orchestra - Lord Kitchener's "Ting Tang" (1966)

Posted by Glenroy R Joseph on May 4, 2014 at 1:36am
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Tags: griffith, beverly, orchestra, steel, desperados
An outstanding arrangement of Kitch's salute to Queen Elizabeth , who visited Trinidad in 1966.This Beverly Griffith arrangement was played for the queen by Desperados at the mini carnival held in her honorThis is a fine arrangement , folks , and certainly different from Bobby's version .Bands clearly had different sounds in those days .I love the way Beverly wove parts of "Land of Hope and Glory " into the tune..

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  • Glenroy R Joseph May 17, 2014 at 10:09am

    This outstanding 1966 Desperadoes double album was called "Triple Crown Winners" because it celebrated Despers winning the triple crown that year; the Panorama, the Bomb competition , and best band on the road.

    On top of all that , this album contained seventeen sweet, well arranged tunes by Beverly Griffith, from classics , to pop , to calypso.

    SEVENTEEN well arranged tunes !

    Can you imagine that ?
    I doubt that any band is capable of such a feat today.

    And we talk about progress !

  • Alphonso Bass May 17, 2014 at 9:02am

    Truly great.  And I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, "Bands clearly had different sounds in those days.".  It was such a joy listening in the distance and recognising the band, something that is impossible to do today.  Could we go back??

  • terry May 4, 2014 at 8:56pm

    A shorter version (3.23mins) of this lovely arrangement also appears on Despers' LP: Caribbean Holiday (Tropico TSI 2006).

  • Steve "Carter" K. May 4, 2014 at 12:29pm

    I believe that the intro was that used by the BBC to start their news coverage back then and so this coupled with parts of "Land of Hope and Glory" would have surely made the Royal Couple feel at home . Very clever indeed. Here you can clearly hear the 3 beat strumming that was a signature of Despers something which I do not think is used again. This is another GEM which tells of the Brilliance the SteelBand as an Orchestra possessed. Thanks.

  • Ian Franklin May 4, 2014 at 10:49am

    Thanks Glenroy,

                                You are the greatest (lol)

    This is the first and last double album ever recorded by a Steel Orchestra. Kudos to Mr. Beverly Griffith, a man who in my opinion is the arranger who brought Desperadoes prominence. He was one of the top three versatile arrangers in the 1960's.

    Only 4 men who played on that recording still reside in T&T, "Tash" & "P'Jue" who plays double second, Babylon a top tenor panist, and Wilby a percussionist.

    As of 2014, "Tash" is the only panist to play at 50 of the of the 52 panorama preliminaries, 45 of the 46 semi-finals and 47 of the 51 finals.  

  • terry May 4, 2014 at 6:41am

    Thanks GRJ for providing the wonderful pan sounds of the past that we enjoyed.  I love both versions of Ting Tang.

  • Glenroy R Joseph May 4, 2014 at 1:46am

    This one's for you , Ian Franklin .

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