The John Schmidt Reports Collection of John's emails to the Pan People around the World

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World Steelband Music Festival 2000 NEWS
October 2000
eEd - tobagojo@trinidad.net

 REPORT 7
 CASYM

31 October, 2000 1:39 AM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

I have been meaning to write this ever since the semi-finals, but just never got to it. However, I feel my comments are still valid, so better late than never.

CASYM is a youth band from Brooklyn, New York, it has been around since some time in the '80s. They are one of the few sponsored bands in Brooklyn, their sponsor being the New York Daily News. Don't think that makes them well off, however. Sponsorship in New York isn't like in Trinidad. While the Daily News has made it possible for the band to exist, it does not, by any means, pay all the expenses of the band. They did, however cover a portion of the costs of sending CASYM to Trinidad to compete in the World Steelband Music Festival. No other band in New York could begin to afford such an expense.

Even so, only a portion of CASYM could travel. A number of their players could not get out of school for the two weeks. Several players from other New York bands who wanted to compete were allowed to join with the band for the competition, and played for CASYM. While I never got an exact count, I think somewhat over thirty players made the trip, together with some parents and other support personnel. So the band which appeared in Trinidad was much smaller than the band CASYM had on the stage for Brooklyn Panorama.

While, as most of you know, I live in the New York area and follow the activities of the Brooklyn bands, I have never been that close to CASYM, so I'm not just writing this to boost my friends. I know the principals and a few of the older players, but it isn't a band where I spent much time liming in their panyard. In 1995, though, CASYM played with Moods, a band I am much closer with, in a Christmas concert. From that event, I saw how enthusiastic CASYM's young players could be, and how much they respected their arranger, Arddin Herbert.

Now to Trinidad and the Festival: When I went up to the Cascadia Hotel, where CASYM was stationed, the evening they arrived things were sort of disorganized. New background pans the band had ordered were not complete. (In fact they did not get all their basses until the day they were to perform for the preliminaries.) The space the hotel provided for rehearsal was inadequate, in fact if all the pans were there, they wouldn't have fit. I don't believe they ever did get any organized rehearsal underway that first day.

A couple of days later, when I again stopped in, things had begun to fall in place. Although they were still missing some pans and such items as bass blocks, Arddin was working hard with the band, putting them through their paces. They had a new, outdoors, rehearsal space at the hotel which had a marginally adequate sized portion covered from the rain by a shed roof. But it was obvious there was a lot of work to be done, particularly on the test piece, which had real problems.

During their Preliminary performances, it was obvious that the test piece was still a problem, but I felt they did a respectable job on their tune of choice, the Finale to Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. The calypso, Boogsie's "My Time", seemed to have lost the spirit which helped it win the Brooklyn Panorama. I suspect this may have been because of the change in players from Panorama, and possibly from the shock of playing for the first time in the large brightly lit Jean Pierre Center. When the scores were announced, CASYM was in 15th place.

Some bands would have thrown in the towel at that point, but not CASYM. They redoubled their efforts, practicing for the semi-finals from early in the morning until late in the evening. They had a bit of good luck when the test piece, which was giving them the biggest problem, was dropped from the semi-final. This allowed them to concentrate on the other two songs. They also had a new problem, when the hotel stopped them from rehearsing after 9:00 PM, claiming guests were complaining about the "noise". But that just forced them to start their rehearsals earlier in the morning.

I paid them another visit about this time, and I have to tell you CASYM should be very proud of the disciplined behavior of their players. They practiced longer hours than any other band that I know of, far longer than most. The players did this without complaint, in fact they seemed to be enjoying it, at least when I was there. And it was obvious the work was paying off, the band sounded much better.

The night of the semi finals the band sounded transformed. The Calypso had its spirit back, and the Tchaikovsky was much tighter. When the results were announced, CASYM had moved up to a tie for ninth place, only four points shy of making the finals. I haven't had a chance to complete my analysis of the scores, but I believe their point improvement from the preliminary (disregarding the test piece) was greater than almost any other band. When I was talking with judge Professor Novotney, between the semi-finals and the finals, he volunteered that one of the biggest surprises for him in the semi-finals was CASYM's great improvement.

While CASYM obviously would have liked to make the finals, they shouldn't be too upset. Of the bands one could consider "youth bands", they did the best. They decisively outscored Parry's and Grenada's Angel Harps. They tied with Our Boys, which is run by Pan Trinbago President, Patrick Arnold. They outscored well regarded bands like Pan Knights, which had, in addition to its own players, a number of the better All Stars and Renegades players, and was conducted by "Inch High" Trevor Valentine, best known for his work with Desperadoes. They also outscored Laventille Sound Specialists and the French band, Calypsociation, which runs a pan school.

Assuming Trinidad "dares" to run another "world" version of the Steelband Music Festival in the next few years (I'm sure there are now quite a few in the Trini pan community who are afraid that a foreign band might take the trophy next time), CASYM should be in a good position to do even better, and make it into the finals.

So CASYM, you have my congratulations for a commendable performance and for dedication and discipline under sometimes trying circumstances. Arddin, you reminded me again of your dedication to CASYM and the total respect you get from CASYM's players. And to anyone who has ever believed any stereotype about "inner city kids", you should have been there to see CASYM at work. You would be cured forever.

John Schmidt

 REPORT 6
 Steelband Music Festival Final Results

22 October, 2000 6:03 AM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

Trinidad captures festival championship but judges make statement which will forever change festival:

San Fernando based TCL Group Skiffle Bunch maintained its position in first place to win the World Steelband Festival 2000 with a solid 576.5 points. It moved fully 25 points ahead of second place Northern Illinois University Steel Orchestra. Len "Boogsie" Sharpe's arrangement of Ken "Professor" Philmore's "Pan by Storm" was well performed, but Boogsie's original composition for the tune of choice, "In the Rain Forest" was in fact the storm which shook the pan world. Appearing in position six, Skiffle Bunch set a standard which neither Invaders in position seven or Exodus, in position eight was able to come close to.

Northern Illinois University, appearing first, claimed second place with a score of 551.5 points. They had two original compositions, a calypso "Pan 2000" by Clifford Alexis and a tune of choice in what I would call a fusion or new music idiom, "Wood and Steel", composed by Robert Chapell specifically for the steelpan, among other instruments.

Exodus also advanced 25 points to 550, moving from seventh place in the Semi-finals to third in the Finals. The errors evident during the Semi-finals were not present tonight.

Ebony, from London, showed itself to be a strong force, moving from sixth up to fourth, with a score of 544.5. Invaders remained in fifth place. Their score only improved three points to 537 points

Panch 2000, from Switzerland, slipped from fourth to sixth, improving only one point since the Semi-finals to 535.5

Defence Force swapped places with Exodus, dropping from third to seventh place. Their score dropped 4 1/2 points to 530. A good friend of mine who plays bass for the National Steel Orchestra, among other bands, says he heard several obvious wrong notes in the Defence Force bass line. I and others also noted that the pan used for a tenor solo part had a very tinny "Pan Round Neck" old time sound. (Defence Force has historically been a "Pan Round de Neck" band.) I had noticed the same thing during the Semi-finals. I don't know if the judges held this against the band, but the sound was not pleasing.

Steel Pan Lovers from Finland remained in eighth place, but improved their score 17 1/2 points to 523.5.

The overall level of performance was very high, improving considerably since the Semi-finals. The Festival began about 20 minutes late, with the National Anthems of each of the participants. Awards were given to Ellie Mannette, who had arrived a day earlier from the United States, and to Bertie Marshall. A performance by DeFosto was marred when a CD of his backing music refused to play, forcing him to sing his number, "Pan Forever More" acapella. That was the only significant miscue during an otherwise well-run evening.

The same dog (s?) which were evident during the semi-finals wandered around tonight, to the occasional amusement of the audience. A dog left an unwanted "calling card" on the riser directly behind the Steel Pan Lovers' Timpani, and was seen with a Shak-Shak belonging to the NIU band in its mouth as it left the area. The question here is not "who let the dogs out", but why they were not evicted before the Finals.

The rain which had pounded the area for several hours in the afternoon abated before the performance time, but left the surface of the Jean Pierre Center like a soggy wet towel. The cloth used for the protective tarps put down over the playing courts is inappropriate. It soaks up the rain water, and everyone who had to walk on the floor of the center felt like they were in Boogsie's rain forest by the time the night was over. I felt sorry for the individuals who had to play the Ugandan Xylophone featured in NIU's composition. They had to sit on a very damp riser in order to perform.

External noise detracted considerably from the experience of listening to the orchestras. There was an unidentified high pitched tone emanating from the west stand for the entire performance. Several car alarms in the adjacent parking area sounded at inappropriate moments. PTSC buses repeatedly drove down the roads immediately adjacent to the north and south fences of the performance area. These not only created distracting noises, but were visually distracting, as the top of the bus could be seen above the fence.

Finally, there was far too much noise from the adjacent basketball court area. This noise was mainly made by members of bands which had already performed or had yet to perform and used the court space as a staging area. Repeated attempts to quiet them were mostly unsuccessful. Their lack of discipline was very distracting, particularly to the bands playing on the east side of the performance space, and to the judges while judging them. It is probably incidental that the four bands which performed on the west side of the performance space claimed the top four scores, while the four on the east side got the bottom scores.

After the results were announced, I "cornered" two of the judges, Eugene Novotney and Richard Murphy, and asked them (together)if the fact that the top two orchestras had played tunes of choice that were original compositions written for pan (as opposed to adaptations of the Classics) was an attempt by the judges to send a message. Novotney hesitated for a moment and then said "Notice who won the Ensemble competition". At that point Murphy spoke up and said "You can quote me on this, yes, I'm sending a message" I have to presume the message will be read loud and clear by the steelband community, and the next Music Festival will include the performance of many more original compositions, and many fewer adaptations of the Classics. For the information of those who may not have seen the results, the Florida Memorial Steel Band tied for first place with an original composition by Dawn Batson, their leader.

In addition to the message the judges sent concerning the repertoire, the wake-up call to the Trinidad steelband community has to be that four of the eight finalists were foreign bands. While this time Trinidad held on to first place, foreign bands took second, fourth, sixth and eighth places. If the Trinidad pan community dares to make the competition international in future years, they may not always be as lucky. A foreign band could well have the spark that this time ignited Skiffle Bunch and take the championship home from Trinidad. I doubt very many people would have predicted, even as late as the end of the Preliminaries, that Skiffle Bunch would be the champion. It could just as likely have been Panch 2000, NIU or Ebony.

Having said that, I hope the competition remains international. The level of performance was exceedingly high, much higher than two years ago, and according to those who have witnessed previous Festivals, even higher than that afforded by the 'big name' bands who have been absent from the last two Festivals. This improvement was not evident until after the Preliminary round, when the Swiss band copped first place, and five of the seven foreign bands made the top ten. I suspect it is the fear of the "embarrassment" of a foreign victory which pushed the Trinidad bands to show what they are capable of. To those who complain about the competitive aspect, and feel the Festival should only be unjudged performances, I ask you what would drive the performances to excellence? The competition is needed if the artform is to advance. And Trinidadians need to see the necessity of providing the support, both financial and personal, that steelbands here so badly need, if they are going to be able to compete successfully in the future.

John Schmidt

 REPORT 5
 Steelband Music Festival Semi-Final Results

19 October, 2000 3:40 AM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

Point Scores for Semi-Finals:

Here are the point scores for the Orchestra semi-finals. Please note I have points for each song for Tuesday, but only total scores for Wednesday. I have been promised a breakdown for today, and a summary score sheet for the Preliminaries. I'll post them when I get the results.

First Place: Skiffle Bunch, 558 points, played W, 3
2nd: NIU Steel Band (Illinois, USA)538.5, played W,7
3rd: T&T Defence Force, 535.5, played W,2
4th: Panch 2000 (Switzerland), 534.5, played W,6
5th: Invaders ,534 points (Tune of Choice 263/Calypso 271), played Tu,5
6th: Ebony (London) 527 points (258/269), played Tu,6
7th: Exodus, 525 points (259/266), played Tu,3
8th: Steel Pan Lovers (Finland) 506 points (248/258), played Tu,7

(The above bands move on to the Orchestra Finals on Saturday, those below are out.)

9th: (Tie) CASYM (Brooklyn, USA)502 points, played W,8
9th: (Tie) Our Boys, 502 points, played W,4
11th: Calypsociation (France), 500 points (252,248), played Tu,2
12th: Pan Knights, 496 points,played W,1
13th: Angel Harps (Grenada)492.5 points (231.5/261), played Tu,8
14th: Parry's Pan School, 487 points, played W,5
15th: Sound Specialists, 479 points (228/251), played Tu,4
16th: Moods, 456 points (212/244), played Tu,1

The Single Pan competition results are being challenged by Dem Boys, who scored zero points for their tune of choice, because it is claimed they failed to submit a score for judging.

More later

John Schmidt

 REPORT 4
 Steelband Music Festival dumps test piece

16 October, 2000 1:13 AM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

The requirement to play the test piece has been dropped from the conventional bands Festival semi-finals.

I heard this initially from individuals at the opening of the Steelband Technology Conference this evening. I thought they had to be in error. When I stopped by the Exodus yard after the conference ceremonies, Desmond Waithe confirmed that the test piece is dead. Apparently the decision was made to try to keep the semi final from lasting all night. Dumping the test piece should save about 80 minutes, five minutes per band to play it, and five for the judges to fill out the score sheets.

The rules as published on the Festival website call for the test piece to be played for the preliminaries ad the semi-final. I don't see anything in the rules specifically allowing the organizers to change this rule, but then there is nothing saying they can't.

Dropping the test piece will probably change the scores of some bands significantly in the semi-final (in addition to dropping all scores by 300 points), and therefore will probably change who gets into the final. It is unlikely to change the top final results because it wasn't being played in the finals. The only way it affects the final results is by possibly including different bands in the finals (the top eight from the semi-finals, different bands could make the cut now.) Indirectly, bands may now devote the time they planned to spend on the test piece to the tunes of choice.

This will probably help Exodus, Defense Force, etc. score higher against Panch in the semi-finals, as I suspect Panch got more points for its spectacular rendition of the test piece than it did for its good but probably not spectacular calypso. Therefore I'm sure the rumor mill is going to start claiming they did it to let a Trini band win. But, as I explained earlier, the test piece was never in the final, so if Panch needed the test piece points to win, they would have lost them in the final anyway.

It should be interesting to see what the semi-final scores are, as the only real difference from the prelim is the tossing out of the test piece. Therefore the difference between the two scores for each band is a fair approximation of the score they got for the test piece. The organizers have not seen fit to release the scores for each number for each band, only the total for each band.

The sad part about this is that all the work, expense, etc. that bands put into learning the test piece was essentially wasted. Since all the bands except Bucconeers moved on to the semi-finals, and by all appearances their performance of the test piece played little part in their loss, the test piece did nothing for the outcome of the festival except cost the bands time and money, and lengthen the preliminaries. It did' of course, let those present here see how Panch turned a number with no real music in it as written into a musically pleasing, if not fascinating work. I suspect some arrangers will be studying that aspect of this festival for some time.

The bands also drew the positions for the semi-finals, but I have been unable to get a full list yet. Since I'll be in the Pan Technology conference all day tomorrow, you all may well find it on the Festival website before I get to see it. I was told Moods drew first on Tuesday, Exodus is also on Tuesday, and Parry, CASYM and Defense Force are all on Wednesday.

John Schmidt

 REPORT 3
 Steelband Music Festival Friday Prelims, results

14 October, 2000 18:26 PM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

The Swiss steelband, Panch 2000 has a commanding 18 point lead over second place Exodus following the preliminary round of the World Steelband Festival. Following two long nights of almost uniformly high quality music, the results were announced, and the 16 bands who move on to the semi-finals have just three days to clean up their presentations.

Panch scored 798 points of a possible 900 with its unique presentation of the test piece, delightful performance of Von Suppe's Poets and Peasants, and solid performance of Boogsie's Mind Yuh Business.

Exodus scored 780 points with its presentation of the test piece (Dawn of the Millennium, specially written for the Festival by Rudy Wells), tune of choice "Capriccio Italian" by Tchaikovsky, and Calypso "Steelband Times" by Andre Tanker. Nipping at their heels are Defence Force in third place with 778 points, Invaders in fourth with 774, London's Ebony in fifth with 772, and the Northern Illinois University steelband in sixth with 771.

The other qualifying bands are: France's Calypsociation in seventh place with 758 points, TCL Group Skiffle Bunch in eighth with 750, a tie for ninth with 739 between Solo Pan Knights and Finland's Steel Pan Lovers, Tobago's Our Boys in 11th with 712.5, Courts Laventille Sound Specialists in 12th with 707, Parry's Pan School in 13th with 697, Grenada's NCB Angel Harps in 14th with 676, Brooklyn NY's CASYM in 15th with 672, and Moods in 16th with 641.

Tobago Buccooneers in 17th place with 616 points did not make the semi-finals.

The rules were written for 16 semi-finalists when it was thought there would be more than the seven foreign bands who actually participated. At one time upwards of 24 bands were expected, until the realities of the costs involved and the difficulty of getting players who could take two weeks off from school or work caused several potential bands to drop the idea. The rules also had provisions to assure that at least two of the bands from each "zone" (Europe, North America, Caribbean, in addition to Trinidad & Tobago) made it into the semi-finals. I was told this was at the request of the Europeans, who were concerned that all of their bands might be blanked in the Preliminaries, and would have made the trip here for a single performance each. Needless worry, as it turned out. But, because there were only two bands from the United States, and one from the greater Caribbean, those three bands were automatically guaranteed a slot in the semi-finals. The band to be left out of the semi-finals had to be either from Trinidad & Tobago or Europe.

The eight top scoring bands from the semi-finals go on to the finals. No more zonal protection.

I mentioned in my last report that a decision had been made to move the start of the Friday preliminaries back from 8:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Unfortunately, very few people were made aware of this. I arrived at about 7:10 PM, to find about 50 people in the audience, and almost none of the officials or support staff yet arrived. In the end, the start was later than Thursday, with the National Anthem not played until 8:23 PM and the first band not playing until 8:28.

The organizers attempted to speed things up by announcing a "10 minute break" (which lasted 23 minutes) between bands five and six, instead of an intermission. Even so, with nine bands performing, the last band did not complete its performance until about 2:45 AM. The results were announced about 15 minutes later.

This does not bode well for the semi-finals. Each night there are eight conventional bands, and three "Single Pan Bands" (Pan-round-de-neck). The Single Pan Bands will be competing for their final, essentially a repeat of 1998, with the same six bands. With 11 bands, anyone planning to stay for the last band may want to bring a sleeping bag and a change of clothes! That way, one can leave directly for work the next day...

The Single Pan finals had been originally scheduled on their own night, October 10th, but it was decided to combine them with the orchestral semi-finals, apparently as a cost cutting measure. I hope they let the conventional orchestras perform first, but I fear it will be the other way around.

The performances on Friday night included one eye-opener, NIU's choice of a number written especially for the competition titled "Wood and Steel". This was a fascinating piece of modern "fusion" music counterpoising and blending pan with a number of wood percussion instruments (and some human voices). Most pronounced to me was a large African Xylophone styled instrument which had a tone very similar to the "old time" pan (pre Bertie-Marshall/Tony Williams). This is an important direction for "serious" (as opposed to pop or jazz) pan compositions to take, with original compositions written specifically for the instrument, rather than adapting compositions written for other instruments (such as the traditional Classics) to be played on pans. It moves the instrument out of the "novelty" world for serious music (which it currently shares with the likes of the kazoo) and into its own niche. I hope more composers continue the trend.

Other crowd (and judge) pleasers included the Defence Force Orchestra, who are attempting to defend their first place tie (with Exodus) in 1998, and London's Ebony.

It is worthwhile noting that foreign bands currently place in first, fifth, sixth, and seventh place, and tie for ninth. All four European bands were in the top ten. The Trinidad steelband community may be receiving a wake-up call if they want to continue to consider themselves not only the birthplace of pan, but the heart of the pan world. I'm sure that there will be some very long hours the next three days in some Trinidad panyards. Even if a sudden spurt by the Trinidad bands turns things around in the semi-finals or finals, this will only be a quick fix. Trinidad has to look closely about how serious it is about supporting its national instrument, and its rich cultural endowment in general. Sitting at home watching American cable television channels, listening to "dub" and hip-hop, while complaining "They tief our culture" does not make it. If you tire of your culture and send it like an old suit to the charity store, don't be upset when someone else picks it up and decides there is still a lot of worth in it.

I already have heard a lot of old talk that this competition is not realistic, that the top bands aren't in it. Well, some of the top bands may be sitting this one out, but many of their top players, particularly those who have put their love of the instrument and its music above "pan politics" are not sitting at all. I see plenty of Renegades, All Stars jerseys in other panyards. I see stalwarts like Trevor Valentine, Boogsie Sharpe, Jit Samaroo and such appearing as arrangers and conductors. I see All Stars background pans and yard being used by Defence Force, and understand there may be more than one Defence Force player who is really an All Stars. I even see part of Starlift's iron section beating rhythm for the first place Swiss Panch 2000. So the historical top bands may be out this year, but the standard of performance is still very high. And maybe some of the "old name" bands (and for that matter, Pan Trinbago) will have to think twice about their tactics, past and future, if they are to remain relevant in the 21st century.

Trinidad, and this includes not only the government but private businesses and individuals will have to start making the investments needed if it is to retain supremacy in the pan world. This includes the building of performance spaces and proper panyards where the band is not worried about being evicted momentarily. But it also involves providing education in music theory, more scholarships in music composition to talented young people in hope that they might become future Prospects or Tankers or whoever. It involves insuring that there are processes for funding "artists in residence" or such, so talented young people can afford to write and perform local "serious music" and not either emigrate or drop serious music for the latest pop fad to survive. It means finding a means of funding research in pan, before people somewhere else develop more innovations, and Trinidad becomes a backwater for new pan development, a consumer rather than a creator.

The semi-finals begin Tuesday evening. That will, so to say, "separate the men from the boys". But what you may really see is boys becoming men (and of course girls becoming women).

For a lot of other details on this festival go to:
http://www.seetobago.org/trinidad/pan/bands_tt.htm
and look for the section on the Festival.

John Schmidt

 REPORT 2
 Steelband Music Festival Thursday Preliminary Correction

13 October, 2000 17:22 PM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

NOTE: The Pan Mart is on Saturday evening the 14th, not Sunday. The Steelband Festival website has the wrong date! I just verified this with Jeremy de Barry, whose band, Hatters, is performing there. The date got changed somewhere between it's demise and its rebirth... This puts it in conflict with Starlift's party. Confusion Reigns! (That's better than rain reigning... Sorry)

John Schmidt

 REPORT 1
 Steelband Music Festival Thursday Preliminary

13 October, 2000 16:23 PM
By John Schmidt
schmidj@ix.netcom.com

The weather threatened all day, with rain and low clouds, but by late afternoon the rain gave up, and later in the evening the clouds parted. The delayed conventional steelband preliminaries for the World Steelband Festival finally got underway. It was worth the wait.

Somewhat over 1000 "panjumbies" like myself, together with several hundred players were treated to the first serving of a musical feast. The second serving will be this evening.

Eight steel orchestras played in turn before the judges, and the appreciative audience, in the first night of the Preliminaries. Nine more orchestras will conclude the preliminaries this evening.

The order of appearance, particularly for tonight's competition has been changed from that which I reported. The French steelband, Calypsociation, was carded to play in sixth position on the opening night. Their performance has been postponed to the opening position tonight. Some of their background pans, which the Festival organizers were borrowing from various Trinidad bands, were late in being delivered. I think the final problem was with two sets of nine-bases borrowed from Renegades which turned out to have a slightly wrong note layout. A couple of new drums had to be sunk and tuned. This is another argument for the importance of standardizing the note arrangements of the background pans, but that will be the subject for another discussion.

Parry's Pan School was moved up to become the eighth band to perform last night, in the last position.

For reasons I was unable to determine, the other two "holdovers" originally scheduled to play as the last two bands last night are scheduled to play as the last two bands tonight, not as the first two, as I had been told. So Skiffle Bunch, originally the concluding band is now in seventh position, followed by Defence Force in eighth and finally by Steel Pan Lovers from Finland.

The competition started promptly at about 8:05, with the playing of the National Anthem, and some brief opening ceremonies. The first band, Courts Lavantille Sound Specialists, started playing about 8:25. The last band, Parry's Pan School played to a significantly diminished but no less enthusiastic audience, concluding about 2:30 AM.

One may rightfully ask why it took over six hours for eight bands to perform, particularly given that all eight bands' pans were pre-set on the floor before the opening. There was one intermission, I recall lasting about an hour. The audience became restless near the end, starting the slow clap. The announcer reminded the audience that the judges deserved a break from their difficult task, the judges returned shortly thereafter, and the second half of the evening began. The only other significant pauses were between selections, as the judges spent some time reviewing musical scores, making and reviewing their notes, and finally filling in the scoresheets. As the bands were packing up after the competition, I overheard Patrick Arnold vociferously complaining to a group of the pan "old-timers" about what he claimed was the unnecessarily long time the judges took to fill out their result pages, and promising to talk to them about the subject. Good luck, Patrick, but the alternative is complaints from the bands that the judges had their minds made up before the performance, and failed to even contemplate on what they head before completing the scoring. Somehow, I feel the judges will continue to take their time, as they probably should, during the scoring process.

No partial results were released after last night's session, although a number of people, particularly arrangers and band managers waited around afterwards. The bands wanted this information so they could start work on changes they need to complete in the very short time before the semi-finals start Tuesday evening.

This, of course, did not stop members of the audience from making their own judgments. The buzz seemed to place Exodus and the Swiss band, Panch, at the top, with Panch possibly even outscoring Exodus. Other bands with top performances included Invaders and the Grenadian band, NCB Angel Harps, in the minds of most of those I talked with.

One thing that surprised me was how different some interpretations of Rudy Wells' test piece were. The most unique interpretation was by Panch. They played a lot of the front-line runs, particularly near the beginning of the piece in a time varied manner, much in the fashion of avant-garde classical music, rather than strictly together, as in pop music or older western European classics. I lack the training in music to describe the style properly, but it is similar to looking at a reflection of a scene in a rippled pond, as opposed to looking at the scene itself. Once you got over the shock of hearing it played like that and realized they really meant to play it with that effect, it was very pleasing, and I suspect gave the judges some real meat to chew on.

Panch also had the biggest mid-range sound of any band there, probably of most any band I have ever listened to. How much of this was due to their use of the new "pyramid" pans (an agglomeration of six pans about 18 inches in diameter, with six notes each, tuned like a "four pan" cello, but extending up another half octave) and how much was from careful construction of chords spanning multiple instruments I don't know, but the band had a very "full" melodic sound. On the other hand, their bass was weak. They had six low six bases, and no tenor bases. I feel a couple of tenor bases or high six-bases would have helped them.

Exodus took some risk in their choice of tunes. Their classical piece is Capriccio Italian, which they performed some years ago (1988?) and got a low score for. It is my understanding that the feeling was to prove that now they could do it the way it should be done. They are doing Tanker's "Steelband Times" as their Calypso. This is the same number they did in the 1998 festival, which was considered the qualifying round for this one. When I asked why they didn't pick a different song this time, they pointed out that the European bands are all using the songs they qualified with in Paris in July again here for this round, and Exodus' reuse of Steelband Times is no different. True, but it remains to be seen if the judges buy into that. It is important to note that the arrangement has been considerably reworked, so there is quite a lot of new music in it.

Invaders performance of Dvorak's Carnival Overture was well done, the song, besides having a title which can be appreciated by Trinidadians, seemed particularly appropriate for Pan in its dynamic range and voicing. (then again maybe its that Dr. Remy, the arranger, did a particularly good job arranging it for pan.) The Calypso is Boogsie's Toco Band, a slightly reworked version of their 1999 Panorama tune.

A number of the performances exposed the limitations of the venue, and some problems with audience behavior. The softer parts of several presentations were disturbed by traffic on the nearby Jeffers Highway. Not helping was the vendor calling out "Cold Drinks" during Sound Specialists performance. He must have forgotten this is a concert, not a sporting event. There were also several inconsiderate patrons talking loudly in the aisles during several performances. Finally, during several quiet passages, particularly during the classical numbers of Our Boys and Invaders, the crickets (a cricket? can one be that loud?) (I'm talking about the insect, not the sport...)were drowning out the pannist(s).

This points up again the need for a proper venue for events like this in Trinidad. Here you have the pan equivalent of the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and six other top symphony orchestras playing at one venue, in fact being ranked competitively, and you're holding it in a not too well maintained sports stadium with only fair acoustics, inappropriate lighting, a soaking wet "carpet" covering the playing surface, and serious intrusion from outside noise. If Trinidad wants to be able to continue its claim of being the heart of pan, not just the birthplace of pan, it must do better.

The sound system deserves some comment, particularly considering my background as an audio engineer, and my previous criticism of Panorama sound, both in Trinidad and New York. It was acceptable, probably most of the time better than acceptable. There are those purists who would claim that an event like this needs no amplification, and in a proper venue, they would be right. The Boston Symphony uses no amplification in Symphony Hall.

But some orchestras do use amplification in venues like public parks, where the audience is further from the performers, and the reflected sound of a closed performance space is missing. This is the situation in the Jean Pierre Complex. Complicating the situation, the bands are set up in different locations, and it is vital to keep the amplified sounds away from the judges, lest they judge the sound system, not the band.

The sound system last night was competently run, a far different situation than that at New York Panorama. There were some places in the audience which at some times seemed to be getting an unbalance of sounds from the two speaker towers, so that someone sitting near the center of the stands, as I was, heard a sound image coming from the far left, even though the band playing was somewhat right of center stage. This was quite distracting. Several bands received more amplification than they really needed, adding to the distraction level.

Locating the speakers overhead in a single "cluster" suspended from the front edge of the roof would probably solve most of the sound image problems, but would be considerably more costly. A "better" choice of microphones would improve the quality of the amplified sound, SM57's and SM58's may do for a small rock combo, but were never intended for live orchestral pickup. Some good condenser mikes would do much better, but again, at an increased rental cost. Finally, the mix was somewhat inconsistent. NCB Angel Harps, in my opinion, suffered from too much rhythm section in the PA mix (at least they kept the beat, not like Rebels in New York!). Our Boys suffered from a distinct lack of rhythm in the PA mix. This is probably due to the problems of mixing from the floor of the performance area. The Front of House mixer belongs in the middle of the audience area, so the operator hears the same thing the audience hears.

Finally, be aware of a schedule change and an upcoming event or two:

Tonight's (Friday's) Preliminary starts at seven, not eight PM, according to the Festival office. Apparently they want the event to end at a reasonable hour. If they really start at seven, most of the audience won't arrive until an hour later, as the change in starting time has not been widely publicized.

Also, the Pan Market scheduled for Sunday the 15th at the Lara Promenade is back on, contrary to the article in last Sunday's Newsday. It is now the "Vibe 105/Carib Block Party" so they obviously found a sponsor. It officially runs from 4PM until 11, "Vibe 105" announced they would have a live broadcast from 6 to 10 PM. In addition to vendors, there will be live performances by Desperadoes, Phase II, Hatters, and several of the foreign bands. It is in the section of the Promenade between the Central Bank and the Royal Bank.

Starlift is sponsoring a welcoming party for all the foreign bands this Saturday evening at their panyard, all are invited, there will be a DJ, performances by Starlift and a Pan-Round-De-Neck side. Admission is $20 (TT).

That's it for now

John Schmidt

© 2000: tobagojo@trinidad.net - 20000703 Last Update: 10 November 2000 07:00:00 Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry

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