LOCAL T&T STEELBAND NEWS

FRONT   Page EVENTS 2000   Page

PART 2

…This competition, if it must be held at all, and which I feel has outlived its usefulness since its inception 37 years ago, should be held either in Steelband Month in May, or somewhere between August-October.

The preliminary of Panorama does nothing positive for music or the steelband movement. In fact, it causes more harm than good, and weakens the potential of steelbands, which seem incapable of conceiving a vision beyond learning ten minutes of music for an entire Carnival season.

Panorama at the Queen's Park Savannah has become nothing more than a big lime and party, with the business sector being the main prostitute of the national instrument. Free advertising is the order of the day in the North Stand. Companies who refuse to support pan through the year, exploit this opportunity to advertise and promote brands, via flags, banners, jerseys and other paraphernalia. Once the Savannah preliminary is over, the attendance drops significantly.

Interest in pan at a national Panorama final is reserved for a mere handful of big steel orchestras. The year that WITCO Desperadoes, Phase II Pan Groove, BP AmoCo Renegades, Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars, Exodus, and probably BWIA Invaders, PCS Starlift and TCL Skiffle Bunch pull positions 1-8 in a final, by the time the tenth band appears on stage, the Savannah will be empty. Every year, these big bands bring thousands of people on stage with them, but, come J'Ouvert morning you can't find 1,000 people in any of these bands. By then, pan means nothing to them. Despite coming up with the odd inspirational idea, Pan Trinbago is still woefully short of ideas to attract and sustain new friends, fans and family to pan.

While it is desirable to retain some seniority in any organisation, as well as smooth handing over of the baton, but the many dinosaurs that hang around Pan Trinbago, cause the organisation to not only appear like a Jurassic Park, but maintain a similar thought pattern and vision as well. The Pan in the 21st Century, like Champs in Concert, is a genius of an idea. But, ineffective marketing methods have contributed to making this event a dead fish, despite it being a truly fantastic forum for excellent pan music. In short, nobody supports Pan in the 21st Century.

Pan Trinbago is also its own worse enemy as it has also failed to exorcise the backward, primitive 'gimme gimme' mentality it has traditionally encouraged within its membership. Whether it is Festival or Panorama, people with rank rob the gate of badly- needed revenue by giving admission to long--lost family, friends and God knows who else.

These people continue to be a parasite to pan, and the growth of the steelband movement. The hands-out mentality also extends to free jerseys, free food and free drinks. In short, the word pan has become synonymous with the word free.

Why is it that almost every month, foul mouth dance-hall artists are able to attract thousands to a venue, but a biennial Steelband Festival cannot attract 500? Why is the Savannah virtually empty for Pan in the 21st Century ?

Radio stations should never be allowed not to play pan music. If they refuse to play the music voluntary, the state should step in and use a heavy hand and institute legislation that pan be played on the airwaves by every radio frequency.

But, the first real World Steelband Festival is here and although there is pretty little to cheer about in terms of marketing or tangible support from the private sector and the public, one must salute the efforts of the musicians.

There is a compelling, romantic story behind every participant in the Festival; like the blind pannist in Ebony, and his colleague in the wheelchair; like PANch 2000 conductor Yaira Yonne, as her counterpart at Invaders, Dr J Remy; like Boogsie's awesome composition of In the Rain Forest for Skiffle Bunch; like the child pannists of New York's CASYM, Parry's Pan School, Tobago's Buccooneers; like the innovative instruments of PANch 2000 and Northern Illinois University Steel Band; like the sa[r]torial elegance and overall appearance of Exodus. In short, the true clear winner of World Steelband Music Festival 2000 has been the exceptional music.

Sunday, October 22, 2000.
THE TRINIDAD GUARDIAN - Online Edition Ver 2.0
©2000 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
The Trinidad Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.tt/index.html

To: PART 1

[ eEd missed the 'next' page of Peter Blood's article Steelband Festival signals ‘Pan In Danger’ when cutting up the news papers. By odd chance, the article was discovered to be on the Net. The complete article is now presented on these pages, rather than being linked, as the news-Net-version will probably evapourate 12 weeks after it first appeared. ]

YOUNG female pannist Sophia Subero won Friday's [20th October] final of the Soloist category of the World Steelband Music Festival with her performance of Caprice 24 In A Minor, with which she earned a winning score of 272 points. Subero performed before a disappointingly small audience at the Grand Stand of the Queen's Park Savannah and also had to deal with a sound system that presented some challenges.

Brent Holder, who was pegged as one of the favourites to win the championship, placed second with his rendition of Antics, for which he scored 265.5 points.

Also taking place on Friday were the finals in the Quartet and Duet categories, both of which proved to be as exciting as the Orchestra category, the final of which was scheduled to take place last night [21st October].

Exodus Steel Orchestra dominated the Duets category with its sister act of Marissa and Melissa Theodore capturing first place with their performance of Mozart's Sonata, which earned them 257 points.

Exodus also claimed third place through Marsha Ivey and Gay Magnus who were awarded 241 points for their rendition of Barber Of Seville. Coming in second was a duet from Florida consisting Astar Bishop and Elthron Anderson [Florida Memorial Steel Band] who performed an original piece entitled Positive Grooves.

Exodus again found victory in the Quartets category placing first with its delivery of Jourdu by Duke Jordon, which earned it 271 points.

Ten points behind to claim second place was a quartet from the Ebony Steelband of London, which performed Voices Of Steel composed by Brent Holder.

There was a tie in the Ensemble category as Dawn Batson's Florida Memorial University playing Black Holes Do Exist scored a total of 272 points along with Tipica Steel, which played Morning Noon And Night [In Vienna] by Franz von Suppe.

The complete results are as follows:

SOLOISTS
1st Sophia Subero 272;
2nd Brent Holder 265.5;
3rd Kenrick Noel 251;
4th Ronnie Ross 246;
5th Bruce Roberts 242;
6th Astar Bishop 237;
7th Khuent Rose 236;
8th Kyle Hill 235;
9th Ebony Rocke 226;
10th Jason Peters 225;
11th Alfred Harris III 210

DUETS
1st Marissa Theodore/Melissa Theodore 257;
2nd Astar Bishop/Elthron Anderson 246;
3rd Marsha Ivey/Gay Magnus 241

QUARTETS
1st Exodus Quartet 271;
2nd BWIA Ebony Steel Orchestra 261;
3rd UWI Panoridim Steel Orchestra 259;
4th Point Fortin New Creations 255;
5th Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars 237;
6th Parry's Pan School 227

ENSEMBLES
1st Florida Memorial Steel Band & Tipica Ensemble 272;
3rd Piton Diamond Steel Orchestra 254;
4th Our Boys 251;
5th Exodus Ensemble 247;
6th Saparia Deltones 225;
7th Jamaica Humming Birds 204

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ENSEMBLES & MINOR CATEGORIES - FINALISTS
Friday 20th October, 2000
The Grand Stand, Queens Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad

On Web: Results
See PO for Play Order position

Soloists
Duets
Quartets
Ensembles

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Photo Page 2: [Above: Panazz members front the Watts Moire Group]
Caption:
PANNISTS Natasha Joseph and Sheldon Webster of Panazz join British-based Watts Moire Music Group at the British High Commissioner's residence, Maraval on Friday evening. The internationally respected group of musicians are in Port-of-Spain on the invitation of the British Council.
PHOTO By ANDRE ALEXANDER

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SOPHIA SUBERO is the world's top steelpan Soloist.

Playing Paganini's Caprice 24 in A Major at the final of the competition in that category held at the Queen's Park Savannah on Friday night [20th October], Subero, 18, scored 272 points taking a seven-and-a-half point lead to dethrone reigning soloist Brent Holder who scored 265.5 points.

Holder who performed another of his own compositions titled Antics won the title in 1998 under the banner of Solo Pan Knights, but has since migrated to London where he is now a member of Ebony Steelband [the only contender representing Europe]. There were eleven contestants in this class of the Festival with challengers from both Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of [North] America.

The other categories contested were that of Duet, Quartet and Ensemble before the panel of adjudicators comprising Dr Ann Marion Osborne, Eugene Novotney and Richard Murphy.

Subero's feat was just part of the lion share of titles captured by Exodus at this final.

The Duet title went to sister team of Marissa and Melissa Theodore (of Exodus) scoring 257 points. They played Sonata which was arranged by Maureen Clement.

Its quartet comprising Kurt Edwards, Hayden Hosein, Andy Husband and Anthony Juggy Rose brought a different slant to the programme in its 'pan ramajay' styled presentation.

In the Ensemble category Miami-based Florida Memorial Steel Band (FMSB), under the direction of Dr Dawn Batson, and Tipica tied for top honours with a score of 272 points.

FMSB performed an original composition by Dr Batson titled Dark [Black] Holes Do Exist while Tipica chose Franz von Suppe Morning Noon and Night In Vienna.

The Orchestra leg and finale of the Festival series took place at the Jean Pierre Complex, last night [21st October] with eight bands evenly divided – four local and four foreign – seek[ing] to achieve the ultimate title of World Steelband Music Festival Champion.

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Photo: [Not shown here: Front-line and conductor of FMSB.]
Caption:
JOINT WINNER in the ensemble category Florida Memorial Steel Band under the conducting baton of Dr Dawn Batson. [] The Soloist, Duet, Quartet and Ensemble final held at the Queen's Park Savannah on Friday [20th October] night.
PHOTO By SEAN NERO

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THEY were officially designated Minor Categories but by 2 am yesterday, when the results for the finals of the Soloist, Duet, Quartet and Ensemble competitions were announced, a number of major upsets had taken place.

The event took place at the Grand Stand, Queen's Park Savannah, before a modest audience largely comprising players from bands displaced by the results of the conventional Orchestras semi-final.

Among the larger surprises was the placing of a quartet from the Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars, the legendary band's only official representative group in the festival.

Of the six groups participating in that category (TCL Skiffle Bunch failed to show), the All Stars troupe could do no better than second to last.

The Quartet category was won by a foursome from the Exodus Steel Orchestra: Anthony Rose, Kurt Edwards, Hayden Hosein and Andy Husbands, whose performance of Duke Jordan's jazzy Jordu earned them 271 points.

Exodus soloist Sophia Subero pipped celebrated young crack-shot Brent Holder and beat nine other contestants, for that title.

Subero, who ran second in the same category at last year's National Junior Music Festival, copped 272 points for her performance of Paganini's Caprice 24 in A Minor.

Two sisters, Marissa and Melissa Theodore, one of two pairs entered by Exodus in the Duet category, ran off with the top prize, after their rendition of Mozart's Sonata.

In the ensembles, however, St Lucia's Piton Diamond Steel Orchestra helped to curb the Exodus sweep with its interpretation of Song of Praise, an original work by the band's arranger, Gregory Emmanuel. The visiting band finished in the runner-up position to counterparts from Florida Memorial University Steel Band (FMU) and Tipica, who tied for first place with 272 points each.

Tipica rendered Franz von Suppe's Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna; the same tune selected by Britain's Ebony Steel Orchestra in the conventional [Orchestra] category, while FMU went for Dr Dawn Batson's Black Holes Do Exist.

Like for all the festival play-offs to date, the judges were American Dr Eugene Novotney, Englishman Richard Murphy and Trinidad and Tobago's Dr Ann Marion Osborne; with Junior Howell as alternate.

Apart from FMU, Piton and Tipica, the minor category play-offs saw first-time action in the current festival from Trinidad and Tobago's [Saparia] Deltones and [Point Fortin] New Creations; and Jamaica's [UWI] Panoridim and Humming Birds Steel Orchestras.

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Photo: [Not shown here: Three dynamic members of the Exodus quartet attired in their silver-grey and black striped waist-coats.]
Caption:
MEMBERS of the Exodus quartet perform at the World Steelband Music Festival Quartets finals at the Queen's Park Savannah on Friday [20th October] night.
PHOTO By ROBERTO CODALLO

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ENSEMBLES & MINOR CATEGORIES - FINALISTS
Friday 20th October, 2000
The Grand Stand, Queens Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad

On Web: Results
See PO for Play Order position

Soloists
Duets
Quartets
Ensembles

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A STORY appearing in the Sunday Express of October 15th named Diane Dupre as one of the people involved in a matter that delayed the start of the preliminary round of the festival on the previous Friday [13th].

Dupre's name was erroneously quoted. The person who has since been carrying out the function of judges' co-ordinator and who was one of the parties involved in the issue is Diane De Cureuw.

It was when De Cureuw attempted to execute the function to which she was appointed by festival chairman Patrick Arnold, that the former incumbent reportedly refused to hand over the instruments of the job which, festival officials said caused the delay.

TO THE SURPRISE of the majority of pan-loving Trinis, last night's grand final of the World Steelband Music Festival featured three bands from Europe, a scenario many would have argued was impossible – until they heard those orchestras play.

Pan European, the organisation that looks after the interest of steel orchestras across the continent, has every right to be proud of the high-profile presence of not just those bands, but the work of Calypsociation, which was eliminated at the semi-final stage of the contest.

A non-profit body comprising a committee duly elected from within the European steelband community, Pan European acts as a catalyst for all the energies of pannists, tuners, arrangers, schools and steelbands in Europe.

Barthelemy Fougea and Trinidad-born Jenny Lee, executive producers of last May's European Steelband Festival, were in Trinidad over the past two weeks to oversee the affairs of member bands participating in the festival. And while their experiences were not exclusively pleasant, the two Pan European officials were high in praise of the festival initiative and the showing by their members.

  "We so proud of the Euros," said a visibly elated Lee. "Finally, all the work that we have been doing for the past two years, in terms of Pan European and the festival, has borne fruit and we are very, very pleased with the outcome. It is a dream come true." Lee migrated to Europe with a plan to develop a base for the art and culture of Trinidad and Tobago. "I knew there was a large population of Trinis in Europe and decided to harness that community by rallying them around cultural values," she said.
  "Now that we have had the world festival and conference on the science and technology of the steelpan, Barthel and I have already resolved that wherever we are having pan festivals, we will be including a component of that level of scholarship along with the performances. I finally met Felix Rohner and Professor Tom Rossing, after months of correspondence by e-mail; so we will be including them in our programmes."

The main objective of Pan European is to unify all pannists, tuners, arrangers, schools, steelbands and all those having an interest in the instrument in Europe. The aim is to gather all the energies under one European banner and to offer opportunities and challenges through vigorous action.

Pan European bases its educational, artistic exchange and social integration programmes through cohesive action, drawing on all the talent available within its membership. By structuring sporadic workshops and through sharing activities, Pan European plans to be able to economically offer to the European steelband community opportunities and expertise of the talents of master pannists, including access to new developments in pan technology.

  "Most importantly, the workshops allow active participation of all age groups and provide much-needed stimulus in youth and community sectors, leading to harmony and a better way of life," Fougea said. "The production of educational materials such as books, films and videos will serve to instruct and inform on the steelpan and its effects. Exchange programmes, including those at institutes of higher learning, are integral aspects of Pan European's activities." The network publicises and disseminates information, and, co-ordinates pan events. The compilation and publication of the database guide and website creation has helped provide a foundation upon which the organisation can yet develop. One of its initiatives is the standardisation of the steelpan in Europe.

Pan European is to be affiliated with Pan Trinbago, the national organisation for the steelband in Trinidad & Tobago, home of the steelpan.

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Photo: [See above: Portraiture - Barthelemy Fougea stands posed smiling behind a seated grinning Jenny Lee.]
Caption:
BARTHELEMY FOUGEA and Trinidad-born Jenny Lee.
PHOTO By ROBERT TAYLOR

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CULTURE and Gender Affairs Minister Dr Daphne Phillips praised pan legend Ellie Mannette for his contribution to steelpan at a homecoming reception held at the VIP Lounge at Piarco Airport on Friday [20th October].

Phillips said Mannette had made his mark as a pan pioneer.

  "In 1946, when you sank the 55 gallon oil drum into its concave shape, this innovation changed the very structure of the pan and revolutionised the approach to the tuning of pans. It also initiated the creation of other types of pans," said Phillips, in throwing out the red carpet welcome to Mannette.

Phillips said: "The work of this consummate master craftsman has been recognised by the President of the United States of America. In 1999, our son of the soil, Ellie Mannette was awarded one of America's most prestigious awards, the US Endowment for the Arts Award."

ELLIE MANNETTE returned to Trinidad on Friday evening after 33 years abroad and after a brief reception at the VIP lounge at Piarco Airport, returned to BWIA Invaders on Tragarete Road and listened to the band which was preparing intensely for last night's finals in the World Steelband Music Festival.

Mannette was met on arrival by [the] Mayor of Port of Spain John Rahael; BWIA's Chief Executive Officer Conrad Aleong; Councillor Alvin Narine; pan pioneer Sterling Betancourt; executive[s] and members of the band. Also dropping by to meet Mannette was entertainer David Rudder along with his Canadian-born baby son and girlfriend.

Mannette is credited with revolutionising pan and pan music in 1946 when he produced the first concave pan by sinking a 55 gallon oil drum, taking it into another dimension as a recognised instrument throughout the world today.

Accompanying Mannette to the "cradle of the modern day pan" on Tragarete Road, Woodbrook, were his students of the Virginia University Pan Tuning Academy. Band Conductor Dr Jeannine Remy after a few minutes, allowed a pause during the rehearsal for Mannette to speak briefly to the players. Mannette expressed his delight with the sound of the band and like a father, told them that he expected a good performance from them in the festival and would be there to support them.

Mayor Rahael, who also took the opportunity to address band members, announced that on Wednesday of this week, Mannette would be presented with the Keys to the City at City Hall in honour of his contribution to the development of pan.

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Photo: [Not shown here: Seated Mannette speaking, left hand on a bass pan; with a standing relaxed Remy, looking on attentively, resting her right hand in which dangles the inverted baton between her fingers, on to and to the left of the same bass pan.]
Caption:
PAN PAPPY: Ellie Mannette addressing BWIA Invaders on Friday night at the pan yard. On the right is band conductor Dr Jeannine Remy, a Professor of Music at Idaho State University, USA, and currently on Fulbright Scholarship in Trinidad.
PHOTO By BERT ALLETTE

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NOWADAYS everybody is being honoured for their contribution to pan. Even Tony Williams, the greatest panman ever ignored by this country, got a passing mention by Pan Trinbago. Sterling Betancourt received an honorary degree in London, Sydney Gollop get a plaque and plenty pictures in the papers.

Of course Ellie Mannette, now recognised in the US, is flavour of the month here. Down South they form a whole organisation to honour pan Pioneers.

And the wake of the Pan Festival week is a good time to recognise the man and the band who together introduced real music to the steelband movement. Because Belgrave Bonaparte and Southern Symphony, his band from La Brea, introduced properly arranged music. to steelbands.

  "Southern Symphony – a very very musical band – they were actually reading from musical arrangements at that time when nobody else was," Junior Pouchet once recalled. "A very, very musically talented band and I was particularly, particularly impressed with them. Although I belong to the West and I love Invaders.... I think they were particularly impressive in those early '50s, going on to the '60s."

To that Ray Holman adds: ‘They were more advanced musically than most involved in pan. They could have read music. Also, they were advanced harmonically, their sense of harmony."
  "They could improvise; they weren't the only ones, but they harmonised better." It was Bonaparte who demonstrated how steelbands should play chords, how they must harmonise their sections. Southern Symphony – whose members included talented panmen and tuners such as Earl Rodney, Alan Gervais and Lincoln Noel – introduced the practice of playing with three sticks.

Living today in the 'over the hill' slums where Bahamian black people have been corralled, Bonaparte leans back in a rickety porch chair and explains with an immodest laugh: "My uncle on my mother's side, Uncle Oscar, was a bad saxophonist. And then his brother, Uncle Victor, he used to play guitar or bass. And my grandfather used to play either saxophone or clarinet and violin. That's how my father [6] really did get in with my ma, by joining that band, so I born in the music. I born with the music, because while in the early pan days I used to sit down and think about scales."

It was Bonaparte who demonstrated
how steelbands should play chords,
how they must harmonise their sections

Bonaparte sits, shirt undone, smoking. People coming in and going out of the yard greet him. Some beg a cigarette. He continues telling his story in his slow drawl, blending graphic detail with a peculiar amused detachment.

Born in 1932 in La Brea into a musical family, both grandfathers were musicians, as were his maternal grandmother, his mother, his father and most his uncles. Their house rocked.

  "When you pass by our house you will think they have a dead now, and the next time you pass you will think it's a big dance inside of there, because all they used to do is drink that white puncheon rum and they switch from, they will ...start singing different hymn, and they used to have a man with a big baritone named Mr Cudjoe. They used to go for him because he was blind, and he used to do the bass."

When he was six and his brother Clifford (better known as Block) four, they went to live with their paternal grandmother in Carapachaima, to attend St Mary's primary school. The old half-blind lady was Catholic, so Bonaparte sang in the church choir. He became popular and was asked to sing at weddings. But the matriarch was also an Orisha, so he also drummed at Shango's feasts.

Around 1944 when he was 12, Bonaparte returned to La Brea with Block. Together with Julian Collymore and a cousin, they formed a small steelband to tramp around at Christmas and serenade for handouts from the houses of the oil-field managers.

In the late 1940s panmen visited La Brea regularly. There were jobs for unskilled labourers, and it was a good place to hide from the law. And in 1949 Invaders, one of the country's leading bands, was invited.
  "We start to play So Deep Is the Night. First time when Ellie Mannette hear pan playing chord," recalled Bonaparte. "Ellie Mannette fly upstairs. He say he have to meet me, he have to meet me. And then he ask: ‘How you do that? How you do that?' I tell him."
  "I say, 'Well, I always had my musical knowledge so I used the scale from C from this pan, and I gone with C from this one, going down in the other pan.' That is how second pan and guitar pan and all them thing come out. Is the first time they ever hear that. That time I experiment and bring out all that already in La Brea."

So when the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) was chosen, Bonaparte was there among the other greats, such as Ellie Mannette (Invaders), Tony Williams (North Stars), Sonny Roach (Sun Valley), Andrew de la Bastide (Hill 60), Philmore Boots Davidson (City Syncopaters), Ormand Patsy Haynes (Casablanca), Winston Spree Simon (Tokyo), Theo [7] Stephens (Southern All Stars), and Sterling Betancourt (Crossfire).

Ranking with the best and better than most, Southern Symphony remained small. From its humble beginnings when the four boys serenaded white folks' homes for apples and drinks, it became great without ever ceasing to be a stage side (akin perhaps to the Samaroo Jets, another country band).

They played at fetes, they played for mas bands. Bonaparte still plays pan for a living, in the Nassau Breezes hotel to American tourists ignorant of the stature of the man on the double second. His unrepentant commercialism, the awareness that his music should be paid for, led Bonaparte to offer to advertise for Esso one day in the mid-1950s.

A US crew had landed that same day to film a steelband, and Esso was somehow involved. Southern Symphony got the job, making it the first sponsored steelband. The oil company took them up to the Normandie, and the hotel manager was so impressed he made Southern Symphony the house band.

In '58 they went represented at a tourism conference in Cuba, arriving just in time for the Bay of Pigs Invasion: "It had a big set of shooting and thing, people get shot all in the road, and we call Donald Bain the Tourist Bureau man and tell him we want to get out from here, because we was all under the bed hiding."

“I born with the music,
because while in the early pan days
I used to sit down and think about scales”

Returning home through the French islands, they were stuck for months in Guadeloupe. A first invitation to Paris was scotched by the Algerian war, but they went later that same year, knocking around Europe for years, playing in the poshest night-spots frequented by movie stars, enjoying the wine, the music and the women.

  "They used to line up in the night, yes boy, plenty, plenty woman. We used to have to duck from them. And we meet some rich one. I shouldn't be working today. I meet the woman, you know them car what mark Peugeot? That woman husband died and the woman come and I and the woman going sweet sweet. My girlfriend come and nearly break up the people house."

One Swiss well-wisher bought them conventional instruments and they formed a band, with Belgrave on tenor sax, Block on alto, both on clarinet, Earl Trim on trumpet, Oliver Nelson on guitar and Lincoln Noel on bass. In 1961 the Bonaparte Brothers dance band returned to Trinidad, some of the few panmen to make the transition to conventional music. (Another was Casablanca panman Art de Couteau.)

The Bonaparte Brothers became one of Sparrow's bands, but Belgrave and Block continued their link with the pan world, arranging for bands such as Renegades, Dixieland and San Juan All Stars.

In 1971 Sparrow had a disagreement with one of Bonaparte's sons who played in the band, so Bonaparte left Birdie. That same day an old friend who needed someone to play on a cruise ship immediately called Bonaparte.

Next day he was winging his way for the Bahamas, where he remains to this day, grumbling, diabetic, laughing at the roller coaster ride that's been the career of one of Trinidad's greatest panmen. [8]

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Photo Page 6: [See above: Belgrave Bonapart plays the double second with 3 sticks.]
Caption:
BELGRAVE BONAPARTE on the double second.
PHOTO By [probably KIM JOHNSON]

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Photo Page 8: [See above: Portrait - Belgrave Bonaparte glances to his right; thoughtfully scratching behind his ear; with a left hand clutching 3 pan sticks.]
Caption:
BELGRAVE BONAPARTE
PHOTO By [probably KIM JOHNSON]

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Kim Johnson’s trip to the Bahamas was sponsored by UWI (Mona) [Jamaica] and The Arts Support Alliance (TASA) of Trinidad & Tobago.

[x] Square brackets delineate and number the end of each page for reference purposes.

ON Sunday last, listening to the steelpan programme on FM Radio 100 aired between 2 pm to 5 pm, I heard Black Stalin's song about the steelpan secrets. It was ironic, though entertaining, to hear the artiste state to keep certain pan secrets undercover.

The host and co-host of the programme interpreted to the listening public it was about standardisation. I thought their intervention was wrong and misleading.

This is Stalin's chorus of his song:

How many degrees to burn a bass drum
and the amount of rubber to beat a tenor pan
...these are the secrets to keep undercover.

To my mind, this is not about standardisation. We can't eat we cake and have it. Pan has gone, but where the pan man of T&T reach or reaching is another story.

Pan Trinbago has a tremendous problem on their hands. To over came it they have to be truthful, energetic and realistic. At present we are hosting a world steelpan festival – obviously a great move in the right direction to promote steelband music through the world. Sweden [Switzerland] is already quite progressive in the manufacturing, tuning, and playing of the instrument.

On the programme, it was also mentioned that the Sweden [Swiss] have a black pan, which the host said was done through a chemical process. We continue to chrome, a very expensive procedure.

The last black pans I saw were those of Guinness Cavaliers in the 1960s, painted in the Guinness brown colour. Further, the foreign pannists can play from their score sheets. Can we say the same of the ‘greatest pannists' in the world of T&T?

Hosting the pan festival is not the end of it all. Pan Trinbago needs to be serious and ensure that the school children and young people who beat pan must be able to read music.

Surely, the teaching of music is on the schools' curriculum, but many children claim they don't see these music teachers and when they show up they hustle the lessons. Pan Trinbago must monitor with pride and enthusiasm.

If others are successful in this respect, why not we in T&T? The secrets of pan in Stalin's calypso are no longer undercover. They are out, and we have a contest on our hands. Would Pan Trinbago be up to the international challenge?

R SQUIRES
Saddle Road
Maraval.

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© 2000: tobagojo@trinidad.net - 20001205 Last Update: 08 December 2000 00:00:00 Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry

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