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TT Panorama 2016 All + Grand Final Results Medium & Large Conventional Steelbands

GRAND FINALS
The top Medium Conventional steelbands join together with the top Large Conventional steelbands, for the Grand Finals.
The Medium and Large Conventional Steelband 2016 Grand Finals is scheduled at
The Grand Stand, Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad; on
Saturday, 6th February 2016, from 07:00pm

Show starts 19:05Hrs = 07:05pm; Saturday, 06 Feb 2016
Welcome address and the official start of Panorama 2016 Finals, Medium and Large steelbands, by President of Pan Trinbago, Keith Diaz, follows; to 19:13Hrs = 07:13pm

MEDIUM CONVENTIONAL [Size: 60 to 90; maximum includes the count of ALL instrument players; not just pan-players alone]

ADJUDICATORS
Adrianna Achaiba, Martin Albino, Lorna Conyatt, Roslyn Gards, Lambert Phillip and Roger Sardina. (appol - Spelling might be a bit off!)
(5 will be active, 1 as standby; selected by blind lot at start; should active adjudicator fall ill, standby score will then apply. Highest and lowest scores discarded; leaving 3 scores (100 Max) to be added together; for a possible maximum result of 300 points per steelband.)

Medium Final bands start 19:18Hrs = 07:18pm
Medium Final bands end 22:07Hrs = 10:07pm

Medium 'Show Time' = 2hrs 49mins = 169 minutes
Average Medium (10 bands) Finals turn-around = 16.9 mins per Medium band

The Top Rank Results for the ten (10) Medium Conventional contender steelbands is outlined below.

MEDIUM - Pan Elders again; Eh Fighting 1,2,3. - 2016   For 2016, The Medium Convention Category grew in size by 2 to now stand with 27 active steelbands; with 1 band holding in the wings. The new additions both came from the Small category; the Northern region's Xpress 21 and Genesis Pan Groove from the East. They both made a brave attempt, but in result, appear to be 'paying dues' at the bottom of the Preliminary league, where they lay separated by yet another brave heart, Parry's Pan School.   A peculiarity of 2016 had all  the Tobago region's Medium steelbands rising out of the Semi Finals to appear in the Finals. A feat that Tobago had been attempting to accomplish for years. Where we are reminded that Tobago, much to their consternation, have even to 2016 never won a Large Panorama; they have in reaction aggressively moved to dominate the Medium category; with some success it must be said; winning in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013; until! However, in recognition of their Stirling 2016 seasons achievement, we note the bands, West Side Symphony, Dixieland, Steel Xplosion, Katzenjammers and Buccooneers; because, who knows when we will hear them all together again?   Until that is, the recent fly in Tobago's ointment arrived. With impressive performances, hailing from the South & Central region, Pan Elders; abetted by their naughty seasoned arranger Duvone Stewart, take the headlines. Laughingly restraining from uttering a direct TT cuss to a hippocratic Duvone Stewart, one needs to grudgingly report that to the master arranger of the SPB genre, who did a naughty and thereby with deserved come-uppance crashed in that category this year, nevertheless now aspires to dominated the Medium category, with the categories first recorded 'Hat trick' of '3 wins in a row' with Pan Elders, fielding Bally's Me Eh Fighting (for No Man) (1985). A wonderful achievement, one that we should note has been accomplished by using textures gleaned from very emotive calypso's out of the 1980's era. Pan Elders dominance was strong, as the band again did a no contest statement with 1,2, to get to the 3 in the finals.   Tobago's Buccooneers with second generation arranger Seion Gomez fought to rise into 2nd position, a position they have now frustratingly attained 6 times; with the Tobago flavour being retained with a joint 3rd place by Katzenjammers and elsewhere winning arranger Terrance 'BJ' Marcelle, who had faded from holding the 2nd place throughout; after which the Tobago flavour faded completely.   In joint 3rd place came the Northern region's Sound Specialists of Laventille with the arranger 'Professor', followed by a South & Central contender, Couva Joylanders and arranger Kareem Brown picking up the next 5th position slot.   All in all, an entertaining Medium season. If there was any slight disappointment to be noted, it may be directed to the Semi Finals; where we would have perhaps hoped that the hard working and pre-season travelled St Margaret's Superstars, may have done better. However in constellation, second generation arranger, young Shenelle Abraham, should retain some satisfaction with having to hanging out at joint 11th position with, none other than, Len 'Boogsie' Sharpe who piloted Western Stars Philharmonics for this 2016 season.   Oh, while were at it, 'hanging-out' seems to be rather fashionable for the lady arrangers this season; but it can be a frustrating exercise for some hoping for action. This time, in recall to the Preliminaries, just under the bar, we find two great ladies hanging out together. 'De White Lady', 'J9' Remy of Hatters in good company with the tenacious and well seasoned Michelle Huggins-Watts of Valley Harps (Deigo Martin), having a frustrating 'hang-out' together at joint 15th position. tobagojo - 19/05/2016

PRESENTATIONS

For outstanding services to the Steelpan fraternity:
Mr Quamie Ryan (Conductor), Mr Luke Walker (Solo pan player) for international representation, in variously 50 countries, of the National Instrument for TT. Mr Damion Holder (Administrator) for managing Steelband (cf. Elegant Ebonites) and Panorama events over the years.
Mr Wallace Austin (Pan player (Esso Tripoli) and steelpan maker/tuner) for excellence of steelpan tuning (particularly for Desperadoes) and for many other steelbands. [Award collected by Mr Ainsworth Mahommed (Exodus) on behalf of Mr Austin, who was unable to attend this show.]
Mr Curtis Pierre (Early steelband Captain (Dixiland), Youth educator, Arranger) for pioneering the genre of the steelband and promoting its acceptance both on a national and international stage.
Mr Bertram 'Birch' Kelman (Pan player and steelpan maker/tuner), honoured as a past member of the NSO (1965,1967) and for excellence of steelpan tuning, nationally and internationally. [Note: For Panorama 2016; 'Birch' is the principal maker/tuner for 10 of today's finalists (8L+2M) and for 12 other steelbands in these 2016 competitions; and for many more steelbands elsewhere.]

Presentations start 22:00Hrs = 11:00pm
Presentations end 22:09Hrs = 11:09pm

LARGE CONVENTIONAL [Size: 95 to 120; maximum includes the count of ALL instrument players; not just pan-players alone]

ADJUDICATORS
Andy Chichester, Lennox London, Cuthbert Mathews, Stephony Power, Joanne Ragbier and Audley Timothy. (appol - Spelling might be a bit off!)
(5 will be active, 1 as standby; selected by blind lot at start; should active adjudicator fall ill, standby score will then apply. Highest and lowest scores discarded; leaving 3 scores (100 Max) to be added together; for a possible result of 300 Max points per steelband.)

Large Final bands start 22:34Hrs = 10:34pm
Large Final bands end 02:16Hrs = 02:16am; Sun, 07 Feb 2016

Large 'Show Time' = 3hr 42mins = 222 minutes
Average large (10 bands) Finals turn-around = 22.2 mins per Large steelband

The Top Rank Results for the ten (10) Large Conventional contender steelbands is outlined below.

LARGE - A Light Breeze of Change - 2016   As referenced last year, the mess that is the 'results' of the Large Conventional Panorama Steelbands 2015, underwent a light breeze of change for the present 2016 carnival season, and this year, deserves some comment. The 'results' are of course the province of the 'adjudicators' who, over the recent decades, have been accused of loosing their way to favouritism and cultural bias, with lacklustre 'results' showing weighted bias far outside the bands of expectation, should the model of standard statistical mathematics herewith apply.   The 'light breeze' came in two forms. One was the International Conference & Panorama 2015 (TT ICP 2015), staged in early August at the QP Savannah in Port of Spain. Together with 12 local steelbands, the musical fare of some 12 foreign steelbands had to be contended with by the adjudicators. It was a bit of a 'wake up' call for them. That they were shaken, was reflected in the results; however, their general reaction was 'poor', where the results still showed favouritism and cultural bias, with one additional shortcoming of musical ignorance.   Notwithstanding, the other slight 'breeze' came later in the year, in September, when the Prime Minister himself voiced this general perception, with his own discontent with the Panorama proceedings. In an article by the Saturday Express penned by Gary Cardinez, Prime Minister Rowly, however frustrated with more things than one, is noted to have said, "...Any time Invaders [who have never won a Panorama and are the PM's steelband of choice] comes seventh in Panorama, I feel like we come first because the first six places seem to be reserved. ..."   'Change' would be as fate would have it. The untimely death of the Trinidad jazz pioneer musician (piano)/produce Rafael 'Raf' Robertson (RIP 04/12/2015), strongly associated with birdsong Steel Orchestra, would again affect the acceptance of 'one of the boys', the competent Panorama arranger Andy Narell together with the Panorama trajectory of birdsong itself. Despite the respectful and almost heroic efforts displayed by Narell and birdsong to effect a last minute change in tune to Dis 1. 4 . Raf (comp. Narell); the adjudicators again deemed the effort 'outta de box' and dissed birdsong once again, out of the 2016 finals.   The second 'change' amounted to a great leap by the energetic and youthful steelband Supernovas, a previous Small contender, to now join the Large category for 2016. Supernovas, hailing out of the legendary parang village Lopinot, who had won a Small in 2014 under the second generation arranger Amrit Samaroo, and attained a Small 2nd in 2015, were thus sufficiently buoyed in membership to venture a climb into the big time. Totally unplanned, Supernovas were also riding a traditional 'legacy' card. With no disrespect to the sad, but somewhat expected, death of legendary ailing past Renegades arranger Jit Samaroo (RIP 07/01/2016), whose record of 9 Large Panorama wins pre 2016, remained unsurpassed; Amrit, Jits son, has been perceive by many as heir apparent, and thus set the legacy 'mystique'; one that fondly resonates to acceptance within the TT pan culture.   The third 'change', in complete di-pole to the second, is a insulting as one can get; if one pays any attention to the toxic vapours of popular and social media, and as unsurprisingly, prescient in terms of outcome. It's a tricky game, this one of fates, as it embroiled the two Large steelbands, Starlift and Despers. It went; it's a no-brainer that Desperadoes should have persuaded 'Zanda' to be their arranger after the death of Clive Bradley (RIP 26/11/2005). This change, took 10 years to accomplish. Carlton 'Zanda' Alexander became the new arranger for Desperadoes for the 2016 season; and their previous arranger, Robert Greenidge, moved to a wanting Starlift.   Blow the breezes as they may; 'change' may have come about otherwise, by means of providence or luck. Take your pick, the choice remains open.   Aside from all that, although 2016 was noted to be a 'short' season because of the dating of carnival 'early' in the year, the actual performance of most Panorama Steelbands for this season was generally assessed to have been remarkably unaffected, where their performances maintained standards of presentation, execution and musicality previously associated only with a 'longer' season.   Of little consequential remark, but of sad note to better expectations, the other steelband to newly join the Large category was another Eastern band, but this time moving from the Medium stable. Sangre Grande Cordettes made a valiant effort, but second generation arranger Khion De Las, known for some imaginative but somewhat risqué arrangements in other arenas, crashed out when he placed, what some would call, an inappropriately conditioned tango-riff into his arrangement. Cordettes accordingly sank to the bottom of the Semi Final rankings. In an amusing anecdote to the high standard to which the 2016 steelbands were alleged to be operating; had Cordettes appeared in last years Semi Finals, their 2016 points would have allowed them to beat 2 steelbands.   With the addition of Sangre Grande Cordettes and Supernovas, the Large Steelband Category is now growing up to size; 17 bands, just 1 band short of the categories starting size of 18; 12 years ago, back in 2004.   The light breeze started by dusting Exodus to remain at the Semi Finals stage. However the second wind remained only a breeze by being unable to disturb the contentious positions of the Southern steelbands Fonclaire and Skiffle, from the bottom of the finals table.   Desperadoes, newly energised by the presence of 'Zanda', attained their record 11th Panorama win at season 2016. Arranger 'Zanda' thereby gained two distinctions; his first win for a Large Panorama, placing him on the bottom step of the Large Arrangers leader board; and a new Panorama record of being the first arranger to have won a Panorama across all the conventional categories; Small (2007), Medium (2010) and Large (2016).   Supervovas, at their first try in a Large Panorama, placed an impressive 2nd place, only one point behind the leaders; thus stoking the 'Samaroo' myth.   Having come out of the Semi Finals in 1st position, Phase II Pan Groove's 3rd place in the Finals frustrated 'Boogsie's' hopes of joining 'Smooth's' 8 arranger wins, 1 behind Jit Samaroo; thus leaving 'Boogsie' with his 7 wins, right alongside the past Clive Bradley.   The light breeze settled last years Panorama winners, Trinidad All Stars, onto 6th position. tobagojo - 16/05/2016

RESULTS
Results begin to be announced about 16 minutes after the last Large steelband finished its play.

02:32am to 02:35am - FCL Financial's Peoples Choice 2016
02:39am to 02:43am - Results Grand Finals Medium Panorama 2016
02:51am to 02:53am - Results Grand Finals Large Panorama 2016

END
Grand Final Show ends with last announcements at about 02:55am, Sunday, 07 February 2016.

MEDIUM Conventional Steelbands
Programme 2016

TT National Panorama 2016 - Medium Conventional Steelbands - All Results
  PPO = Preliminaries Play Order; SFPO = SF Play Order; FPO = Fn Play Order
  Pr = Preliminaries; SF = Semi Finals; Fn = Finals

LARGE Conventional Steelbands
Programme 2016

TT National Panorama 2016 - Large Conventional Steelbands - All Results
  PVO = Panyard Visit Order; SFPO = SF Play Order; FPO = Fn Play Order
  Pr = Preliminaries; SF = Semi Finals; Fn = Finals

All + Final Results Medium and Large Steelbands

© 2016: tobagojo@gmail.com - rt20070304 - 20160510 Last Update: 29 June 2016 16:03:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry