Clifton: Don - did you have a family outfit
before graduating to the big band sound?
Clarke: Yes I did. It was my son, my daughter
and my brother- in-law. We started fooling around. It must have been four
or five of us.
Clifton: What caused the dissemination of the
band?
Clarke: It so happened that we started
receiving invitations to play in the parks, churches and so we attracted
lots of folks from Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean who
expressed an interest in learning to play the instruments, and so before
you know it, I had other members falling in. The next thing you know I
had a full-fledged band. Then there was a vote to select a name for the
outfit, and that’s how we arrived at the term “A Touch of Steel.”
Clifton: What are some of the places you have travelled to as a band?
Clarke: As a band we actually didn’t travel
anywhere. All out engagements were within Metro Atlanta. We never left
the city.
Clifton: Don - what’s your personal status now as a panist?
Clarke: Well my current status is that when the youngsters
migrated from high school to college – including my own son and
daughter, I had to slack up because education was more important to me
than the pan. Many of the youngsters were following a similar
educational path. That’s when the band dissolved and that’s when I took
the option to go solo.
Clifton: So you lost the Touch of Steel and took on the career
of a pan soloist. You were then free to traverse the world. Could
you share with the listeners some of the places you have been to?
Clarke: To date I’ve been to Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica the
Virgin Isles. These are the main places I’ve been to throughout the
year. A tour could be as much as three months, as in the case of playing
at the Crown Plaza in Cancun, Mexico. This was annually. Then over the
last seven years I’ve been doing three months stints in Costa Rica. I’ve
also been doing gigs at local venues in the Atlanta area. One engagement
which stands out remains the wedding of the grand daughter of the
legendary actor Sidney Poitier. To date, that must have been the
highlight of my life - just meeting him in person.
Clifton: Have you ever done the cruise ship?
Clarke: Hollis, I just don’t like travelling on ships. My first
experience was a turn off. I took the boat from Trinidad to the sister
isle, Tobago and I can’t stop telling you the sea sickness which befell
me. I have since developed a phobia for travelling by sea. I just don’t
see myself playing on ships or boats. I’ve had requests to play on the
“Carnival” and I simply turned it down because I just don’t like to be
on the ocean or any boat.
Clifton: So you are scared of the high seas!
Clarke: Mind you Hollis, I’m a good swimmer but I just don’t
like the high waves on the boat.
Clifton: You are not a seaman … a musician
- and you want to
stick to that …
Clarke: Yeah!
Clifton: Don, I believe you’ve delved into the business of
composing? Would you like to share this with our listeners on WACK?
Clarke: Well, I used to compose for
the band “A Touch of Steel.” Each carnival I used to have my own piece which won awards including the
band of the year in Atlanta carnival. In 2004 I did a tune called “The
Bomb” and a friend of mind, Kenny King, a former tenor pan player with
Despers, heard the piece and said “Man, dis is a tune for panorama.” I told
him that I was not really interested in that. “I’m no composer.” He
urged me on.
The next thing you know he got in touch with Robbie
Greenidge who already had a tune called “Ramona.” When he heard the tune
he liked it. At the time Robbie was arranging for Solo Pan Knights;
nonetheless he switched pieces and did a very good job of it.
That was my first taste in actually arranging for music in Trinidad. It
took off from there, and the number of years I’ve been arranging pan
music.
Clifton: Have any of your compositions won any awards in
‘pandom?’
Clarke: Well to my great surprise I- think it was in 2007
- I did a
tune called “Cant Get Enough.” Eunice Peters did the vocals while Alvin
Daniel did the lyrics, and to my great honour I heard that the tune was
nominated and won tune of the year. So that was quite an accomplishment,
going up against the likes of The Original De Fosto and Len “Boogsie”
Sharpe. That was quite an honour.
Clifton: Don, do you come to Trinidad every year, or are you
locked on to WACK via the worldwide web?
Clarke: I do come to Trinidad often, however, last year and the
previous year I had to honour a commitment in Mexico – so I just
couldn’t break that. I was also committed to be in Costa Rica. This year
I say I had to come home. I didn’t do a tune this year because I thought
I really wanted to come and enjoy myself and get a little break for the
carnival flavor itself.
Clifton: Mr. Clarke - permit me to ask you a pertinent question. As a panist who has been through it all, do you think the steelband
movement in Trinidad and Tobago, in particular, is progressing?
Clarke: Well, I prefer to say it’s at a
‘standstill,’ standstill -
you know - because this is a very controversial issue and no matter who
voice an opinion, there’s going to be somebody out there saying ‘foul
play.’ As far as my opinion, it’s this… first of all I think unless the T&T
government itself and the Culture Department put Pan as one of the main
agendas as far as the art form is concerned, it’s going to always have
this stigma to it. In other words it’s not just the money, but the
involvement as a national instrument. This is one of the best musical
instruments in the entire world.
I mean people are dying to learn to play the Pan.
Other countries are
making more progress than Trinidad and Tobago. Japan is one of them.
Africa now is doing very good with Pan. So is something wrong? Why? …
Everything is Pan Trinbago and a standstill. And in my opinion they are
not going forward and they not going backwards. They are just in one
spot and I would say, for the past fifteen years they are on that same
spot.
Clifton: That’s interesting because sometime ago “Boogsie” made
certain allegations about what he felt as to whether Pan is alive or
dead and it cost the big man his job. Do you feel Len was justified with
such an allegation?
Clarke: Not in my opinion. I think Boogsie, as a panist, world-renowned at that
- is controversial in many areas. However, throwing all the
blame on Patrick Arnold, in my view, was not a fair statement. Patrick,
like anybody, else and any government - any job could always do better; and
remember even as the president of a country or organization, it takes the
people below you to implement your ideas or give you some good
information to move forward. So my problem with that allegation was
where was Boogsie when all that was going on? Did he have
conversations with Mr. Arnold? Did Mr. Arnold blank him out?
Did Mr. Arnold want to hear any ideas that he may have had?
When one makes a blanket statement on an individual without offering
some sort of alternative on how to do it better, then to me you don’t
have a valid statement. That’s just my opinion; and mind you, Boogsie is
my very good friend.
Clifton: Don - do you think that it may have anything to do with
the fact that it was during Patrick Arnold’s reign that the rules were
amended to prevent any one pan arranger from arranging for as much as
four to five bands during a panorama season?
Clarke: Well again, when one brings that argument to bear
- then
it becomes personal, because Boogsie was not the only arranger who was
arranging for several bands before Patrick Arnold decided to change the
rules. He not only decided to change the rules to discredit whatever
Boogsie was doing but all other arrangers, and I will mention Jit
Samaroo, among others who arranged for many bands. So in that area it
will appear to be a conflict of interest or personal problems between
Boogsie and Mr. Arnold.
Now on the other hand, the change of the rules
- which I would say as a
panman that I didn’t too much appreciate was the fact that bands are now
given the opportunity to play what I call old-time music, and the reason
for that is you are not giving the new composers a chance to explore.
I mean - Kitchener, everyone knows, is one of the best when it comes to pan
music, but you got to move on. You know to advance you can’t be going
back to the past and living in it. I mean, here we are in 2010 and I hear
someone playing “Dingolay.” That tune has been played to its end. Give
me something new, no matter how bad it is. This is where the motivation
comes in for the youngsters to have a l’il grip on their own idea in
producing music for pan. If you keep going back and having bands say,
well ‘look - just play this’ … nah nah nah!
You go to some of the smaller islands, they don’t really resort to
playing old-time music. They encourage their artistes to come up with
something new and so on that level I would say there’s a future for new
music every year that pan people could play.
Clifton: Don, it is common knowledge that T&T sets the
pace so
that where we lead others follow. So if they decide to change the format
which permits arrangers to use musical scores from previous years I am
almost certain the islands will follow suit. Nonetheless, there’s
another side to it. What of people like Shadow who have virtually gone
off the competitive scene? Won’t he feel elated to know that they still
remember him if thirty years later they are still playing his music at
such a paramount show piece?
I know that your case is for new arrangers and we need to explore them
before going ‘back in times’ but one man’s food is another’s poison. Isn’t
it?
Clarke: Well you have a point and don’t have a point. Hear my
opinion. I’m talking about Panorama is known as the time when all bands
come out to compete for the best tune of the day, of the year. That’s
how I grew up. When I used to play pan for panorama they had two types
of music inclusive of “the Bomb Tune.” When you finish panorama music,
all the panists would go back to the pan yard and they come up with a
‘bomb tune’ that no one ever heard. That was exciting. Now that’s gone
down the drain. You don’t even have Pan on the road. Pan is like a waste
of time on the road. So all I’m saying is that it’s always good to play
somebody’s music.
That’s why I admire the way Edwin Pouchet is leading
Silver Stars. We are in an era where the music now is benefiting to the
young ear. This is where when you get this fast ‘jump up’ type of music,
the masses are falling into that. You have a band like Despers that play
real good music but it’s not gravitating to the masses because it’s not
the jump up and fast pace and excitement, that what I call the “youth
people” is experiencing right now - and we‘ve got to give the
youth people their chance.
The days when you hear All Stars going down the road with a classic tune
as a bomb you have thousands enjoying the music. Now you are not getting
that. Listen after panorama - no one wants to listen to more pan music. Even with me
- when I play overseas nobody wants to hear me playing any
kind of panorama music at all. They just want me to play the old time
classics. But I’m talking about for competition. In order for the young
panist to be able to compose for the young panists to be able to arrange
- give the old time hits that made it already a break. That’s all I’m
saying.
Clifton: Okay Don, maybe the listeners will have their say. If you
were to send a message to the listeners what would you say?
(To this end many a caller agreed with the position taken by Mr. Clarke,
guest).
Clarke: In closing, I would say think of the advancement of
Pan -
not just for Trinidad and Tobago, but rather for the world audience
because whether we like it or not, the birth of the steelpan movement
started in this country. But other countries are taking a different
outlook in presenting the pan, and it’s catching on just like those new
pan tuners. They don’t care about having their instruments made in
Trinidad because they could make pans elsewhere themselves at even a
higher price than you can buy a pan for in Trinbago.
I’m talking about a tenor pan to the tune of $4,000 USD…unheard of.
You are not going to buy a pan for that kind of money in Trinidad and
Tobago. So my advice would be to let the senior panists encourage
the youngsters into an avenue and a direction that Pan will be respected
and it will be promoted in a wise way. That will be my advice.
Clifton: Thank you ever so much, Don, for sharing your life story
with our listeners. You sure have been a wealth of information and
indeed an inspiration to me and by extension the listeners on the
worldwide web.
by
Hollis Clifton
