New York, USA - It was already quite light in the sky as the 2008 New York J’Ouvert celebrations got underway in Brooklyn.

Enthusiastic rhythm sections armed with iron men and more, colorful characters (especially those who dared come out costumed somewhat prettily and proper, despite the ever-present promise of oil, paint and powder as an ‘additional dressing’), traditional ‘mud mas’, the signature of J’Ouvert – the ole mas characters showcasing their social and political commentary on the times - and of course, the steelbands, all completed the fabulous audio-visual and marvelous mosaic that was J’Ouvert this past Monday morning – the unofficial start of Labor Day.

New York’s J’Ouvert is a perfect study of storytelling, performing arts (drama, dancing, music performance, tradition and theatre) with a live and interactive audience. It is Broadway on the road - real theater, for the masses, by the masses and with the masses.
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Trinidad - It is an open secret in Pan circles that Tony Williams and Bertie Marshall received the highest national award to ward off widespread resentment that the Prime Minister was determined to give it to Professor Copeland, come drought or flood. After all since last year, Manning announced that Copeland would receive the award which had not yet been named. So much for national awards! Manning’s Medals, maybe! Tony Williams and Bertie Marshall were just camouflage.
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Go to WST’s facebook group for more info and videos

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Trinidad and Tobago’s steelbands focus each year on Panorama, the national steelband competition. But some bands are more adventurous. One such group is San Fernando’s young Golden Hands, who premiered a theatre piece, The Rainmakers, in January. That performance led to this youth group’s being invited to the annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Austin, Texas this November.

Based in San Fernando, with members aged from three to 19, Golden Hands came into existence a decade ago in the backyard of Franka Hills-Headley. She began the band as a vehicle to teach her own daughter Vanessa, who has become a leading young pan soloist and is starting to arrange and compose on her own. The band is made up of young people from her neighbourhood in San Fernando, and what was once a normal backyard has now grown into a serious panyard.
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Nearlin Taitt enjoys the distinction of being famous for being not famous enough. Having created the sound of modern Jamaican music, Taitt is well known to cognoscenti as the musician who deserves more credit than he’s been given.

He has been the subject of a prize-winning documentary, Lynn Taitt: Rocksteady; and Lloyd Bradley, in his book This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica Music, points out: “Lynn Taitt is given the most credit as the man who consolidated the various musical advances and solidified the rocksteady style.”

Yet reggae historian and author of The Rough Guide to Reggae Steve Barrow describes him as “one of the great unsung heroes of Jamaican music.” And Wikipedia states: “Taitt’s contribution to Jamaican popular music includes his often-overlooked role as arranger and session leader for many, if not most of the recordings that he appeared on.”

Perhaps this is because Taitt is Trinidadian—born in 1934 in San Fernando—and cut his musical teeth as a panman (he was honoured by Pan Trinbago, the national steelband organisation, last year).

In the late 1940s Nearlin and his brother Cedric Taitt and the other boys of the neighbourhood hung around Bataan, a nearby steelband, until its leader Herman “Teddy” Clarke gave them a few old pans.

But Mrs Taitt threw the pans in the ravine, because in those days steelband was considered a form of delinquency. The boys recovered the pans and took them to the house of their friends Stephen, Angus and Kenrick Lalsingh. Mr Lalsingh threw them in the ravine, so the gang returned them to the Taitt home. And thus the band, now named Seabees after the John Wayne movie The Fighting Seabees, moved back and forth while fighting for acceptance.
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Trinidad, W.I. - There are some things that are synonymous with T&T—the sweet melodious sounds of steelpan music happens to be one of them.

It’s no secret that our national instrument has taken the world by storm. Back at home, however, some pan enthusiasts complain that all is not being done to protect and preserve what is indigenous to us. Are we guilty of taking the pan for granted?

Pan Trinbago: Time to get serious

Patrick Arnold, President of Pan Trinbago said international countries are forging ahead with developing the steelpan.

“I don’t think we really accept the pan as we should. What could be done isn’t being done. The infrastructure isn’t in place. Pan is being played in universities as far as Japan. We have an industry that could employ thousands, we are not capitalising on what we have invented.

“Pan Trinbago has written to the authorities since 1998 highlighting the problem.

“The pan was never patented so now it’s public domain.”
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Trinidad, W.I. - Independence Day was one of joy and sorrow for the nation’s panmen. Joy after three pioneers of the pan movement were given the nation’s highest award – the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. And sorrow, after former Phase II Pan Groove manager Edme Gibbons, died in an accident.

Gibbons, 50, of Coral Gardens, Diamond Vale in Diego Martin who was also a Licensing Officer for over 25 years, apparently drowned when his car crashed into the sea after running off the road at the Foreshore, Invaders Bay yesterday morning.

“The pan fraternity has been left in mourning following the death of one of our own...but at the same time, we are celebrating as our pan pioneers get ready to receive their awards tonight,” PanTrinbago president Patrick Arnold, stated yesterday when asked to comment on Gibbons’ death.

Arnold also extended condolences on behalf of the entire pan fraternity to the Gibbons family. He added that Gibbons was the third person to have died within the past two weeks from Phase II.
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New York - The New York Panorama event took place this weekend (August 30, 2008) behind the Brooklyn Museum. This weekend was historic. In an event where the best band was only a point better than the second best, it is hard for such a contest to not be considered controversial. Nonetheless it was historic, crowning the youngest steelpan arranger (Andre White) in the history of the event.

Quite frankly, the final result should not have been that close - ADLIB was way better on this night - not a point better. Not only was their arrangement superior than both CASYM and SONATAS, the execution was very precise especially in the melodic runs pulled out by the tenor pans.
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Trinidad, W.I. - National award recipient Professor Copeland last night revealed that plans are underway to establish a pan tuners’ guild to build and preserve the local steelpan industry. Copeland made this disclosure after making history with pan pioneers Anthony Williams and Betram “Bertie” Lloyd Marshall by becoming the first recipients of the country’s new highest award, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking after the National Awards ceremony at President’s House in St Ann’s, Copeland said:

“I am happy for this award. Especially for the project itself which quite frankly needs the support of our pan pioneers. I am really elated.” Stating that very few people in the country know about Marshall’s and Williams’ work, Copeland said: “The work that we are doing is an extension of the legacy that these gentlemen will leave behind. We have been thinking of the idea of putting up a tuner’s guild.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The Genesis Pan, now known more casually as the G-Pan, enriches the range of notes available to pan musicians playing the lead instrument in a steel orchestra. A traditional tenor pan offers players 29 notes over two and a half octaves, while the G-Pan expands the musical possibilities to 37 notes over four octaves.

The Genesis Pan, now known more casually as the G-Pan, enriches the range of notes available to pan musicians playing the lead instrument in a steel orchestra. A traditional tenor pan offers players 29 notes over two and a half octaves, while the G-Pan expands the musical possibilities to 37 notes over four octaves.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The steel band fraternity has been plunged into mourning, following the death, early yesterday, of a former captain of the Woodbrook-based Phase 11 Pan Groove.

Edme Gibbons, of Coral Gardens in Diamond Vale, Diego Martin, died instantly when the car which he was driving plunged into the sea just off the foreshore in Mucurapo.

Police said Gibbons, a senior licensing officer, was driving along the foreshore shortly after 5 am when he was struck from behind, lost control of the vehicle, and crashed into the sea.

Gibbons, who celebrated his 50th birthday two months ago, died on the spot.

Yesterday, family, relatives and friends gathered at late panman’s home, trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

Fondly called “Gazo” by members of the steel band movement, Gibbons’ death came as a great surprise, said Errol Skerritt, Phase 11’s manager.
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New York, USA - History, history, history!  And probably as never before in any steelband music panorama around the world.  History was made in New York with the release of the 2008 New York Panorama results in the early hours of the last day of August.

Colleen White, mother of winning steelband music arranger André White, stood shyly by with people surrounding her, tears of joy streaming down her face as the euphoric celebration erupted on the stage after 1:00 a.m. when the 2008 New York Panorama ended - triumphantly for ADLIB Steel Orchestra which hails from Long Island, New York.  André’s grandmother Maureen White was alternately dancing around and pausing for photographs with ecstatic co-celebrants.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Three persons from the steelpan fraternity have been named as first time ever recipients of the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT), this country’s highest national award which was renamed after the controversy surrounding the original name of the Trinity Cross.

The three are Bertram “Bertie” Lloyd Marshall, Anthony Williams and Professor Brian Copeland, who are being recognised for their outstanding contribution towards development of the instrument.

Pan tuning pioneer Bertie Marshall said he was happy that the art form was being given the highest recognition possible, in the country that should be known as the inventor of the steelpan.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The gala event is carded for this evening at the Courtyard Marriott, Invader’s Bay, Audrey Jeffers Highway, at 7.30 pm.

Pan Trinbago’s Research and Development Officer, Melville Bryan noted, “The rationale behind the inauguration of the Hall of Fame lies in the fact that there has been little recognition of the achievements of our cultural and in particular steelband contributors of note.

“Pan Trinbago has decided to have the Hall of Fame so that there be always sight and appreciation of the achievements of those like Anthony Williams.”

Bryan continued, “Mr Anthony ‘Muffman’ Williams stands out as one of the foremost inventors and innovators at a global level eg the Fourths and Fifths. The Low C Tenor Pan is a musical instrument in use in every country in the world. Mr Anthony Williams is the innovator of this particular instrument.”
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London, England  - A junior steel band competition is mired in controversy over allegations of cheating.

An emergency meeting will be called later this week by the British Association of Steel Bands (BAS) after it emerged that one of the four bands participating, Ebony may have had players over the age of 18.

The competition took place on August 11 with prize money of £500, £300 and £200 being awarded to the first three bands. All of the bands were given £150 towards travel costs.

Two Croydon bands, the Croydon Steel Orchestra and the Comets, placed third and fourth say that Ebony should be disqualified for having overage players.

The rules state that players should be aged 18 and under and that each team should have at least 12 players.
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London, England  - A steel band is transforming the sound of Mozart and Tchaikovsky by giving it a calypso twist.

St Michael and All Angels Steel Band, made up of about 50 youngsters from around the borough, is learning to play classical music on steel drums.

The summer holiday workshops take place at St Michael and All Angels Church in Hillside, Stonebridge, and aims to encourage young people to learn about discipline and respect through music.

Band master, arranger and tuner, Alfred Toussaint, who is also known as Freddie, founded the band in 1996 and is delighted so many of the borough's youth are attending the lessons.
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London, England  - The Champions of Steel competition took place in London’s famed Hyde Park this past Saturday, August 23.  Ebony Steel Orchestra, the 2007 panorama champions, retained their title for 2008.
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