Trinidad

What about Panorama?

Peter Minshall

The theatre that is Panorama is muscular and visceral and tribal and community-based. Its naiveté is a large part of its beauty: all those silver fringes, that shivering tinsel, all those people pushing those carts on wheels-this happens nowhere else in the world! And you are going to take this vibrant, muscular, visceral thing-and (in pained voice) put it in a glass box? Is Panorama going to be a museum piece in Stuttgart or London? Is it that black people so want to be white they have forgotten who they are? That their potency and vitality is going to be so condomised it is left lifeless! I understand you think it may be a bow to the Carnival to give it a spectacular glass building but it's the worst thing you can do. It's like taking the thing that is dead and letting it lie in State now. Expand Panorama and impress the world with your knowledge of yourself: around the Savannah! Create a ring of steel so powerful it will reverberate throughout the Caribbean-I need a concert hall for pan! I cannot believe the universe has blessed us with this instrument and it is still in a yard. If we can throw $30m to the returning team from Berlin, we can throw $30m for an architectural prize for the best steelband concert hall in the world. I do not think it is beyond the imagination of a great architect to build a house of steel to house instruments of steel, a fine concert hall that looks as though it's clad in steel and relates to a Savannah that's ringed by a small railing of burnished steel, that, at Carnival time, rises up with steel pylons and a crop of canopies and pavilions. The slapdash evolution of the Grand Stand and the North Stand at least worked as an ad hoc common-sense extension of the street, a "pavement" on either side with people watching the mas moving down the road in the middle as it were-what I'll call avenue theatre-but to box it in architecturally as a deliberate, conscious act, is pure madness. It is the determined entrapment of the very spirit of freedom that the thing is supposed to celebrate.
 

Global - It's been a very interesting year for pan, globally speaking.  The face of pan is getting younger and more diversified. Furthermore the talent and skill level are increasing sharply.  When Steel Talks (WST) has been fortunate to be able to communicate and meet with people from all walks of life (professionals, hobbyists, pan 'lifers', beginners, educators, students and fans), who are connected to the steelpan instrument and are literally from almost every sector of the world.  All have in common, an undying enthusiasm for the instrument and art form.

Global - Our steelband personality award of the year goes to Mrs. Anna  Raffoul, president of the Dominica Steelband Association.  Anna Raffoul achieved through sheer determination and innovation, a steelband first in Dominica, W.I.  She, along with her handpicked helpers and resources, organized and hosted the highly-successful inaugural OECS Junior Pan competition in Dominica this past April - with absolutely no intervention from her country's government.  Mrs. Raffoul and her staff oversaw the efficacious mobilization and attendance of competitors from several other Caribbean islands. 

Virgin Islands - The Superior Court Rising Stars Ensemble drew resounding applause as the steel pan band pounded out a moving arrangement of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the black national anthem. The Rock Lounge Collective read original works of poetry.

Global - Those steelband people who merit very special mention for the year are the flag bearers of all the world's steelbands - more commonly referred to as the 'flag woman' or 'flag man.'

The role of the Carrier of The Flag is deeply rooted in tradition and history.  It is a special, time-honored position that requires confidence, grace and skill.   When Steel Talks takes a special look at those who carried the flag at this year's 2006 Trinidad & Tobago steelband music panorama, in video and pictures.

Picture of the Year
Greatness Celebrating Greatness

2006 Steelband In Pictorial Review

2006 Steelband Performances
In Video Review

Trinidad - Defending champion top gun arranger / composer Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and noted calypsonian "Crazy" have teamed up to serve notice on the rest of the Trinidad and Tobago steelband fraternity for the upcoming 2007 steelband music panorama.

Recently New York's 2006 Panorama Champions held their annual 'Carols and Steel' concert.  Click on link to see why they are one of North America's best.

Click for to see full performances

Special NY Panyard DVD
2005 Available

New York - 2005 was a year marked by historic highs and tragic lows for the Pan community. On panorama night, the late great Clive Bradley made history by achieving a feat never before accomplished. The bands for which he arranged placed first and second.  Sadly, the joy would later turn to grief with the tragic news of his passing less than three months later.

New York - The Performing Arts Center at Meyer Levin's Junior High School I.S. 285 was transformed into a musical mecca for the educational institution's annual Winter Concert.  Located in Brooklyn, New York, Meyer Levin's student body put on an event chock full of music and dance.  A program displaying the talents of the Mixed Chorus, Senior Concert Band, Sixth Grade Chorus, dancers, and steelbands from the school's sixth, seventh and eighth grades, along with the Higher Levin Steel Orchestra - played to an auditorium with standing room only.  Proud mamas and papas, along with family, friends and well-wishers had turned out in force for this particular calendar event.  The Master and Mistress of Ceremonies for the evening were principal Edward Gentile and assistant principal Denise Holder (pictured), respectively.  The former would return in the unadvertised role of surprise vocalist later on in the program.

Trinidad - The 2007 Panorama semifinals will stay at the Queen’s Park Savannah (QPS) in Port-of-Spain.

But the final of the event will indeed be held at Skinner Park, San Fernando.

And for the semis, instead of the Grand Stand and North Stand, patrons will have to accustom themselves to enjoy the “jamming” in West and East stands, Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold disclosed yesterday.

The Panorama semis—one of the major Carnival events traditionally held at the QPS—have been saved a trip down to the south of Trinidad and will be relocated to the western end of the savannah, he said.

Arnold said that Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams has finally agreed to the proposal sent to her months ago by Pan Trinbago, to utilise the western end of the QPS.

Bank supports school band’s
UK trip

Cayman Islands - The Cayman National Bank has thrown its support for the John Gray High School Steel Band’s visit to London to perform at the New Year’s Day Parade and Festival in London and a concert at the Westminster Methodist Church Hall where it would also perform with other youth bands from around the world.

Greenidge back with Despers