Originally published -- February 1999
The year is 1999. A very special year in Trinidad and Tobago panorama history. Noted journalist Dalton Narine has provided When Steel Talks this article from that moment. - republished with the expressed permission of the author
ALL THE clichés apply on this Panorama evening.
What’s new, though, is that Panorama has begat a couple of sidebar stories that now overshadow the very tenor of the contest. Witco Desperadoes’ Clive Bradley has come prepared to talk the talk, while Californian Andy Narell of Hydro Agri Skiffle Bunch is being forced to walk the walk. In the genre of Panorama music, will the other bands merely be reduced to mocking pretenders?
Andy Narell
Not so, says Alvin Daniell, a writer-composer, who decries the double standard regarding the welcome mat being rolled out for Narell by Pan Trinbago.
Over the years, arrangers Ray Holman and Boogsie Sharpe, of Petrotrin Phase II, have been parading around town as outcasts. Now, watching Boogsie’s band perform, Daniell can’t help but recall events of 27 years ago, when Pan Trinbago shut the door in Holman’s face.
Holman had tried to enter through the front carrying, ohmigosh, a piece of music absent lyrics. Pan on the Move, 1972. So, to conform, Daniell took his venom- and his voice - to a radio station, thus inadvertently leaving Narell to create history 27 years later. “The choice [of tunes] is so limited/arrangers are restricted/So this year we decided to do we own ting/Don’t doubt it; we sit down and write we own song/arrange it we own way/so we could rock town/ You gon’ get de groove/Pardners, it’s Pan on the move.”
And so, in the spotlight as a, gasp, foreign arranger, Narell has come to the home of pan to tell his own story, in music, as he would a jazz solo. He’s about to bend our ears, and the rules, Whatever they are. Without gimmicks.
He lays down this whole piece, a statement, up front. Then adds an extended jam, a jazz riff, really, that segues into an unusual dream sequence, which evolves into his version of the old-time calypso. Later, he returns to the original chromatic lines with variations on the verse and chorus before settling into a restatement of the opening theme. Narell then says his unorthodox approach is simply a continuation of what Holman and Boogsie have been doing. And, no, he isn’t attempting to alter Panorama.
Daniell isn’t amused. Today, he muses, a foreigner produces a piece of music that is not in calypso tempo, without lyrics and not recorded in a calypso beat. Isn’t that revolutionary? If Boogsie had done that, would he have had an easy passage as Narell? Should Boogsie bother to open his music to lyrics in the future?
As Power once sang, “When question come to ask don’t say you wasn’t dey”. And David Waddell was there when Boogsie and Holman were huffing and puffing to blow away Pan Trinbago’s house of conventions. What difference does it make? Waddell asks. Narell’s “Coffee Street” has a calypso rhythm. Sparrow’s “Rose” and “No money, no love” were songs composed as calypsos. And Narell’s song has the same metric beat of the kaiso. Hey, we don’t have a true definition of calypso in the pan.
So Waddell embraces Narell’s eclectic music. Says Narell’s message is well-received. Powerful music simply administered. That music, he says, pan arrangers would be making reference to for musical advice.
Clive Bradley
Certainly not Bradley. It is 2:45 am, and it’s Bradley’s turn to revise history with “In my House” for the Radoes. No man is bigger than the band. Sure, the Despers mystique swallows the community like Jonah’s whale, and arrangers, like the community become subordinated to the band. Oh, many a Bradley fan will tell you that Bradley had never left the Hill. How long ago did he construct this big mansion on the Hill only to see Robert Greenidge move in with the Hammer’s blessing. How, then, will Bradley expound his story? His return as the prodigal son?
When the builder returned to his house several months ago, those who didn’t care for his controversial lifestyle harbored mixed feelings, Chester Dalrymple, a Despers panatic, says. But his lifestyle isn’t far removed from the environment, Dalrymple reasons. There’s a lot of pressure on the Hill to win, and that’s why Bradley is here tonight.
Bradley here? No, we’re in “his” house. Watch him raise the roof with his music; strut around in his Sunday best; conduct the band in his own inimitable style. See how he kisses the banner girls. How he wines, jumps up, plays with his guests. Shucks, he’s king of the night. Wait, wait. Take it down, take it down. Wasn’t it Greenidge who reenergized Despers in the last decade with two Panorama titles? How can the Hill forget that?
An old refrain comes to mind. “Never never interfere with husband-and-wife business”. Curtis Edwards, the band’s captain, employs the metaphor to capture recent goings-on in the band. We didn’t get rid of Robbie, he says. We just went to a different room in the house. It’s our house. We know what we want.
Desperadoes Steel Orchestra performing Clive Bradley’s arrangement “In My House” - Panorama 1999
And in that room, the music is simpler and effective, bassist Anthony McQuilkin says. The players could now relax and play. Delbert Henry on the double tenor concurs. Robbie used to keep you occupied (in the music) to show his musicianship, he says. But Bradley will lay you back and cover you with sweetness. Hear the music. We’re not on the hustle. Hear how Bradley spreads the chords, melody interacting with harmony. Look how he lays back the bass lines. Check the conversation among the middle pans. See, he’s playing with the melody all the time, and he hasn’t taken a note out of his head yet.
And, Henry adds, the best part is, you may be listening to his music, but Bradley listens for the music.
As the housewarming winds down, a guest is moved to tears. Now, that’s what you call music, he says.
Full results for Trinidad and Tobago’s 1999 Panorama
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Dalton Narine
Dalton Narine is a Miami writer and filmmaker, whose worldwide award-winning film Mas Man - The Complete Work, about Peter Minshall, the Trinidad Carnival artist and Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies legend, is available on home video as a three-disc set at masmanthemovie.com
Contact Dalton Narine: narain67@gmail.com
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