Trinidad - Renegades is into the homestretch, quite excited and 'very optimistic' about their upcoming participation in Saturday's final competition, the band's manager Michael Marcano told When Steel Talks.  They placed seventh in the semi-finals almost two weeks ago, but have since 'sharpened things up.'  The only steel orchestra (when fielding as many as one hundred and twenty musicians) to have copped the championship three consecutive times in panorama history, Renegades is looking to score another historic first, by winning the first-ever major panorama finals to be held in Skinner Park, south Trinidad on Saturday February 17.

Renegades had four tunes to choose from at the beginning of the season; eventually members opted for 'Band From Space' composed by Amrit Samaroo and sung by Edwin Ayoung aka Crazy.  The band is no stranger to playing selections composed 'in house'  meaning, on several prior occasions they have taken music penned by long-time resident arranger Dr. Jit Samaroo and Marcano himself, to the panorama arena.  The difference this time is that Samaroo is arranging music written by his son Amrit, who is a recognized arranger in his own right, and this is a first for him, his famous father and Renegades steel orchestra. 

Marcano attributes the choice of panorama material to the current make-up of Renegades, where many of the musicians have grown up under Amrit himself in his capacity as arranger for Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra.  "They are quite excited about playing a piece by Amrit [now as players with the senior orchestra]".

As far Samaroo, Sr. is concerned, Marcano says that he thinks that Dr. Samaroo himself is quite excited about doing something with music composed by his son.  He also noted that interestingly, the piece was written in a minor key, and that as Samaroo, Sr. is quite adept at, and enjoys working in minor keys, unlike many other arrangers who shy away from that scenario.

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