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Sixteen years ago, I began my modest and
energetic beginnings in CASYM (Caribbean
American Sports and Cultural Youth
Movement) Steel Orchestra’s
basement-panyard. A young Dwight DaSilva helmed as Captain of the band
then. I was immediately told to start
learning “Big Belly Man” on a guitar
from another player before he had
officially started the class. Gillian
Lake mentored me the best she could, but
I had little patience and she had far
less. Eventually we would begin the
actual lesson for the evening and we
learned a single major scale in
different rhythms and durations. This
was my foundation of education in the
Panyard. You play before you
understand what you play, and then make
sense of the parts as they move along,
bewildering and magical.
Musical Director, arranger, composer
- Khuent Rose
Eight years ago, I attended
Florida Memorial University to be graced
(and tattooed) by the presence of Dr.
Dawn Batson-Burel. During our weekly
floggings private classes, she would ask
for, what seemed- at the time- to be
impossible to play, with the most
ordinary tone of voice and annoyed
expression she could muster, often
saying “What’s the problem?” This was my
foundation of education in the
Classroom. You must understand what you
are capable of before you hope to
shatter that convention and impress the
scholar.
Two years ago, a young Jahlani Roberts,
currently of CASYM, asked me to assist
his studies of musical theory/structure
and arranging. I was more than delighted
to share what little I had amassed to
share, and started by accessing where he
was, on our similar road of discovery.
Three elements were necessary for this
to be approachable: physical dexterity,
musical literacy and an obsession with
the “ART”…I cannot stress this enough…
the “ART” of Pan. With some work on
literacy to do, he was well on his way.
I would grab the mishaps of his panorama
practices and leisurely arrangements,
and have him analyze their pieces and
fragments. Eventually, he not only saw
the forest through the trees, he was
able to tell what type of fruit they
would bear before they were in season.
This is the foundation of education that
evolves from the Panyard to the
Classroom. You create, paint the
mural, then analyze each brush stroke.
This morning, my 7-year old nephew,
Amari, saw my tenor set up in the living
room and demanded (literally pulling me
out of bed) that I teach him something
to play. Of course, I did. Within a
short 30-minute period, this
hyper-intellectual, hyper-active
youngling was able to learn a hymn and
practice on his own with minimal nudging
or insistence. This is the foundation of
education that leads to the
perfection of Art. You stare at the
Night sky and wonder if the stars are
holding up the dark sky, or if the sky
is merely speckled with light. Either
way you will fall in love with the
moment.
I use these instances to suggest that
education, not politics, money, or
cultural hysteria, is the key to the
progress of the steelpan movement. We’ve
experienced a flood of resources over
the last three months devoted to
Trinidad & Tobago’s Panorama
competition. In its wake, we have-
AGAIN- some of the most questionable
judging for some of the most expected
arrangements of the final bands.
Arrangers habitually place their rubber
stamp over 5 -7 minutes (repetition
withstanding) of musical slight-of-hand
and well-crafted recycling, only to
ensure the popularity of their
name-brand and the identity of their
commissioned band. And for what?... The
“jump up”? The opportunity to play on a
huge stage? To utterly rape a
hand-crafted instrument for a teeming
mass of half-inebriated crowds?
Arranger Len
“Boogsie” Sharpe at Panorama 2011
with Phase II Pan Groove
performing his arrangement of his
composition “Do Something for Pan”
The truth of the matter is that
“Boogsie” had it right … “Do something
for Pan”. Not for your ego. Not for the
political assailants that, at the drop
of a farthing would sell out everything
that makes pan beautiful to the highest
bidder. Not to the judges and
commentators who lack the ability to
understand, much less articulate the
cacophony of notes and tones that
flashed by their ears at the hands of
the 100+ mixture of musicians,
instrumentalists, and pretenders. Not to
the grumpy old men holding onto
delusions of grandeur lost in their
mummified youth. Nor the cocky up-start
that has fallen in love with the idea
that they’re God’s gift to the
instrument.
The Pan movement utterly lacks humility
amongst its peers and supporters;
conversely, it lacks audacity and a
sense of community against its
offenders.
I’ve seen bands get devastated by losing
their practice spaces, having their pans
destroyed, their musical and executive
director fall ill and/or die, police
raids, noise fines, gang violence,
statutory rape accusations, money
laundering, embezzlement, tax fraud…
(the list is longer that I can possibly
type in a lifetime). And what do “pan
people”, their peers, their colleagues
do? Laugh, Lie, and Let things get
worse. When outsiders make stakes to
patents, claim the originality of the
instrument, mock the wisdom of our
elders, insult the integrity of our
peers, and disenfranchise our youth “pan
people”. Again, they Laugh, Lie (to
themselves) and Let things get worse.
My friends… My family… We have to seek
education in order for the art-form
(manufacturing, tuning, playing,
composing, arranging, innovating) to
truly flourish.
In Panyards all over the world, there is
a GRAVE deficit in pan history. It
boggles the mind to see that
non-Trinidadians under 40 have greater
historical recall about the development
of pan than that of many native
Trinidadians and their progeny. If you
doubt me, ask a 25-year old Trinidadian
about Rudolph Charles or Tony Williams
and see what they tell you. In colleges
there is an abundance of “concert”
learning and prepared music but a lack
of the “panyard” experience. BOTH ARE
NECESSARY! In the same way a musician
must learn to read as well as play by
ear, there must be a way to facilitate
the atmosphere of the “energy matrix”
exclusive to a panyard. Colleges should
establish grants to send students to
panoramas to have this experience.
Without it, it is like teaching someone
the chemical, physical, and nutritional
properties of a Mango but not letting
them taste one grown wild. (It’s just
not the same).
Sheldon Elcock, Freddie Harris,
III, Iman Pascall, Kareem Thompson, Khuent Rose
at WST Studios
Young aspiring arrangers/ composers need
to have more avenues for them to
experience and explore the creative
experience of writing for pan. For the
lucky few that spend their life around
the instrument and are fortunate enough
to be graced with a musically-inclined
brain, they either have to traverse the
gauntlet of naysayers in a
panorama/carnival setting (i.e. Andre
White, Amrit Samaroo) or abandon that
avenue all together and find success in
more peripheral audiences (i.e. Andy
Akiho, Jonathan Scales). Then you have
the personalities that venture into the
field of straddling the central and
peripheral lines (Freddie Harris III,
Leon “Foster” Thomas, myself). In
reality, the modern generation of rising
iconoclasts knows that they have to deal
with scrutiny and the harsh opinions of
their audience, BUT NONE SO severe as
are found in the Caribbean population.
It is a riddled with experts who have
never played the instrument for more
than a school semester while passing
through forms.
Finally, we have the generation that is
still oblivious to any of these
retarded, senseless, egotistical ills.
They see the pan as a beautiful,
mystical entity; not an instrument to
gain popularity or a means to exploit
others for personal gain and renown.
When they play, it’s to impress those
that they love, those that love them and
-most importantly- because they see the
Panist is a role model. Put a pair of
sticks in the hands of a child and put
them behind a pan and the first thing
they will do is emulate someone else
they have seen play. My nephew thinks
that I’m a few steps away from Superman
and if I fail to educate myself, I will
not only fail to educate him, I will
have failed to do something for Pan and
have the ignorance of generations after
me on my hands and my art.
click to contact:
Khuent Rose
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