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Caution: Very Sweet Pan Music, Very Addictive

 

Lessons In Steel
 

Queen Macoomeh
COMMESS  UNIVERSITY©

Queen Maccoomeh is a writer and founder of Commess University which houses her literary works.   Most of her stories are written in the Trinidadian patois.  All the stories are written from her viewpoint as a Trinidadian raised in North America.   Her articles have been published in various magazines and newspapers throughout North American and the Caribbean.

Ah jes’ finish reading a book call "Renegades."  Even doh I was born ‘round de corner from La Cour Harpe and even doh mih fadda was a double tenor player wid Renegades, is plenty I read in dat book dat I din know before.

Ah learn dat Renegades form in 1948.  Ah learn it had women in de bacchanal since in de earlies.  Ah read about men like Stephen "Goldteeth" Nicholson and Cecil "Dead" Hinkson.  Ah read about Doctor Rat and dem fellas.  Ah read how when Renegades and Invaders used to bounce up it was endless war! Ah learn about de tamboo bamboo.  Ah learn more about de stick fight.

It good to learn about tings in yuh own hist’ry.  It make mih realize I know more about Queen Elizabeth and she half crack chirren radda dan about my own people.  Long ago in school ah study bout de US civil war and how King Louis de forteent lick off all he wife and dem head.  Dey din teach we how we islands struggle for independence or how we come to be such rainbow people.  Dey din say where did de Caribs disappear to or how come de British overlords was so chupid to make we wear dem tick powdered wigs and robes and dem woolen pants in the heat.  Ah whole generation of we grow up not knowing we own self.

De Renegades book had snaps in it showing my neighbourhood de way it was in de olden days.  Ah read about how men used to lorse dey life jes in order to play a piece of tinning wid two note in it.  Men get dey hand chop off or dey eye jook out.  Dey get trow in jail.  Dey lorse dey wuk or even dey life.

Back in dem days de Europeans din like all dis pan ‘noise’.  Dey say how it used to hurt dey ears.  But deze old time men persevere and help smooden de way to bring pan to what it is today.  Ah read a part in de book where dey say how de same little hooligan who din go to school, who could barely sign he name would be walking down de road whistling Mozart and Beethoven.  Men who couldn’t tell a clef note from a letter in de alphabet, could learn by ear to carry a chune sweet as ever on dey lil doo-doop.  Dat was magic.

Up in de hills of Laventy, yuh used to be able to hear pan playing but as soon as de constables go to fine dem, de hills used to get quiet and den yuh would only hear a cricket chirp or a cock crow.

Even up to when ah was small, ah couldn’t miss mih penny out mih dollar and say I going in no pan yard.  Yuh mad?  Mih grandmudda wudda wring mih neck.  But when night come and de air get quiet ah used to be able to hear Renegades good as ever.  Some nights ah could even hear Casablanca from quite up de road.  In school nobody was mad enough to bring a pan.  Is only piano and guitar.  Dey used to tell we is badjohn who does play pan.

But as de ole people say, after one time is two time, ent troot?

I remember one year I went back home for Carnival.  Me and mih cousin went up John John by Carib Tokyo panyard.  De night was pitch black and it only had one or two flambeau to light up de place.  De band was practicing for Panorama Finals.  Over one hundred men and plenty more pans was line up on de hillside.  Ah nearly break awf mih shoe heel climbing up de hill overlooking Beetam Highway.  But man, de iron section was dey.  De crowd was dey.  De corn soup was dey.  Even de Flag Woman was dey to practice she wine.  John John is a place dat used to frighten big people.  But dat night it din have no fear, all it had was pan.

De iron knock…men who never even listen to dey mudda, run quick and stand up like soldier in front dey pan.  De iron knock again, men bow as one.  Den one…two…one, two, tree, four.

Well boy, Pan take mih dat night.  It was as if Papa Gawd tell de world to hush.  Ah could see He conducking de band Heself.  Ah could see He marking time wid He foot on a cloud.  Ah could see all de angels and dem shaking dey wing and dancing.  Ah could hear pan all troo de hills in John John.  Pan for yesterday, today and tomorrow.  It had a part when de band stop for one beat and den start back.  One hundred men stop and start like a light switch.  Man it make mih skin walk!

Ah remember a time ah went in Queen’s Hall to hear Despers play classical music.  Ah see Eric Williams, Archbishop Pantin and some udda fellas sitting in de big pappie section nodding dey head to de sound of dis instrument.  Ah was small but ah remember

A few weeks aback in Toronto I get de chance to meet a man who remember dem days.  A man who dey tell me invented seven out of de ten types of pan, Ellie Mannette.  He was Invaders captain in de old days.  Ah bet he could tell we how much bottle he get pelt behine he by dem overlords.  Now he is Dr. Elliott Mannette, Professor of Music in West Virginia University.

Yuh see me? I like my mas.  Ah like mih soca and yuh girl not too backward when chutney start to play.  Ah does breakaway bad bad bad.  But yuh see Pan? It different.  Is mines.  I own it.  Mih chile own it.  It come out from de same place mih nabel string bury.  Ah see people sweat over it and die because of it.  Some ordinary people wid no education and a hole in de one short pants dey own bring out ah instrument dat travelling de world.  De same European who ear it used to hurt now lining up to hear it and play it and even teach it.

Put dat in yuh pipe and smoke it eh papa?


 

We can learn much from the continuing evolution of the steelpan.  From a little biscuit tin and two dustbin covers to multi-pan ensembles harmonized to perfection.  We have made something from nothing.  We took discord and made harmony - many coming together as one - humble beginnings aimed at lofty ends.  Pan even inspires racial harmony.  Despite the fact that the pan’s birth was afro-centric, many others nevertheless nurtured it.  Some of its most venerable arrangers and players crossed the imaginary borders of race and colour and saw only the beauty that is Pan.

These are some of the lessons in steel.

© and courtesy Queen Macoomeh

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A Celebration of Women
And The Steelpan Artform

03.17.05

March 7, 2005 

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