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You are
listening to Pantonic Steel Orchestra as captured by
Basement Recordings live in their yard. You can hear
this track with its full dynamics and sonic magnificence
on the
Pantonic Live !!
CD. |
In
1998 a committed group of very young, very talented,
very driven, extremely confident but yet unrecognized
and relatively unknown steelpan players, came into the consciousness of
the New York
steelband community, as they took third place in the annual
New York steelband music panorama. That group would
soon be known to everyone as
Pantonic, and over the next few
years would etch it's name permanently in the annals of world steelband music
history.
Led by the vision of
it's progressive and experienced management
team of
Glenda Gamory,
Keith Roberts,
Ralph Davis, Brian
Joseph, John James, among others -
Pantonic's mission and goal
were simple ones - to be the best steel orchestra on the
planet. In 1999 Pantonic secured the
final missing piece of the puzzle - that being the return of
the great master arranger, composer, musician and composer
Clive Bradley, who had already had three
successful eras in pan. His first years were with the storybook
Desperadoes
Steel Orchestra during their golden years, and then the
championship years with Metro Steel Orchestra in New
York where he garnered five championships, followed at that time
by
his return to major prominence in Trinidad and Tobago through Nutones and again
with Desperadoes.
In
late 1998 Ms. Gamory, whom Mr. Bradley called 'the best
facilitator he has ever worked with in pan,' contacted the
music maestro about returning to NY to arrange for Pantonic.
Bradley was very receptive, and actually looked forward to
working with these young people who had literally grown up
in his lap during his first run in New York (the majority
were the offspring of Metro's pan musicians).
Indeed, at this stage in Mr. Bradley's career, working
with young people was much more in line with his
ever-evolving mindset and musical direction. Ironically, Mr. Bradley
was also in the middle of his second comeback in Trinidad, as
he would complete the coveted and elusive hat trick as an
arranger, while
being at the musical helm of Nutones (1998) and
Desperadoes (1999 and 2000), in the Trinidad and Tobago
national panorama competition.
In
June of 1999 the master arranger arrived in the Big Apple to
a mix of skepticism, much anticipation and breathless expectation - depending on
who you talked to. Many wondered aloud
whether the
master could still work his magic in the now-highly
competitive, enlightened, liberal and demanding New York
steelband music panorama arena. The master did not
disappoint his fans, and a whole new generation of steelband
music devotees would soon come to know why Mr. Bradley is
considered the greatest steelband music arranger/composer
ever. And any doubt as to Mr. Bradley's greatness and
genius was
erased forever. With Bradley, the Pantonic juggernaut was
officially launched, as they would win five panorama
championships in the next seven years - all with his
arrangement masterpieces. Moreover,
some of the greatest steelband music ever composed, and
performances, resulted from this collaboration.
Pantonic, affectionately known as 'Bradley's kids' breathed a new
life and energy into the master arranger and global
steelband scene. As Bradley would say many times
"this is the only band that I could do this music with... these are my children
- I watched them grow up right on my knees." This
was the Pantonic crew.
Pantonic treated Bradley like a king and viewed him as a
father figure; their trust and belief in him were unwavering.
This allowed the band to simply out-work and out-distance
themselves from the other organizations. When they
took the stage with Bradley conducting the show, they were
one of the most intimidating orchestras in the history of
New York panorama competition, and for the most part they
were unbeatable.
Beyond
the spectacle of panorama competition the Pantonic/Bradley
combination produced steelband music classics...
Bradley, who had been a successful and accomplished
producer, composer, and studio engineer, was very aware of
the importance of recording. Pantonic, similar to
Pan Rebels was extremely committed to having all their
performances recorded every year. They may be
the only orchestra that has quality digital recordings for
every year of their existence. Indeed, these
recordings contributed greatly to the international appeal
and recognition of Pantonic. Clive Bradley and
steelband recording specialist Basement Recordings, Inc. had a
very special relationship, as many of the Basement
Recordings engineers actually played under Bradley as
steelpan musicians.
The
1999 recording of Pantonic's now-classic 'In My House' - in addition to its historical significance, would be
the first track of what became the critically-acclaimed
"Pantonic
Live!" CD. Basement Recordings took much pride in
presenting Mr. Bradley with a recording each year, that he felt accurately represented his musical
works and the Band. And of course every year Clive Bradley took
great delight in reviewing CDs and DVDs that contained Pantonic's - (and later on, D'Radoes') performances. It
had been indeed, a fantastic journey.
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