New
York, USA
-
It is a Friday evening in early
December in the Kensington part of
Brooklyn - actually the center of
Brooklyn, and the steelpan is again about
to take front and center at the
beautiful Calvary Cathedral of Praise.
This show is billed as ‘Total Praise’ -
Steel Orchestra and Choral Concert
featuring Calvary Steel Orchestra,
CrossFire Steel Orchestra and Women In
Steel.
If you have never been to the Calvary
Cathedral of Praise it is one of the
more modern and stunning houses of worship in New
York. In addition to its striking
appearance and layout, it boasts
great acoustics for live performances
and is equipped with competent in-house
media facilities.
The Calvary Cathedral of Praise
(CCOPNY) has had
a long association with the steelpan
instrument. Indeed, its own
Calvary Cathedral of Praise Steel
Orchestra aka Calvary Steelband has been on the scene since
1972. With a repertoire of
traditional hymns and contemporary
gospel performed in various styles,
including calypso, soca, R&B and more,
audiences in the wider USA, and as far a
field as the United Kingdom and Africa -
have been ministered to by the steel
orchestra.
The show opened up with the
latest incarnation of the CCOPNY Steel Orchestra, well received by the
audience. These young
players led by arranger Khuent Rose have
come together for only the last six
months. The orchestra demonstrated
Calvary Cathedral of Praise's commitment
to not only the steelpan instrument, but
to the power of music in general.
With the talented Rose at the
helm one can look for the orchestra to make
significant inroads into their musical
development.
Martin Douglas, director of CrossFire
Steel Orchestra, gave a short but
insightful history about the early
development of the steelpan instrument
to the diversified audience.
Of
particular note, Mr. Douglas, who is from
the birthplace of the steelpan
instrument, Trinidad and Tobago, mentioned how the early
pan tuners would
wait for the tones from the chiming of a clock
at a well-known educational institution
in Trinidad - the Queen's Royal College
(QRC) - every 15 minutes to tune their
instruments. Hence, the birth of
tuning to a standard tone scenario.
Also on the
program was a guest appearance by Ms. Gail Blanche-Gill with veteran panist Patrick Davis.
Simply a marvelous voice; in spite of her laryngitis, this vocalist
delivered a wonderful performance,
setting the
show on its heels with her rendition of
Ave Maria.
If this is how
she sounded with
laryngitis, one can but imagine her
performance at full voice!
Next up was CrossFire Steel Orchestra,
who introduced their set with a solo by
musical director Khuent Rose. A
rousing rendition, this talented and
gifted musician set the pace, then
joined CrossFire as the group went through a varied
array of seasonal tunes stamped with
Rose's signature intricacy and colors.
CrossFire is definitely on the upward
track, and may have found their
niche in stage side performances - and
can become a
force to be reckoned with. Every
time they take the stage they are improved,
with an expanding repertoire and
markedly better musicianship. The
group totally engaged the audience,
in
both sets for the evening, even
bringing concert goers to their feet
when combined with the Calvary Chorale
on the selection Total Praise, the theme
for the entire show.
Also present at the show was
Women In Steel (WIS), a New York original
which continues to make their voice heard and presence
felt, still presenting a fascinating
phenomenon to several in the audience. WIS performed a few seasonal
pieces with Collins Jackman as arranger
and musical director, and who - as did
Rose with Crossfire - performed with the band.
Like Calvary and
CrossFire Steel
Orchestras, WIS also made a second
appearance after a twenty-five minute
intermission.
Although opening up just around twenty
minutes after the scheduled start time,
the show was tight and appeared to be well time-managed
and flowing. Kudos to the organizers who presented
the audience with insightful narratives
and history about all the performers.
In addition, the visual projections were
quite timely and added to the audience
overall experience. Several
notables were on hand for the evening's
performances, including former CCOPNY
Steel Orchestra director Stephen Reid,
Mrs. Jacqueline Mannette, wife of
renowned pan legend Ellie Mannette and
Yolanda Lezama-Clarke, president of the
West Indian America Day Carnival
Association (WIADCA).
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