AND I’M ENJOYING THE HELL OUT OF THIS TRIFECTA.
Dalton Narine
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These musicians are pouring their hearts out to diverse audiences, and yet there's a lack of professionalism in the control room. Audio is hardly sound. Life certainly isn't perfect, for sure. Still and all, great show by the performers. Pure creativity bursting forth. Exodus, Phase II, Renegades, Desperadoes and Trinidad All Stars put on their dan dan and a well-crafted show the likes of which I would never have dreamed could take shape.
The evening went well, the players dressed to the nines and the pans talking sweet and whistling divine.
Then, Into the darkness we went, deeper and deeper into the evening.
And smack into the maze of the music the final band drops in as the shades of night
fell - shades of finals night, to be frank.
Now I figure they ought to know, these All Stars ping pong artistes, that it won’t be easy
following some tough acts, what with the best of the best having performed at their best.
Exodus Steel Orchestra at the Big5 Concert
I mean, Exodus put down a marker, like Obama’s red line. Big dare, that. Then Phase II mixed up their set with 3 Canal and a short Sparrow medley from its repertoire. Renegades channeled Jit Samaroo's winning songs, bringing huge momentum to the show. Like Big, Big, Big.
And Despers packed a serious punch, featuring, as well, a 15 year-old Boogsie sound-alike on tenor, and regurgitating its Champion song, Different Me, only to sock it to your gut. POW! Take that.
Phase II Pan Groove at the Big5 Concert
However, Neville Jules still lives (bless the Cap’n) and, it seems, Trinidad All Stars will play one for him. A classic, no less (Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna). Then they roll out lagniappe after lagniappe for audiences at home and abroad.
Great stuff all evening. Good that the Panorama champions pull down the curtain with jaw droppers like Full Extreme, Woman on the Bass and Curry Tabanca for listeners to lap up
Renegades Steel Orchestra at the Big5 Concert
The organizers should be proud of their effort and workman-like skill in making the event happen. If you ask me, they ought to find a way to share this BIG 5 treat with the world. Maybe, Pan will really reach, as Cro Cro intimated in a Ruso some years back.
Desperadoes Steel Orchestra at the Big5 Concert
Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra at the Big5 Concert
Performances - Big 5 - The Pan Concert
Dalton Narine watched a movie among friends and was
harassed for watching the credits roll. He was 12. They laughed at his quip
that someday his name would be scrolling like that on a movie screen somewhere.
Little did they know it was a prescient warning.
A similar scene played when Narine stopped learning the piano and walked
into a panyard. Nobody believed him until they saw him playing classical
music on pan on J’Ouvert. Eventually Narine co-founded the iconic
PAN magazine and became senior editor.
Narine, an award-winning writer for two newspapers and a magazine, started
working on a novel. But the chair of Columbia University film school steered
him toward a screenplay instead. Your story is a movie, the professor said.
Today Narine is working on his final draft, with two more screenplays in his
head.
contact Dalton Narine at: narain67@gmail.com
