New York - The expectations of the steelband music performing community and the listening audience are again extremely high for the 2006 New York panorama.  The steelpan artists are still looking for a visually and technically, award-winning production that is worthy of, and that can approximate and support - the musical mastery and stunning live performances, they - the steelpan artists themselves - deliver at the Big Apple event.  This year's event is dedicated to Clive Bradley who epitomized musical excellence; he himself was the consummate performer.

New York - Regardless of the results of this year's 2006 New York steelband music panorama competition, reigning champions Pantonic Steel Orchestra have distinguished themselves as one of the greatest musical entities to grace the North American continent.

The Bradley/Pantonic hall of fame era is sealed in gold with five championships in seven years. However, more than the championships, it was the music that was created through that marriage [Bradley/Pantonic] and the classic performances that will be remembered, cherished and talked about for years to come.  Stranger, In My House, Ben Lion, Trini To The Bone and Action have all now moved into the steelband music classics area - an area that is reserved for a very select few - of which of course master arranger Clive Bradley was no stranger.

NY Panorama 2006 Countdown

New York - On Saturday August 26, 2006 When Steel Talks (WST)  held its annual arrangers' conference in Brooklyn, New York.  This year's panel included Yohan Popwell (Sonatas), Keith Roberts (Pantonic), Raf Robertson (D'Radoes), Andre White (ADLIB) and Sheldon Elcock (Utopia Pan Soul).  The arrangers covered a wide and familiar range of topics - from their respective approaches to the 2006 competition - to their personal memories of the late master arranger Clive Bradley.

800,000 party at Notting Hill Carnival

United Kingdom - Traditional Soca music performed by steelbands blended with with hip hop and soul blasted from 41 static sound systems along the three-mile route.

The carnival, now Europe's biggest street party, began 42 years ago as a small procession of Trinidadians in memory of festivals in their home country.

New York Panorama 2006
Order of Appearance

In Symphonic Flight

Steelbands Vie for Top Honors In Panorama Showdown

New York - The Panorama competition at the grounds of the Brooklyn Museum is one of the favorite activities organized by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association  and not just that because the stakes are high and the competition intense.

An extraordinary quality comes in to play when steel orchestras in the competition reach their defining moment  the 10-minute segment when the ensembles perform their tune of choice.

During those magical moments, those 10 minutes of glory, the steelpan players enter another world. One pan man described it as taking a symphonic flight.

Its a time when the world stops and nothing else matters. For each of those 600 seconds, its al about rubber mallets skillfully striking steel and making music. And from that performance, one band may achieve crowning glory  the Panorama contests first prize.

In Panorama 1999, that band was the Pantonic Steel Orchestra, an ensemble of about 100 musicians ages 7 to 27. The Brooklyn Museum grounds were teeming with more than 3,000 pan enthusiasts waiting in energetic anticipation, because Pantonic's tune of choice was arranged by master musician Clive Bradley  returning to the New York circuit after an extended hiatus. And the pan fans were not disappointed.

United Kingdom - In the early hours of Sunday the 27th August 2006, the J'ouvert celebrations will be inching its way down Ladbroke Grove. The affair is a BAS all steel band event and without doubt, the crowds will be drawn to the sweet strains of infectious steelband music that break the pre-dawn tranquility. Everyone joins in the celebrations and adorn themselves in mud or brightly coloured paint depicting the celebration of emancipation.

Panorama Time

It is that time of the year when some of the fiercest, high-level steelband musical competitions are taking place all over the world.  The Virgin Islands, St. Vincent, Antigua, Grenada, Toronto, St. Lucia - have all held their steelband music panorama competitions, to name a few, with major markets like the United Kingdom and New York soon to follow.

NEWS RELEASE
Desperadoes Not Performing
in New York in August

WITCO Desperadoes Steel Orchestra will not be performing at the advertised concerts at KC Hideaway in Brooklyn, New York on the weekend of August 18, 2006.

Desperadoes regrets the disappointment to its supporters in New York and throughout the United States but the Band bears no responsibility for the cancellation. Desperadoes fulfilled all its obligations under the contract made with the promoter and was ready and prepared to travel to New York for the performances. The cancellation has caused financial loss to the Band and negatively impacted the internal operations of the Band.

The promoter took the decision to cancel the performance without any consultation with Desperadoes and further failed to inform the Band about his decision. Desperadoes learnt about the cancellation from other sources subsequently.

'NO SHOWS'
Fingers pointed at promoter for cancellation of Desperadoes & Starlift New York Concerts

Commancheroes Wins 2006
Grenada Panorama!