Miami, Fla. - In a flashback to the dawn of the sixties, the cutter man would pick at the scab on pan’s conscience after leaving his mark (and his adversary in serious stitches) on the cutting edge of an urban culture that one day would advance to the World Cup of Mas.

Badjohnhood (badjohns in the ’hood), flaunted its swagger as early as the mid-’40s, the tuned pan’s first outing on the road, through the mid-’70s, when steel band clashes in Port of Spain began to cool down.

Google the early period.  You’ll be right there at the rainy season, in the drizzle of the new pop culture.

Look for East Dry River.  See how it simmers from a continually violent social storm?  Now, watch the toddling steel band movement meander from side to side, bouncing this way and that off the concrete wall of an edgy society.

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United Kingdom - CSI and it does not relate to the well known Crime Scene Investigators television series. It however refers to the Caribbean Steel International steel band originally formed in 2004 with three members, Brent Holder, Michael ‘Chato’ Toussaint and Jason Constantine. After obtaining invaluable experience from working with some of the top steel bands in the UK, Trinidad and Japan, they made a conscientious decision to form a gigging band to fulfill the growing demand for 3 or 4 piece steel bands.
 

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New York - Once again the Pathmark Multicultural Arts Festival facilitated the opportunity  for thousands of people to experience a significant part of Caribbean culture.  Patrons at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn, New York, were greeted with the sights and sounds of drums, dance and song from the performing artists this past Sunday.

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Miami, Fla. - They already had a name that fit – Ivory and Steel.

Actually, they made a record, did Winifred Atwell and Pan Am Jet North Stars.  It created history – in black and white.  Yet, like an Earl Lovelace novel, it exists in colour – that watershed recording of 1969.

It was the first time a classical pianist of Atwell’s prestige had performed and recorded with a steel band.  Forty years later, reaction to the music hasn’t diminished.  People are more outspoken in defense of its historic and artistic merits.

“You can’t define the pan from the piano,” Norman Darway Adams, a former Invaders defender says about a recording with the commonality of laypeople sharing its genius and masterstroke of musicality.  Adams refers to the orchestration of harmonically tuned pans, how it fits to the eminence of a soloist – trained by a prodigy who mastered his scales in 1890s Siberia.

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Trinidad - Government has scored a victory over the rights to the steelpan, as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has revoked previous applications for the patent of this country's national instrument, Legal Affairs Minister Peter Taylor says.

Speaking at the post-Cabinet press conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, yesterday, Taylor said Government would now be taking steps to patent the G-pan over the nest two to three weeks.

He explained that in 1999 and 2004, applications were made by persons in the US to patent the steelpan and the cycle of fifths steelpan. These applications were granted and after it came to the attention of this Government, they were legally challenged. .

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In the Summer of 2005 When Steel Talks had the honor of watching New Dimension Steel Orchestra from Grenada as they prepared for the 2005 World Steelband Music Festival, held that year at Madison Square Garden in New York.  Most fortunately for us, New Dimension performing “Poets and Peasants” Overture was captured by Basement Recordings.  This beautiful recording is our ‘Steelband Music Video of the Week.’   

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New York - One of the stalwart music organizations in New York City - Sesame Flyers Steel Orchestra - presented the third in it’s bi-annual concert series “Sesame Flyers Pan Extravaganza” this past Memorial weekend on Friday May 24. Unlike the rain that heralded 2006’s show, the weather cooperated superbly, but then that is what is most welcome on any holiday weekend.

For those patrons who were in attendance, sweet pan is what was advertised, and that is exactly what was served up on the musical menu.

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Trinidad - Pan in the 21st Century Finals 2008 has been released on DVD.

Under the title “The Art of Pan III”, the DVD features the twelve (12) finalists in the Conventional Band category performing their competition pieces.

“The diversity and musical range of these steel orchestras mesmerized the audience with renditions which include “My My My”, “No One”, “We Just Don’t Care”, “When You Tell Me That You Love Me” and other favourites.”

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Everything seems to be “in a timing” for Jazz musician Leon “Foster” Thomas - from his chance romance with the steelpan – to his application to university – to his recent performance before United States Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama at Bank Atlantic Center, Florida.

From the age of three, the young Foster was already making his presence felt on the cultural landscape on the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago with the Katumba Drummers led by his late father Loderick “Rollo” Foster.

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Canada - Sudbury just got a bit more multicultural -- musically.

On Saturday, with a click of an electric garage opener, Sudbury's first Steel Pan Academy was opened. Located at 200 Simon Lake Rd., it will start taking students during the second week of July for six-week lesson blocks.

The steel pan is the only acoustic, non-electric instrument invented in the 20th century. The pan, as it is called, is the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago and is strongly associated with calypso, as well as other Caribbean and international music styles.

"I've been playing the pan for 40 years. All my life," said artistic director Sadiyq Abidullah Muhammed

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Trinidad -  The much–anticipated WeBeat Five ah Side steelpan competition produced some fierce rivalry among the six finalists at the St. James Amphitheatre on Thursday night.

Each side had to play any one of Super Blue’s (Austin Lyons) tunes for five minutes. The objective was to play the tune primarily in calypso tempo, but other rhythms could have been used. The players were also expected to use dress and dance to enhance their presentation and any innovative gimmicks, to entertain and evoke crowd reaction.

The first band to do just that was Family and Friends Steel Ensemble.

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Herkimer, N.Y. -- The Herkimer Elementary Steel Drum Band will be able to get some new equipment. State Senator James Seward announced Monday the band will receive a $10,000 senate grant for new steel drums.

Senator Seward also took a quick lesson from some of the band members. Herkimer Elementary is the only school in the county that has a band like this. It could cost at least a $1,000 to replace each drum and this grant will allow the music program to expand.

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Port-of-Spain, Trinidad - THE NATION must honour its legends and veterans of the steel pan industry while they are still alive. This was the call made by members of the Witco Desperadoes steel band as they gathered yesterday at Despers Pan Theatre in Laventille to say a final farewell to bass man Frank “Crawl” Finlay.

Finlay, 66, who played nine bass with the Desperadoes steel band for over 40 years, died instantly last Sunday when the car in which he was a passenger was struck by a police panel van under the Freeport flyover.

Members of the steel band paid tribute to Finlay by playing a number of songs at the well-attended funeral.

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United Kingdom -  The BASFDF 9th annual Pan Explosion held at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, Surrey on Saturday the 31st May 2008 was certainly blessed with lots of warm weather coupled with a high standard of steelband music. Pannists as young as seven (7) competed against their older counterparts for the Ensembles title. The overall winner on the night was steelband music as the versatility of the instrument and dexterity of its players certainly treated the audience to a musical explosion of steelpan music.

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Trinidad -  For the third consecutive year, Codrington Pan Family appearing as Codrington 5 proved that they are the undisputed 5Ah Side Steelpan champions.

The family steelpan ensemble from East Dry River wowed both judges and audience with their exciting performance of “Soca Baptist” at last night’s WeBeat Pan Explosion held at the St. James Amphitheatre, Western Main Road.

Not only did Codrington 5 capture the top prize of $10,000. sponsored by Mega Brite, but they also took home The Anthony Williams Trophy and NLCB‘s $2000 award for the Best Presentation making a clean sweep.

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Washington D.C. - When Steel Talks took off down the I95 highway on a very special assignment.  Today we would get to see, meet and hear the performance of a group of talented young people from the Navajo Nation - who among other things have incorporated the steelpan instrument as a major part of their repertoire.  The name of their group is the Church Rock Academy Elementary School Steel Drum Band.

The group traveled from Gallup, New Mexico to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC to be part of the museum’s performance events series, and performed in the Potomac Atrium, where native instruments, drums, percussions and Steelpan instruments were laid out and awaiting coming to life under the hands of the musicians.  The young musicians from Church Rock Academy of the Navajo Nation gave a musical and ethnic insight into their cultural experience to the audience gathered for their performance at the National Native American Museum.

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Panama - A performance at the Caribbean Shop in St. James, last April culminated in one of Icewater Pan Ensemble’s most memorable series of performances to date. His Excellency Prof. Gerardo Maloney, Ambassador to Panama, was present at dinner that night, to hear Icewater dish out samplings of their sumptuous repertoire.  Prof. Maloney summarily introduced himself to the band, and the rest is history; the history of an invitation to Panama as guests of the Consejo Nacional De La Etnia Negra, to perform at the 3^rd Annual Afro–Panamanian Festival.

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New York - I write these words with a heavy heart.

On Sunday 8th June 11, 2008 a good friend of mine informed me that my long time friend Crawl had died in a vehicular accident, I was in total shock when I got the news.

Frank Findley more famously known as “Crawl” came to Trinidad in the early sixties and we became friends immediately. Crawl was always an exciting individual, in his teenage years he was always well dressed and in those days he was considered a ‘Saga boy’ a term fondly used in those days to describe a so-called ladies man, and used to woo the ladies and aggravate the men with his special walk hereby which he got his now–famous name.

He was a member of the ‘Silk Hats’ a group of boys in those days that were admired by their peers for their spunk and courage.  He always showed an interest in the steelband which was in its evolutionary stage at that time, he always like the challenged of the bass because of the number of pans to be played.

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Kingstown, St. Vincent & the Grenadines - After years of alcohol abuse, one of North Leeward’s better all round entertainers is finally where he wants to be.

After his band Pan Power opened the festivities to mark the launch of the 2008 North Leeward Carnival, Inford “King Olo” Tucker sat down with SEARCHLIGHT for an exclusive interview.

Tucker was born into a musical family. His father, Henry Tucker, played the guitar, saxophone and clarinet throughout St Vincent during the 50s and 60s. Before the age of five, Olo was playing the guitar. Olo also plays the organ and steel pan and is a noted composer and calypsonian; he won the 1971 South Leeward calypso crown.

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Canada - The Steel Pan Academy of Greater Sudbury will hold its grand opening Saturday at 2 p. m. at the corner of Kathleen Street and Simon Lake Road in Naughton.

It is an organization to teach music and develop the art of playing the steel pan. The steel pan is the only acoustic, non-electric instrument invented in the twentieth century.

It is the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago and is strongly associated with Calypso.

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Maryland - It only gets better with time.  And after ten years, it was replete with steelband music presentations ripe for enjoying.  PanMasters’ 10^th Anniversary Steelband Jamboree in North Brentwood, Maryland has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and on Sunday 25 May was a fitting tribute to the evolution of the event over time.

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Trinidad - Frank "Crawl" Findley was pure poetry in motion.  His effortless movements hid even the most difficult passages from the unanimated eyes.  He mesmerized, fascinated and hypnotized us with his marriage with the nine bass. 

Crawl played the instrument like it was meant to be played. Few have ever commanded the touch and sound he got from the bass pan.  Crawl was one of the all time greats.  In a word he was the player young players were told to watch and emulate.

An active performing member of the legendary Desperadoes from since their glory years, Crawl is one of the original members.

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New York - To expect success, one must experience success.  And in this regard Sesame Flyers International (SFI) has created the foundation and vehicle where their young people can experience the phenomena of accomplishment and progress.  And every two years Sesame Flyers hosts its Steelband Extravaganza production to showcase their young people’ progress.

  There is nothing that validates a vision, a plan and campaign like success.  And in this regard the community of central Brooklyn was treated to a very special moment when the aspirations, investment in people, resources and time come full circle and manifest in a celebration of that triumph.

Sesame Flyers held their 2008 steelpan Extravaganza this past Memorial weekend.  A musical extravaganza it was, as it featured some of Brooklyn, New York’s finest music talent.  On the card were New York champions Sonatas Steel Orchestra, Steel Sensation, Sesame Flyers Steel Orchestra and special performances by panist Andy Akio and Caribbean music giant Pelham Goddard.

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Trinidad - A Port of Spain panman on his way to join a beach lime in south Trinidad was killed on the highway yesterday, when his car was rear-ended by a police vehicle.

Frank Findley, 65, died at the Chaguanas Health Centre, where he and three injured friends were taken.

The officers in the police sports utility vehicle were not injured.

The fatal crash occurred at around 9 a.m.

Findley lived at Mt Hope with a step daughter. He was a talented pan tuner and bass player for the Witco Desperados.

According to friends, he was in the back seat of a Nissan Sentra heading south on the highway when there was a torrential downpour.

The driver of the car, Bertrand Glasgow, said he stopped under the Chase Village overpass because he was unable to drive safely.

Minutes later, his car was struck from behind.

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Trinidad - Panman, the new feature-length dramatic film about a steelpan soloist and composer struggling to make his mark with pan in St Maarten, is making the rounds of US film festivals starting in a few days.

Many writers and actors might have such dreams but few managed to translate their dreams into reality. Valz, that's Sir Ian Valz, knighted in 2006 by the Dutch Queen for his services to Dutch culture as one of the most successful playwrights, actors, and radio personalities in the Dutch St Maarten where Valz emigrated in 1984.

But it wasn't about Dutch culture that Valz envisioned his movie. "I wanted to do a film about the struggles of a Caribbean artist and pan," he noted.

Valz told the BBC last fall, "It's about a steel pan player who is trying to promote steel pan on the island. He's a sort of an icon on the island but he hasn't been very successful in getting the youth involved in 'Pan' and this on an island where the steel pan was not really a priority" The pannist Harry Daniel is dedicated to his art. In the film he wins a solo pan contest in Trinidad only to return to St Maarten to struggle to support himself with his art. He is so dedicated to pan that his marriage and family suffer as does his relationship with his best student.

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New York - The main attraction glistened under the spotlights directed at the stage.  The theater doors swung open – then, the undeniable and familiar sound of the energetic voices of children’s chatter, and the patter of hundreds of little feet marching in droves, came through.  Bright–eyed and bushy–tailed, they poured into the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, from various schools within New York City’s (NYC’s) public school system.  Their awed ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ could be heard as they were ushered to their seats with eyes affixed on the day’s main attraction – the steelpan music instrument family.

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Baltimore, USA - The Baltimore Education and Cultural Institute (BECI) will host its eighth (8) annual Harbor View Festival and Pan on the Move competition from Friday July 11th thru Sunday July 13th, 2008. On Friday, tapping into last year’s success, we again present our Kaiso Showcase where calypsonians from Orlando, New York, Canada and the surrounding local areas entertain our audience with some good vintage calypsos. On Saturday, by special request, we have reinitiated our street parade. From noon to 2:30 pm we will have costume masqueraders parading the streets of Cherry Hill for our mile-and-a-half journey to Reedbird Park.

The highlight of the weekend is our “Pan on the Move” competition. So far this year we have registered 12 bands to compete for the coveted Carlos Lezama Challenge Trophy.

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Maryland - It was a splendid day for the PanMasters Steelband Organization’s 10th Anniversary Steel Band Jamboree. There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun beamed its beautiful rays into De Panyard at Webster Street and Rhode Island Ave in North Brentwood, Maryland. The Jamboree, sponsored by the Gateway CDC (Community Development Corporation) embodied the spirit of Bob Marley’s call for “One Love”.

Mr. Marcus V. Adams, President of PanMasters Steelband Organization, related, “The purpose of the PanMasters’ Steel Band Jamboree is to showcase Caribbean culture with Pan as the main emblem within the community. We try our best to bring people young and old showcasing Pan as a measure of unity and one love.”

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Trinidad - The legendary Casablanca Steel Orchestra is trying to revive its past success by introducing a number of vocational courses designed to create the next generation of the band. From July 1 to 31 from 10 am to 1 pm, the band, located at 31 Belmont, Circular Road, Belmont will be conducting individual and class instruction and jazz workshops.

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