Georgia, USA - Unity Christian School’s steel drum band is preparing for a trip to Greensboro, N.C., for the international convention of the Association of Christian Schools International.

The band will perform three times for the convention, which is expected to draw about 3,000 people. The students’ first performance will be for the opening of the general session, and they also will perform during a parade of nations and at the program’s offertory.

The steel drum band’s invitation to play for this event was extended as a result of last year’s visit form the accreditation committee. The committee noted the high quality of performance and director Bill King’s incorporation of the school’s mission emphasis into the program.
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Trinidad, W.I. - It's an instrument for all seasons. But not everyone sees it that way.

Pan in September? For many this is still an unusual occurrence. However, with the launch of Panyard Sensations 2008, the Tourism Development Company Ltd (TDC), and Pan Trinbago Incorporated are hoping to change the view that pan music is reserved for the Carnival season.

Panyard Sensations seeks to highlight the country's national instrument, and has found that the best place to do this was in the panyard.

"The rustic charm of the panyard is unique and is an integral part of this instrument's history. [It is] a place of innovation and creation and we want people to experience that as well," Angela Fox, Media and Communications liaison at Pan Trinbago Incorporated, said.
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New York, USA - While CASYM (Caribbean American Sports & Cultural Youth Movement, Inc.) is better known internationally for the accomplishments of its world class steel orchestra, there is no doubt the group has always been much more than just a stellar music organization. CASYM is now celebrating its 25^th year of existence and is at a serious crossroad. With mounting issues and obstacles to their continued existence and future, CASYM decided to become proactive in meeting these challenges and surmounting hurdles.

On Saturday September 27^th CASYM held a special closed session at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together the untapped notable minds of a small group of friends, associates, and past members of CASYM with a host of skills, information and working connections, as part of a “think tank” to set up the path to problem-solving a host of issues that currently threaten the organization’s growth and future. The meeting was chaired by Glenda Cadogan and moderated by Nandi Ogunlade.
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St. Vincent & the Grenadines - The ‘Pan against Crime’ program resumes this Sunday with a concert in Layou, featuring performances from a number of local steel orchestras.

According to a release from the Police Force, the event will take place at the Layou Hard Court from 4:30 PM.

Performances will come from the Layou Government and Buccament Bay Secondary Schools, New Generation Gospel Band, Shanelle McKenzie, Potential Rythmix Steel Orchestra and the Police Band.
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Trinidad - A friend ask me, what he thought was a simple question, and when I answer him, he vex with mih. He say I too controversial for he. So I must be a robot. I must not think for myself. I must think what they want me to think, and say only what they want to hear. The man asked mih, what I think of the 2008 – 2009 budget presentation by the Minister of Finance Karen Nunez – Tesheira, in the house of Representative of Trinidad and Tobago?

And my answer to him was, Black Stalin could scarce have said it better when he sang Mr. Divider. Where he stated the fact that “Oil money come, and Oil money go, yet Black People remain on Pavements and Ghettoes

I have listened to Trinbagonian at every walk of life, comment and complain about the adverse effects this budget would have on them. I shear their sentiments, and felt a deeper sense of hurt as some one with in the bowels of culture.
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New York, USA - The pan community was hit again with bad news about one of our own. Junior “Man” Samuel, Captain and Leader of D’Radoes Steel Orchestra was struck down by a massive heart attack last Friday.  After being rushed to Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn, New York for emergency surgery, “Man,” remarkably and thankfully has pulled through. 

The pan community has come out in full force to wish Man a speedy recovery. This is one of the great examples when we all pull together in support of one of our own.

Junior “Man” Samuel has been at the helm of D’Radoes Steel Orchestra since 2002 when some members of Despers USA seceded, forming D’Radoes Steel Orchestra.  With the late master musician and arranger Clive Bradley taking them to the annual New York panorama from 2002 through 2005 until Bradley’s passing, Samuel has guided the band through several credible panorama showings, its best being in 2005 with D’Radoes performance Bradley’s arrangement of Johnny King’s Darlin’.  The band placed second in the New York Panorama that year.

 “Man” is now resting comfortably at his home in Brooklyn, New York, supported by wife Ingrid and surrounded by the New York pan community, and is already even planning for next year’s Panorama season (you cannot keep a true panman down!).  We at When Steel Talks wish “Man” a complete recovery.

Sesame Flyers Steel Orchestra - Just days before Sesame Flyers take the stage for the 2008 New York steel orchestra panorama competition, Basement Recordings captures them in their yard. This is the fast version of their 2008 offering - "Hooked" - a Pelham Goddard arrangement. Sesame Flyers will go to capture sixth place in the competition.

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Trinidad, W.I. - Culture Minister Marlene McDonald is of the view that the acceptance of the newly invented Genesis pan or "G-pan" is growing.

In an interview with the Express at Naparima Bowl in San Fernando on Tuesday, McDonald said to the critics of the instrument that it's time for them to open their minds.

"I would like to think that we at the Ministry are champions in terms of developing innovative people," McDonald said.

"That is one of the pillars of Vision 2020 and I believe that we are doing our part.

"For those who criticise it (the G-pan), as we have seen in the newspapers, it's because they have not opened their minds and they are the ones who have not pushed pan."
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Trinidad, W.I. - In the 60s and 70s it was the pride of the South.

And its fame spread throughout the country and abroad when Guinness Cavaliers Steel Orchestra won the National Panorama Competition.

No other band from the South, except for Hatters, way back in 1977, has won the premier steelband contest since.

For Cavaliers' Lennox "Bobby" Mohammed those halcyon years have remained etched in his memory and he has always dreamed of reliving them.

Now Mohammed, who formed the now defunct 18-member band in 1961 and was its arranger, believes he has done just that - through a book and two CDs.

He said the band, unmatched in its time, had helped change the standard of steelband music, especially in Panorama competitions.
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United Kingdom - Putting schoolchildren and drums together might sound like a recipe for a headache to most people, but for pupils at the Hythe School in Egham Hythe, a special workshop was the chance to learn to play.

Year three and four pupils at the Thorpe Road school had a visit on Wednesday last week from Caribbean percussion workshop group, Dubz Steel Band which specialises in fun, educational and musical visits to schools.

The band members first talked to the children, explaining the origins of steel band music, then told them the names of the different drums, before performing a song.
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Trinidad, W.I. - THE EDITOR: It was gratifying to see that the steelband movement represented by three of the originators of the instrument past and present had been honoured in the Independence Day Honours. Better late than never, I suppose.

However one remark made afterwards caught my eye. Dr Finbar Fletcher was quoted as saying that ‘we need to effectively brand the steelpan with TT’.

At least 15 years ago, and on many occasions since, I have suggested that we place the pan with the crossed sticks on every postage stamp in the same manner as the Queen’s head is on the UK stamps. The postage stamp is the one item with the words Trinidad and Tobago on its face that is sent to more places and in greater numbers than any other ‘product’ that we produce, effectively branding the pan.
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Trinidad, W.I. - It was the sweetest sound of steelpan heard in the southland for some time when Pan Yard Sensations... A Tribute to Terry Joseph was held at China Gardens, Siparia, on September 20, 2008. The Siparia Deltones, along with Carlton Zanda and Friends, delivered an amazing combination of pan, keyboard, bass and guitar.

The show opened with the National Anthem, played by a tenor pannist of Deltones, followed by an invocation done by Paul Culley. Emcee for the evening Maurice Alexander welcomed on stage Ian Caesar and a representative of Pan Trinbago who gave a brief introduction about the show as well as the history of the Siparia Deltones.

The show had a late start which was more than made up for with several smooth performances by Deltones and Zanda’s Friends, with the audience dancing and clapping along.
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Trinidad, W.I. - On September 13, steelband music lovers and some foreign guests gathered for an advertised Merrytones Steel Orchestra concert in Diego Martin. Pan Trinbago, governing body of the world steelband movement, and Tourism Development Company (TDC) had collaborated to stage the event slated as one of a series of ‘Pan Yard Sensation’ concerts which would feature “A little bit ah dis….. ah little bit ah dat”.

Although it was not taking place at a panyard; the venue being the Diego Martin Boys RC School, that did not deter from the “sensation” aspect of things. The first quiet sensation was that the series was being done in tribute to deceased journalist and cultural activist Terry Joseph who conceptualised the ‘Pan Yard Sensation’ model. Unfortunately, very often, serious contributors and achievers are forgotten in T&T once they have passed on. Some are even left in oblivion while they are still alive.
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Trinidad, W.I. - "Somehow I sense that this is a propitious moment. Keith Smith once wrote a series of articles in the Tapia newspaper about Bertie Marshall which he called "Pan Is Mih Gyul." They were delightful pieces. I was so moved, I dared to make my first ever proposal to the pan community..." Lloyd Best at Pan Trinbago's Awards Ceremony, 2002, La Joya. We will come back to the rest of this speech which the then culture minister, Finbar Gangar, echoing the sentiments of the members of the pan movement described as the "best plan for pan". So much did he find it "perfect" in "every aspect" that he told the Express it would be adopted by the Culture Ministry with he, himself, monitoring the phases of its progress at every stage. But first, the founding times of the steelband innovator who, with Tony Williams and Brian Copeland, was awarded the Order of the Republic earlier this week.
click for:  Part 1

Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 2
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 3
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 4
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 5
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 6
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 7
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 8
Pan Is Mih Gyul:  Part 9

Trinidad, W.I. - For Republic Day this year, Pan Trinbago will once again be holding its annual boat ride to La Tinta.

The third edition of “All Aboard to La Tinta” on the Treasure Queen takes place on Wednesday from 10 am to 6 pm. Boarding commences one hour before departure.

Entertainment will be provided by Scorpion Pan Reflection and DJ Smooth.

The proceeds will go to the Sydney Gallop Benefit Fund which assists ailing pannists.
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New York - It's that time of the year again when we spill the beans on all matters impacting the New York steelpan music community. This year's report card highlights many of the great things that are happening in the NY pan music community, and it also focuses on many of the disheartening and troubling issues that threaten to destroy the existence of this vibrant community and its continued contribution to the greater New York performing arts landscape.

Yes, there were a few people who got a well earned ‘Z’ grade. The truth is - we would have given them lower grades if we could.
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New York - What initially looked to be a grey Saturday just prior to Labor Day, co-operated beautifully for the annual New York Steelband panorama by the time the first three bands scheduled to compete, and the patrons, filed into the grounds behind the Brooklyn Museum for the 2008 Panorama. For the patrons, their point of entry was changed over from its usual Washington Avenue spot, to the Eastern Parkway driveway at the side of the museum.  Only the performers, their steelband racks and instruments were allowed in on Washington Avenue. With construction trailers occupying part of the museum grounds where the bands would normally line up one behind the other, only two to three orchestras at any one time were set up fully. Meanwhile, others awaited their turn to enter, encamped on Union and President Streets across from the museum.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The Diego Martin Boys’ RC School, located on Church Street, Diego Martin, was filled with the sweet melodious sounds of steelband music on Saturday evening, as the seventh annual Panyard Sensations kicked off it’s opening night with a bang.

The event, done in tribute to the late cultural icon Terry Joseph, and hosted by the Tourism Development Company Ltd (TDC) in conjunction with Pan Trinbago, commenced promptly at 8.30 pm. The young players of the Diego Martin Boys’ RC School Steel Orchestra set the tone for the evening with a commendable performance of ABBA’s I Have a Dream.
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United Kingdom - Melody, Chords, Chorus, Verse, Bridges, Syncopating Rhythms and the Circle of Fifths. Steelband music is very infectious and the virus is being spread at a fast and furious rate, so much so that we are hoping that it may soon reach global epidemic status. This artform is now firmly rooted into the fabric of multicultural Britain.

2008 sees the UK steelband community celebrating the 31st anniversary of the Notting Hill Panorma, ‘Champions of Steel’ competition. From its inception in 1978, this iconic competition has grown in stature and has now attained the status as being the official start of the Notting Hill Carnival celebrations. Its move to Hyde Park, the heart of the world’s most diverse capital was the biggest transformation of this competition and marks another milestone of its achievement.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Pan songs are rolling out the studios, faster than a speeding bullet. And one that’s out of the boxes early is the talented singer/songwriter Anthony Johnson, whose Get Down made my Top Ten List earlier this year.

Anthony is hoping that Just Right will be right for panmen on 2009.

Another singer out of the boxes early with the first of several pan songs is the loveable lunatic, Crazy. His Pan Wisdom debuted last week on the airwaves and should raise eyebrows musically.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Three youth steel orchestras will be featured in concert at the Eric Williams Plaza, Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, this evening, from 4pm

PCS Starlift Youth Groove, bpTT Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra and St Margaret Boys’ Steel Orchestra will each perform for 40 minutes.

The youth pan sides are made up of young people aged from seven to late teens.
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Trinidad, W.I. - This weekend Pan Yard Sensations shifts to South Trinidad.

The popular steelpan concert series, a joint production of the Tourism Development Company Ltd (TDC) and Pan Trinbago, will feature host bands Pan Elders and Siparia Deltones in the South; and, West Side Symphony and Steel Xplosion in Tobago, simultaneously.

On Friday night, Pan Elders will present its programme at the TCL Group Skiffle Bunch Panyard, Coffee Street, San Fernando, while West Side Symphony’s will be staged at its panyard, Patience Hill, Tobago.

Golden Hands Steel Orchestra, Dennis Smith, TCL Group Skiffle Bunch, El Drago International, Dennis Smith, Gasparillo Tamboo Bamboo Specialists, Natalie Alexander and Dennis Smith will appear at Pan Elders.
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New York -For the past two decades in what has become a treasured New York tradition, Basement Recordings has been bringing the best in recording technology to the panyards, with the express purpose of capturing the music performances of the steel orchestras at their best.  And moreover, listening audiences are subsequently presented with accurate representations of how world-class steel orchestras actually sound.  In this regard Basement Recordings has often partnered with the leading manufacturers of music and recording technology like Yamaha, Sony, Mackie, AKG and many others to assure that steelbands are afforded the best recordings and remain ahead of the constantly changing technology curve.

This year Basement Recordings captured four steel orchestras in their yards - Sonatas, Pantonic, Sesame Flyers and Utopia Pan Soul.  Basement Recordings extends apologies to  all the other orchestras they were not able to cover this year.
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Trinidad, W.I. - In true Richard Thompson style, a virtually unknown 18-year-old pan arranger beat a star studded field, featuring Pelham Goddard, Ken Professor Philmore, Eddie Quarless, Addin Herbert and Yohan Popwell. Andre White, led lowly fancied, Long Island-based ADLIB Steelband to its first Panorama gold medal, with a scintillating arrangement of Amrit Samaroo’s Heat.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Mark 2008 as a golden year for pan. While the national instrument continues to be without a home, pan governing body Pan Trinbago has produced a plethora of events since this year’s Carnival celebrations.

A number of member bands, including Clico Sforzata and HCL Valley Harps have impressed with anniversary events, Panyard Sensations has been attracting large crowds on weekends, there’s an upcoming festival, as well as the 2K8 T&T Pan Jazz Festival, and Witco Desperadoes is in the process of producing a mega productions - The Hill Are Alive - for Christmas on the San Fernando Hill.
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Bermuda - There cannot be anyone in Bermuda who has not heard of or enjoyed steelpan music, be it here or abroad. The national instrument of Trinidad, steelpans have been a welcome part of our music scene for decades. Whether as a solo instrument or a full-blown band, the sound is as distinctive as it is beguiling.

Over the years, some Bermudians have learned to play the pans, particularly professional musicians, but compared to other instruments such as the piano and guitar, the numbers have not been great. With the inclusion of classes in some local schools, more of our children are being introduced to the art of steelpan playing.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Panyard Sensations 2008 got off to a great start at the Diego Martin Boys' RC School, Church Street, Diego Martin, on Saturday night.

Hosted by the governing body for steelpan, Pan Trinbago, and the Tourism Development Company Limited (TDC), the seventh edition is a tribute to former entertainment specialist and cultural icon Terry Joseph - and where better to start than his (Terry's) home town with a winning band in Merrytones.

With the theme "Rhythm to Reflect, Refresh and Revive", the event drew a sizeable audience which witnessed cultural expressions in song, dance and music.
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Trinidad, W.I. - In San Fernando, you can drink a Stag on Carib Street, and within the space of less than 50 feet, find two steelbands — Pan Elders and Antillean All Stars — nestling at the bottom of the San Fernando Hill.

Come September 20, the Pan Elders Steel Orchestra will be climbing up to the top of the Hill to be part of the 2008 San Fernando Jazz Festival. That, for a pretty young side, can be considered an achievement of grandeur. In the first place, they are now considered by some of the southern pan pundits to be San Fernando’s “best” steelband. There are, of course, other arguments for SkiffleFon.

The birth of Pan Elders is worth telling in vignette form. Its humble beginnings came out of drinking glasses in Gems recreation club on Carib Street. The rest is pretty recent history post-1998. But you couldn’t forget names such as Godfrey Camps, Mervyn Cruickshank, Anthony Farrell, Rajendra Bhagirath, Cyril Smith, Ronnie Williams, Christopher Branker, Victor Sammy and Boyie Grant. These pioneers came from defunct steelbands in San Fernando.
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Trinidad, W.I. - People who know me well know that I have been acutely averse to attending funerals since my mother’s eight years ago, but I had to draw on all my resolve and attend the sending off of my childhood friend Edme “Gazo” Gibbons last Saturday morning.

Claimed by many to be one of the largest turnouts at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Port-of-Spain, matched perhaps by only those of Witco Desperadoes legend Rudolph Charles and Prison Services commissioner Mike Hercules, having filled every seat and standing space inside the cathedral, mourners spilled out into the parking lot and on the roadway.

Gazo was eulogised by his nephew Kerry Gibbons and celebrant Fr Clyde Harvey, both giving the congregation an intimate insight into the personality and life of the much loved senior licensing officer. There were also musical tributes by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, arranger of Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove, the Woodbrook steel orchestra Gazo once captained, saxophonist Auburn Wiltshire and Phase II.  
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North Carolina, USA. - The Steely Pan Steel Band at Appalachian State University presents its annual fall concert Friday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. in Farthing Auditorium. Admission is $7 and tickets are available at the auditorium box office. Proceeds from the concert will be used to purchase equipment and to assist with travel for the band.

Under the director of Scott Meister, a professor in Appalachian’s Hayes School of Music, the band is known for transforming gospel, classical and other compositions into works for steel drums and percussion.

The performance will feature a gospel composition arranged by Meister and performed by the band and the Appalachian Gospel Choir.
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Trinidad, W.I. - Congratulations to the recipients of the nation's highest award - Anthony Williams, Bertie Marshall and Prof Brian Copeland.

The awards to Tony and Bertie seemed as a mere PR gimmick in order to keep members of the steelpan fraternity quiet after their outcry when Prof Copeland's name was announced long before. But what about Dr Ellie Mannette?

Ellie Mannette was a member and head tuner of the 1951 TASPO steelband that went to Britain. He was the first to use a 55-gallon drum instead of biscuit tins, he was the person to sink the drum into a concave shape, thus having more space to place notes as well as achieving a better isolation between different pitches. His use of the whole tone scale on two resonating bodies has become a widely common standard. He introduced rubber-tipped playing to reduce the harsh impact of wood on metal.
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Durham, U.K.  - Greenfield Community and Arts Centre have fundraised to buy their own steel pans and they are being delivered this autumn. So we are now able to start our steel pans project again.

The FREE sessions will start on Monday nights from 22nd September in Studio2 at The Arts Centre at 3.30-4.45pm. Everyone is welcome even if you have never played before.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The 2008 HCL Valley Harps Music Summer Camp ended with a graduation ceremony and performances by the children in the programme.

The Steelpan and Music Education Classes programme ran from July 21 and concluded on August 29 at the band’s pan theatre. This year’s programme attracted more than 40 participants between the ages of four years to 16 years..

They were trained in the rudiments of music theory and fundamental steel orchestral techniques to facilitate sound musicianship, which culminated with learning and performing three songs all under the guidance of Michelle Huggins-Watts.   
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New York, USA - Mr. Rudolph “Crabby” Edwards passed away at his Laventille home, in Trinidad, W.I.,  on Wednesday September 3rd 2008, after a lengthy illness.  “Crabby”, as he was called in the pan world, was 79 years of age.  He was the oldest of the men who are still alive, that started with the prenames of Desperadoes back in the mid 1940's.  Crabby was an iron percussionist of the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra.  He had stopped playing in 2005 due to his illness.  
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New York, USA - When a male has hate and disrespect for women you begin to wonder if he has or had ever known the love of a mother, grandmother, maybe an aunt? I often wonder about men who abuse women, if they are test tube babies? This may cause that lack of feeling and caring for people, not just women.

Roy Pierre, why do you have such hate and disrespect for women? You were abusive, belligerent, disrespectful, and verbally abusive to me. It was an innocent and unprovoked incident which caused you to verbally abuse me.
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New York, USA - When Steel Talks (WST) has traveled all over the world visiting panyards and pan folks. Our experiences have generally been outstanding. Everyone, from the giants (Greenidge, Holman, ‘Smooth’, Bradley, Samaroo, Goddard, Birch, Boogsie, Blake, Narell, and others) in pan, to the latest newcomers, have shown us nothing but respect and love. It is this love, and spirit of community, that fuel us.

The worst experience for any personnel of When Steel Talks took place this summer in the panyard of New York’s Harmony Steel Orchestra. A well-known steelpan personality associated with Harmony either lost his mind, or entered into an altered state... and proceeded to verbally abuse a WST staff member without any cause.

This incident showed that there still remains a fading remnant of the steelpan community that still believes they can define their manhood - or lack thereof - by disrespecting, bullying or ignoring women.

It was a classless, cowardly, and unprofessional display, and overall a spiritually disheartening panyard visit. The experience does not effect us - WST is judged by our history and work. However we would like to know how a youth-oriented organization like Harmony explains away this behavior.
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Trinidad, WI. - ....The exploitative political embrace is all part of the self-declared greatness of Trinidad and Tobago. Carnival is the "greatest show on earth" but it has no permanent home. Pan is the only musical invention of the 20th century but "where pan reach"? The panyards are left like the buildings of QRC, to fend for themselves. No house and land for accomplished steel orchestras, many of who have no security of tenure of their yards.

Compare the treatment of Neville Jules, All Stars great, once again ignored, and just reach Professor Copeland. Jules began his work in 1945, in the time of Zigilee, and has produced musical work continuously, up to and including the present day. He pioneered the development of the family of pans playing in orchestral mode.
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Trinidad, W.I. -  Edme Gibbons certainly touched the lives of people in all walks of life. These words came from the manager of Phase ll Pan Groove, Errol Skerritt, during the funeral service for Gibbons at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

“Everyone knew that Gibbons was a limer, but it is clear that he has gained a lot of respect from those who knew him,” Skerritt said.

Gibbons, of Coral Gardens in Diamond Vale, Diego Martin, a former captain of Phase II, died instantly when the car he was driving plunged into the sea, just off Mucurapo foreshore, on August 31.

The manager of Phase II Pan Groove also said that as a tribute to Gibbons, “we have to do well in Panorama 2009.

“His death has come on a trilogy, in that 24 hours before he died, Wayne Assing, another member, died in New York, and three weeks before, Dexter Wilson passed away,” Skerritt continued.
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Trinidad, W.I. - For the first time that I can remember, there was an objection to the announcement of a pending National Award to a person. Usually, we have a long list of persons whom we feel should have received awards, but did not. But this year there was an objection to the pre-announced award of the new Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to Professor Brian Copeland for his work in the development of the “G-Pan”. And the objection came from “no less a person” than the President of Pan Trinbago himself— Patrick Arnold.

So, when on Independence Day, we saw the announcements that veteran steelband developers Tony Williams and Bertie Marshall also received the new version of our country’s highest award, we needed to ask: How come? Surely if Pan Trinbago had nominated these two gentlemen as recipients, Mr Arnold would not have condemned the pending award to Professor Copeland. So, who nominated Messrs Williams and Marshall? And indeed, when?
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New York, USA - It was already quite light in the sky as the 2008 New York J’Ouvert celebrations got underway in Brooklyn.

New York’s J’Ouvert is a perfect study of storytelling, performing arts (drama, dancing, music performance, tradition and theater) with a live and interactive audience. It is Broadway on the road - real theater, for the masses, by the masses, and with the masses.
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Trinidad, W.I. -  The 2008 Skiffle Bunch Summer Pan Programme ended with an awards ceremony and performances by the participants in the programme. The pan programme, held on August 4-28, at the TCL Group Skiffle Bunch Panyard, on Coffee Street, San Fernando, attracted more than 150 young people.

The graduation ceremony began with the National Anthem performed by Joshua Regrello, an opening prayer and a welcome by Chloe Perrotte. It continued with performances by TCL Skiffle Tiny Bunch; TCL Little Bunch and TCL Junior Bunch, plus debut performances by the participants of the summer programme and presentation of certificates.

Tutors made a few remarks about what was no doubt an enjoyable and rewarding task, certificates were presented, and votes of thanks were made by parents of grads for all three levels of the pan programme.
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Trinidad, W.I. - It is an open secret in Pan circles that Tony Williams and Bertie Marshall received the highest national award to ward off widespread resentment that the Prime Minister was determined to give it to Professor Copeland, come drought or flood. After all since last year, Manning announced that Copeland would receive the award which had not yet been named. So much for national awards! Manning’s Medals, maybe! Tony Williams and Bertie Marshall were just camouflage.
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Go to WST’s facebook group for more info and videos

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Trinidad and Tobago’s steelbands focus each year on Panorama, the national steelband competition. But some bands are more adventurous. One such group is San Fernando’s young Golden Hands, who premiered a theatre piece, The Rainmakers, in January. That performance led to this youth group’s being invited to the annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Austin, Texas this November.

Based in San Fernando, with members aged from three to 19, Golden Hands came into existence a decade ago in the backyard of Franka Hills-Headley. She began the band as a vehicle to teach her own daughter Vanessa, who has become a leading young pan soloist and is starting to arrange and compose on her own. The band is made up of young people from her neighbourhood in San Fernando, and what was once a normal backyard has now grown into a serious panyard.
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Trinidad, W.I. - In a public notice on the "Order of the Republic" which has replaced the Trinity Cross as Trinidad and Tobago's top national award, the National Symbols and Observances Committee advised from the Prime Minister's Office:

"Music plays a most important part in shaping a culture and the steel pan has been particularly powerful in ours, since it was created here in this country and represents the most significant contribution to the world of new instruments in the last century. The circular configuration of the "pan" informs the overall shape of the award and its 12 notes represent the many social and cultural contributions to the life of this country made by its citizens, all of these having been distilled to create a harmonious whole."
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Nearlin Taitt enjoys the distinction of being famous for being not famous enough. Having created the sound of modern Jamaican music, Taitt is well known to cognoscenti as the musician who deserves more credit than he’s been given.

He has been the subject of a prize-winning documentary, Lynn Taitt: Rocksteady; and Lloyd Bradley, in his book This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica Music, points out: “Lynn Taitt is given the most credit as the man who consolidated the various musical advances and solidified the rocksteady style.”

Yet reggae historian and author of The Rough Guide to Reggae Steve Barrow describes him as “one of the great unsung heroes of Jamaican music.” And Wikipedia states: “Taitt’s contribution to Jamaican popular music includes his often-overlooked role as arranger and session leader for many, if not most of the recordings that he appeared on.”

Perhaps this is because Taitt is Trinidadian—born in 1934 in San Fernando—and cut his musical teeth as a panman (he was honoured by Pan Trinbago, the national steelband organisation, last year).

In the late 1940s Nearlin and his brother Cedric Taitt and the other boys of the neighbourhood hung around Bataan, a nearby steelband, until its leader Herman “Teddy” Clarke gave them a few old pans.

But Mrs Taitt threw the pans in the ravine, because in those days steelband was considered a form of delinquency. The boys recovered the pans and took them to the house of their friends Stephen, Angus and Kenrick Lalsingh. Mr Lalsingh threw them in the ravine, so the gang returned them to the Taitt home. And thus the band, now named Seabees after the John Wayne movie The Fighting Seabees, moved back and forth while fighting for acceptance.
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Trinidad, W.I. - There are some things that are synonymous with T&T—the sweet melodious sounds of steelpan music happens to be one of them.

It’s no secret that our national instrument has taken the world by storm. Back at home, however, some pan enthusiasts complain that all is not being done to protect and preserve what is indigenous to us. Are we guilty of taking the pan for granted?

Pan Trinbago: Time to get serious

Patrick Arnold, President of Pan Trinbago said international countries are forging ahead with developing the steelpan.

“I don’t think we really accept the pan as we should. What could be done isn’t being done. The infrastructure isn’t in place. Pan is being played in universities as far as Japan. We have an industry that could employ thousands, we are not capitalising on what we have invented.

“Pan Trinbago has written to the authorities since 1998 highlighting the problem.

“The pan was never patented so now it’s public domain.”
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Trinidad, W.I. - Independence Day was one of joy and sorrow for the nation’s panmen. Joy after three pioneers of the pan movement were given the nation’s highest award – the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. And sorrow, after former Phase II Pan Groove manager Edme Gibbons, died in an accident.

Gibbons, 50, of Coral Gardens, Diamond Vale in Diego Martin who was also a Licensing Officer for over 25 years, apparently drowned when his car crashed into the sea after running off the road at the Foreshore, Invaders Bay yesterday morning.

“The pan fraternity has been left in mourning following the death of one of our own...but at the same time, we are celebrating as our pan pioneers get ready to receive their awards tonight,” PanTrinbago president Patrick Arnold, stated yesterday when asked to comment on Gibbons’ death.

Arnold also extended condolences on behalf of the entire pan fraternity to the Gibbons family. He added that Gibbons was the third person to have died within the past two weeks from Phase II.
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New York - The New York Panorama event took place this weekend (August 30, 2008) behind the Brooklyn Museum. This weekend was historic. In an event where the best band was only a point better than the second best, it is hard for such a contest to not be considered controversial. Nonetheless it was historic, crowning the youngest steelpan arranger (Andre White) in the history of the event.

Quite frankly, the final result should not have been that close - ADLIB was way better on this night - not a point better. Not only was their arrangement superior than both CASYM and SONATAS, the execution was very precise especially in the melodic runs pulled out by the tenor pans.
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Trinidad, W.I. - National award recipient Professor Copeland last night revealed that plans are underway to establish a pan tuners’ guild to build and preserve the local steelpan industry. Copeland made this disclosure after making history with pan pioneers Anthony Williams and Betram “Bertie” Lloyd Marshall by becoming the first recipients of the country’s new highest award, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking after the National Awards ceremony at President’s House in St Ann’s, Copeland said:

“I am happy for this award. Especially for the project itself which quite frankly needs the support of our pan pioneers. I am really elated.” Stating that very few people in the country know about Marshall’s and Williams’ work, Copeland said: “The work that we are doing is an extension of the legacy that these gentlemen will leave behind. We have been thinking of the idea of putting up a tuner’s guild.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The Genesis Pan, now known more casually as the G-Pan, enriches the range of notes available to pan musicians playing the lead instrument in a steel orchestra. A traditional tenor pan offers players 29 notes over two and a half octaves, while the G-Pan expands the musical possibilities to 37 notes over four octaves.

The Genesis Pan, now known more casually as the G-Pan, enriches the range of notes available to pan musicians playing the lead instrument in a steel orchestra. A traditional tenor pan offers players 29 notes over two and a half octaves, while the G-Pan expands the musical possibilities to 37 notes over four octaves.
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Trinidad, W.I. - The steel band fraternity has been plunged into mourning, following the death, early yesterday, of a former captain of the Woodbrook-based Phase 11 Pan Groove.

Edme Gibbons, of Coral Gardens in Diamond Vale, Diego Martin, died instantly when the car which he was driving plunged into the sea just off the foreshore in Mucurapo.

Police said Gibbons, a senior licensing officer, was driving along the foreshore shortly after 5 am when he was struck from behind, lost control of the vehicle, and crashed into the sea.

Gibbons, who celebrated his 50th birthday two months ago, died on the spot.

Yesterday, family, relatives and friends gathered at late panman’s home, trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

Fondly called “Gazo” by members of the steel band movement, Gibbons’ death came as a great surprise, said Errol Skerritt, Phase 11’s manager.
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