A list of Trinidad and Tobago 2016 Carnival events and activities
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Web Posted - Saturday October 31, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Winston Scarborough is considered by many to be one of the all-time great composers of steelband ‘Panorama tunes.’

A performer artist himself, 2016 will mark the 38^th year that Trinidad & Tobago’s Winston Scarborough (The Original DeFosto Himself - as he loves to be called) has been singing calypsos.

For the 2016 steelband Panorama season “DeFosto” is back with the track ‘Lotto Plus.’
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Web Posted - Saturday October 31, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - In 2011, “De Panman” sang Pan Is Meh Drug composed by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and Alvin Daniell. 

In the 2014 Panorama season he came with Tornado. The track featured here, Ghost Pan, is composed by Barnett “Preacher” Henry and Carl “De Panman” Richards.
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Web Posted - Saturday October 31, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Winston Scarborough is considered by many to be one of the all-time great composers of steelband ‘Panorama tunes.’

A performer artist himself, 2016 will mark the 38^th year that Trinidad & Tobago’s Winston Scarborough (The Original DeFosto Himself - as he loves to be called) has been singing calypsos.

For the 2016 steelband Panorama season “DeFosto” is back with the track ‘D Greatest Invention.’
listen to tune

Web Posted - Thursday October 29, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Pan has become life for Michael Gabriel, composer of ‘Big Mama,’  the track featured here.

Gabriel toured Europe and North America with Casablanca, relocating to the USA in 1987. To date, the versatile Michael Gabriel is a composer, panist, producer, educator, pan tuner and vocalist. He goes back home to Trinidad and Tobago annually, playing with Phase II Pan Groove for Panorama.

In 2015, Gabriel was named Vice President of Casablanca Steel Orchestra and plans on arranging for Panorama 2016.”
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Web Posted - Thursday October 29, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - In 2005 he formed his own band named “KES the Band,” which consists of his two brothers, Hans (drummer), Jon (lead guitar), and his best friend Riad Boochoon (bass). They have released several albums with more than a dozen hits making it into the top 10 of major Caribbean charts.
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Web Posted - Wednesday October 28, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Joanne Foster was the 2013 Calypso Queen of Trinidad and Tobago - a title won singing ‘More Than An Oil Drum.’ Joanne first stepped into the entertainment spotlight in 1988 as a vibrant young teenager, immediately announcing her potential by being awarded ‘Best Soloist & Dancer’ at the San Fernando Arts Festival for Schools.

For the 2016 Panorama season, Joanne is in the musical spotlight with ‘Dem Judges,’ featured here.
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Listen to a playlist of Trinidad and Tobago 2016 Soca tunes for Carnival.
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Web Posted - Wednesday October 28, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Gerelle is an all-round entertainer and songwriter. She commits to using music to teach and tell stories of passion and culture. She is also the lead vocalist and Musical Director of her own band “Gerelle & The Gentlemen,” a Neo-Soul band out of Trinidad and Tobago.
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Web Posted - Tuesday October 27, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Errol started his own steel band at the age of 12 that played under the sobriquet “Bell Stars”. Throughout his youth, he played for several steel bands in Trinidad, including San Juan All Stars and East Side Symphony where he played the amplified tenor pan under the arranger Renrick Walker. He also tuned and arranged for the Public Transport Bus Company. Eventually Errol (The Mystery Man-The Singing Pan Man) came to the United States to pursue his music interest.
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Web Posted - Monday October 26, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Krisson Joseph, Programme Coordinator at UTT's Academy for the Performing Arts, completed his undergraduate work in both Business Management and Economics at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights and received his Master's Degree in Music Business at New York University's Steindhardt School in Greenwich Village. As a vocalist, Krisson's performance credits include Dimanche Gras 2014, jazz performances with Dave Marcellin, Raf Robertson and Theron Shaw as well as several performances with the UTT Musicians including a performance at The Tricycle Theatre in London commemorating Trinidad and Tobago's fifty year anniversary of Independence.
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Brooklyn, New York -  Four (4) members of Pan Trinbago’s Central Executive were re-elected at the Organization’s Fifth Triennial Special Convention and Annual General Meeting at The Radisson, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, on Sunday.
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Web Posted - Monday October 26, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - ‘Young And Free’ is more than a Panorama offering. It represents another landmark on a new musical trail being blazed by its composer and singer Vanessa Alexandra Headley and as she puts it her "pan colleagues".

The recording was produced with exquisite musical sensitivity by Raf Robertson. It "engaged the brave" - musicians, who, like Vanessa, have not only come out of the proverbial box, but have to totally obliterated it with their musical "grenades." This piece was composed with the youthful, highly-acclaimed steel orchestra, Golden Hands, in mind.
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Web Posted - Wednesday October 21, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Simeon Superville has been a composer from 2009 to the present. At this time he is also the captain of single pan band Stardust Steel Orchestra. Though it is “a little strenuous to do both - being a composer and captaining the band,” Superville says he still gives his best efforts, as a member of the band for a year to date. He also does a lot of ‘stage side’ music for Stardust as well.
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Web Posted - Wednesday October 21, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - With 2015 making it 15 years of devotion to the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, Nesta Boxill also known as “Sekon Sta” has become one of the most promising and multi-dimensional talents in the Soca Fraternity, boasting great contributions as a writer, performer and recording artist. Son to the deceased veteran artiste, Dennis Franklyn Williams; "Merchant", Sekon Sta not only has the dedication to the arts but a greater appreciation for the culture, having had a front seat to its inner workings from a very young age.
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Brooklyn, New York -  “Our Soul Turned Inside Out,” a documentary film that examines traditional Carnival characters created in the 19th century crucible of slavery and emancipation and the psychic impulses behind them, will have its New York premiere on Friday, October 30
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Web Posted - Tuesday October 20, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Edwin Ayoung or “Crazy” - born Edwin Ayoung in 1944, on Maraval Road in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad of a Venezuelan mother and Trinidadian father of Chinese descent, was - in his youth - as skilled and competitive in his country’s national pastime of cricket, as he has been now for years as a world-travelled musician, performing artist and composer.
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Web Posted - Tuesday October 20, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - The 2013 and 2014 seasons saw Trinidad All Stars opt again for his talents with Bounce and Drive, Excitement and Unquestionable when they went with those tracks as their tunes of choice. On the circuit once more for the 2016 Panorama season, Leave We Alone is one of Telemaque’s music works.
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Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Gerelle is an all-round entertainer and songwriter. She commits to using music to teach and tell stories of passion and culture. She is also the lead vocalist and Musical Director of her own band “Gerelle & The Gentlemen,” a Neo-Soul band out of Trinidad and Tobago.
listen to tune

Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Top vocalist Anslem Douglas represents Nostalgia in fine form. He has a profound vocal which is momentous to this track for the 2016 Panorama season, one where he has been in high demand for his talents. Douglas has already brought to life music of other composers in Soca Have Dem So and Sweet Lime Energy.
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Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - “After releasing my first song, Chords, for Panorama 2015, it was well received by listeners. It was also performed by Laventille Serenaders in the National Panorama Finals – Small Band Category. My song for Panorama 2016 is Pan Jumbie, featured here.
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Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - Juliet Robin is the daughter of former Trinidad & Tobago Director of Culture Melville Robin. She is classically trained in string, woodwind and keyboard instruments and specializes in the violin, clarinet and piano. At age 17 she was selected to represent Trinidad on a cultural trip to Venezuela to perform with the Caracas Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is the winner of several classes in the Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival, including those for composition.
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Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global -  
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Web Posted - Monday October 19, 2015
When Steel Talks

Global - The Grammy award-winning composer of “Who Let The Dogs Out” - Douglas’ vocal work has also brought alive such marquis ‘Pan Songs’ as Len “Boogsie” Sharpe’s Musical Vengeance, Battle Zone and It’s Showtime by Edwin Pouchet, and Brian “Bean” Griffith’s Big In De Dance, to name but a few over the last several years.

Here’s Anslem Douglas at musical work on ‘Sweet Lime Energy.’
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Web Posted - Thursday October 15, 2015
Trinidad and Tobago Guardian

Desperadoes reborn...

.....rejuvenation on Laventille Hill
 

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - As iconic steelbands Massy Trinidad All Stars and CAL Invaders celebrate their 80th and 75th anniversaries, respectively, in 2016 Desperadoes will celebrate 50 years of success in steelband competitions. The steel orchestra with the most national Panorama victories in its bushel, as well as three Steelband Music Festival championships, has embarked on a rejuvenation programme aimed at lifting the Laventille Hill steel orchestra to its former glory having lost some of its spark in recent years.

Desperadoes PRO Patricia Rock-Ross said this week: “Desperadoes recently elected a new management committee, its membership being a mix of relatively young members with a few of the elder heads. Our new manager is Curtis Edwards who comes with a wealth of experience in not just music, but in leadership as well. A past captain of Desperadoes and of his own band, Crescendoes, he is also a UWI grad in music.”
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Brooklyn, New York -  Thirty-one (31) persons have offered themselves to fill the nine (9) positions in Pan Trinbago’s Election of Officers when the Organization holds its Annual General Meeting/Triennial Convention on Sunday October 25th at the Radisson Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, from 10:00 am Of the nine offices, only one position is unopposed, that is Secretary, with the incumbent Richard Forteau as the sole nominee.
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Brooklyn, New York -  In spite of the hardships - the New York steelband music community once again distinguished itself, and displayed a body of musical works scored for the large steel orchestra and stage side that was on the cutting edge, progressive and moving - with global impact. Moreover they reaffirmed themselves as a musical force to be reckoned with on all levels with compositional creations and performances related to the steelpan instrument. In addition, other young distinguished New York steelband composers like Andy Akiho, Khuent Rose and Andre White continue to push the envelope and expectant norm with compositions and projects that encompass both the conventional and mixed ensemble, while simultaneously embracing traditional and experimental material.
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Web Posted
When Steel Talks

Upcoming

Global  - Upcoming Steelpan music events from all over the world
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Web Posted
When Steel Talks - Special

Champion Panorama Tunes of Trinidad and Tobago

Global - A critical component to winning any panorama competition is the song the orchestras choose to use as the basis of their panorama arrangements. Over the years these songs have inspired classic panorama arrangements. When Steel Talks invites you to take a look at and listen to, these famed tunes which have played more than just a cursory part in the history of Pan, and the lives of the players and fans.
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