Trinidad and Tobago Steelband Panorama and Carnival Schedule 2017

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Complete Trinidad and Tobago 2017 National Panorama competition schedule. All rounds - preliminary, semi-finals and finals.
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Web Posted - Saturday December 31, 2016
When Steel Talks

Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. - Is it a strike (by players) or is it a boycott (by bands) that is looming like a massive storm, with the potential magnitude to forever change the face of the prestigious annual steelband music competition of Trinidad & Tobago, known as Panorama? Depending on your point of view and who you talk to it is neither, both, or one or the other. Regardless - all is not right in the land of Pan. This has been a season of discontent.

Normally this the point in the year when drums of steel begin to rumble on the twin-islands of Trinidad and Tobago while shaking the earth into a powerful, harmonious and joyful dance with its people, while iron men simultaneously rattle ancient rhythms that allow direct communication with the Gods - all through its pulsating, Calypso/Soca music. Indeed, this event has a special spiritual component that cannot be explained by ordinary means. But not so this year - thus far. The melodies are in the wrong key and the rhythm is clearly out of time. Panorama, the greatest musical competition and expression of culture on the planet is in serious jeopardy of not happening.
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Web Posted - Saturday December 31, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Einstein Brown, born in Trinidad & Tobago - home of the Steelband and Calypso, has emerged as one of the most talented and versatile entertainers in the Steelband movement. He started his career in the panyards playing with multiple Steelbands such as Invaders, Phase II and Woodbrook Modernaires to mention a few.

He has introduced the ‘Steelpans’ to a variety of music, ranging from Calypso, Jazz, Hip Hop, Reggae and Pop, whether performing solo or with his band Sapadilla, his music is a Caribbean fusion explosion.  For the 2017 Panorama season, Einstein Brown vocalizes ‘Carnival Sweet.’
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Web Posted - Friday December 30, 2016
When Steel Talks

Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. - “It was a two-fold celebration when the Trinidad & Tobago Chinese Steel Ensemble (TTCSE) hosted its Christmas and Appreciation get-together at its band house, 34 McDonald Street, Woodbrook, on the evening of Thursday 22 December.

The steelpan ensemble celebrating its tenth anniversary has created a name for itself performing at many cultural events over the years both locally and internationally.

....At Thursday’s function, guests including The Ambassador’s wife, Mrs. Kang Xiaolei and representatives of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, members of the business community, band members and awardees, were treated to live entertainment and a traditional Christmas menu.
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Web Posted - Thursday December 29, 2016
When Steel Talks

Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. - In what can only be described as a total lack of confidence in Pan Trinbago to represent the interests of the players of the steelpan instrument - the players themselves have decided to take matters into their own hands. Brewing for months now, has been the massive discontent; the pan musicians and Pan Trinbago have been on a collision path.

There has been no shortage of words by the Trinidad and Tobago steelpan community articulating their anger, frustration and displeasure with Pan Trinbago, the governing body of Pan in Trinidad and Tobago. In what many have described as a blatant display of gross disrespect by the organization, to date these musicians have not been paid for their participation in the 2016 Panorama competition - while the 2017 Panorama is mere weeks away.
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Web Posted - Tuesday December 27, 2016
Brooklyn Paper

  Trans-Caribbean orchestra! group plays Christmas songs on steel pan drums

New York, USA -  Christmas music never had this much rhythm.

The Blenman Steel Sounds orchestra played steel pan renditions of holiday music at Kings County Hospital Center on Dec. 21. Crowds of guests, staff, and visitors surrounded the lively band — composed of mostly women who are senior citizens — to dance along and sing. The music was so up-beat that it even made care-givers do a better job, one said.

“This is the best thing they could’ve done,” said Rosalind Hardy, an employee at the hospital. “Sometimes we have a down day or the energy is extremely down that day — but this type of music lifts us up and that way when we deal with visitors we are more cheerful, they enjoy it that way. When they come to us we don’t have to worry about have attitudes.”

And music itself offers it’s own health benefits, according to the band’s musical director.
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Web Posted - Tuesday December 27, 2016
When Steel Talks

NOW OR NEVER PANMEN WISE UP

Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. - “Personally I have no confidence in the president. He cannot take us forward with total break down in communication, lies about panmen money, lies about documents com...ing in from NCC etc...... All of them taking us for fools.. We have to stand up NOW OR NEVER PANMEN WISE UP. NO $$$ N0 PANORAMA .. All of them should go...”
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Web Posted - Thursday December 22, 2016
When Steel Talks

Simply one of the world’s best

Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. - The Steelpan community remembers the great Wallace Austin on his passing.

....Tributes pour in from all over the world singing praises to one of the world’s best steelpan tuners.
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Web Posted - Thursday December 22, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Born in the Caribbean twin islands of Trinidad & Tobago (T&T), Jimmy Chambers traveled to England with great expectations of being a successful singer and has since realised that ambition.

From 2012 Jimmy has written several songs for Panorama over the years.

For the upcoming season he has re-worked a previous release, “Blows - Redux,” co-written with pal and drummer Tony Mason; the track is featured here.
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Web Posted - Wednesday December 21, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Edwin Ayoung or “Crazy” was born Edwin Ayoung in 1944, on Maraval Road in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

A brilliant double-entendre artiste at its best - Ayoung has delighted in pushing the envelope in his humorous and witty manner.

He’s been ranked in the top three for Trinidad & Tobago’s annual national calypso monarch competition.

“Crazy” has already been heard from for the season on several songs; but there’s always room for more from the man, so this track is one such - written by Gregory “GB” Ballantyne, it’s called “Pokemon Blues.”
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Web Posted - Monday December 19, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Songwriter and co-producer Jovan James is the musical heavyweight behind the wildly-popular ‘Good Morning’  brought to life by Barbados-based, internationally-renowned performing artist Peter Ram.  Ram, on the musical map with the iconic ditty ‘Woman By My Side’ and much more - has had the entire region rocking to ‘Good Morning’ since the 2016 Crop Over festival in Barbados. 

With the track’s appeal continually expanding, James and Ram unleashed the ‘Trinbago’ version as it shows no sign of slowing down.

Add to that, at least three steel orchestras in the ‘Home of Pan’, Trinidad & Tobago, have officially opted for ‘Good Morning’ as their tune of choice for Panorama 2017 - and that list can grow.  On board presently competing with the captivating song are:  Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra, San City Steel Symphony and Our Boys Steel Orchestra.
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Web Posted - Saturday December 17, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Since 1984, “Keet Styla” formerly known as “Designer” has been working with renowned panists and pan composers/arrangers such as Ken “Professor” Philmore, Ray Holman, Robert Greenidge and Earl Brooks - as well as well-known musicians.

He is in his usual exemplary vocal element in “Girls From The Hill” released for the 2017 Panorama season and composed by Alston Jack.
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Web Posted - Friday December 16, 2016
When Steel Talks

Tropicalfete Steel Pan Ensemble performs

Brooklyn, New York, USA - Multicultural art, non-profit organization Tropicalfete, Inc. is excited once again to unveil their annual year-end event presentation. This season’s offering is billed as ‘A Musical Gift to the Community - Tropicalfete Count Down’ and features Tropicalfete’s Steel Pan Ensemble. Date is Sunday December 18, showtime - 4:30 p.m. The Brooklyn Music School Playhouse at #126 St. Felix Street in Brooklyn, New York (between Lafayette Avenue and Hanson Place) is the venue.

....Attendees are also scheduled to be treated to other cultural art forms such as dance, theater, mas and stilt walkers.
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Web Posted - Saturday December 10, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Derrick’s repertoire of music includes soca, calypso, chutney and parang. His vocal contributions for Panorama competition include recordings such as: Hooray, Pan in Paradise, and Pan Eviction. In keeping with his dedicated support for the steelpan, Derrick has now delivered Asami - a solid contribution for the 2017 Panorama competition.

“Asami” was composed to panegyrize Asami Nagakiya (1985–2016) - the Japanese national and panist who would regularly leave Japan and travel to Trinidad to perform in the Panorama.
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Web Posted - Sunday December 4, 2016
The Jamaica Gleaner

  Religion & Culture | The enduring soul of pan

New York, USA -  There was time in Trinidad and Tobago's history when the economically blighted and cursed were associated with pan music.

There was a time in that country's history when your middle-class parents warned you: "Pan is an anathema better ignored lest you be condemned as uncouth and uneducated."

But as Ricardo Greenaway took the stage in New York you became aware of how much time has changed. Yes, the lounge brimmed with anticipation as something transformative was about happen. His was more than a spirited sound. It was the spirit and of the soul of pan on display.
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Web Posted - Sunday December 4, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - By the time the 1940 Bases for Destroyers agreement1 between the United States and Great Britain was finally enacted in 1941, World War II was in full swing. In this pact (which was actually signed in the previous year) the United States had agreed to supply the U.K. with fifty mothballed destroyers in exchange for land leases throughout Britain’s Atlantic colonies. An increasingly concerned U.S.A. was beginning to wade into the war in earnest. And by the end of 1941, when they were attacked at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese navy, the Americans finally jumped into the global conflict with both feet. A formerly hesitant American population was now calling for blood. Hundreds of American military bases were constructed throughout the Caribbean to defend the strategic ports of the Americas, most importantly the Panama Canal. Some two hundred and twenty-five bases would be built in Trinidad & Tobago alone, for Trinidad was the largest petroleum refinery in all the British Empire and located crucially at the Atlantic gateway to Latin America. The influx of over a hundred thousand American servicemen to staff the bases increased the population of T&T by a third in the four years it would take to end the war.

The Americans brought with them a kit of cultural boons, economic benefits, and social problems, and they brought these to an island colony that, like Felix the Cat’s bag, was far bigger on the inside than on the outside. On their military maps, the colony seemed little more than a speck, but once arrived at Point-à-Pierre, Fort Read, or Chaguaramas, a soldier or sailor from Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas or Oklahoma might be shocked to find himself surrounded not only by a great sea on one side and a great ocean on the other, not only by the trolleys and department stores of Port-of-Spain on one side and tropical jungle, swamp or dry forest on the other, but also by ‘Hindoos,’ ‘Mohammedans’ and Roman Catholics of all stripes and pigmentations, some of whom knew more about New York than he did—sometimes from personal experience. But the Americans also greatly expanded the view of the locals in myriad aspects of speech, terminologies, personal mannerisms, dress and social customs. Indeed, the close encounter with Americans would change Trinidad and Tobago culture forever.
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Web Posted - Friday December 2, 2016
Gillette News Records

  CCHS steel drum concert

Wyoming, USA - Under the direction of Campbell County High School band director Steve Schofield, the school's beginning, intermediate and advanced steel drum ensembles filled the CCHS North Campus auditorium with the sounds of the native instrument of Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday night.

Each group played a handful of songs, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music" and "Lornabarret" by Scott Johnson, which was played during the concert by both the intermediate and advanced bands individually.
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Web Posted - Friday December 2, 2016
When Steel Talks

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - As the reigning National Panorama Large Band Champions, the band has found the event to be an ideal opportunity for its members to express “an attitude of thanksgiving,” particularly ahead of the 2017 Panorama season. According to the Band’s Manager, Mr. Curtis Edwards, “it is also an attitude that our Executive wishes to nurture in the hearts and minds of the younger members in our junior and senior bands. Such a disposition goes a long way in sustaining peace and productivity in all communities and organisations.”
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Web Posted - Thursday December 1, 2016
When Steel Talks

Global - Composer and vocalist Tellison “Tello” Forde is making his mark a second time for the 2017 Panorama season with another ‘pan tune.’

With music lovers and pan patriots already familiar with National Panthem,  “Tello” is aiming for the ‘gut’ with this next track - Pan In Meh Belly, where he is joined on vocals by Debbie Haynes.
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When Steel Talks

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - All rounds - all categories at a glance... Large, Medium, Small, Junior and Single Pan Band.

Complete info and results for Trinidad and Tobago's Steelband Panorama 2016.  Check out the background story on some of your favorite steel orchestras and their arrangers, what selections they played, and more.
check results

Web Posted
When Steel Talks

Upcoming

Global  - Upcoming Steelpan music events from all over the world
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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.
click to hear and/or view