Web Posted - Saturday April 30, 2022
When Steel Talks

PanoGrama 2022 Prelims span May 6–8: Order of Appearance and Tune Selections

Global - History was made on April 24, 2020, when the Inaugural PanoGrama became the first-ever online steelpan competition. Now, two years later, the stage is set for the competition’s third edition, which will see a total of nine countries represented. Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Canada, France, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and the USA, will all feature through twenty-four talented steel panists. Deja Cain of Trinidad & Tobago will be the first to perform.

See the order of appearance and song selections of the respective competitors in the preliminaries:
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Web Posted - Friday April 29, 2022
Loop News

Trade Minister meets with Japanese Ambassador

Ambassador Yutaka (right) plays the steelpan alongside Minister Gopee-Scoon following the courtesy call

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon, met with His Excellency Matsubara Yutaka, Ambassador of Japan on Wednesday April 27, where discussions centred on bolstering trade, business and investment relations between Trinidad and Tobago and Japan.

According to a media release, Ambassador Yutaka confirmed his commitment to deepening the bilateral relationship with a focus on strengthening cooperation in key areas including climate change, agriculture, technology and manufacturing.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 27, 2022
When Steel Talks

Remembering Joseph Nathaniel Griffith and TASPO

by Roger Gibbs

Joseph Nathaniel Griffith

Global - ....In 1951, TASPO hurriedly assembled the top tuners / players from various emerging steelbands in Trinidad and sent them to represent Trinidad & Tobago at the 1951 Festival of Britain Exhibition in London, U.K. TASPO members were all highly talented individuals worthy of high honour. Barely in their 20s, they were a few outstanding names – Ellie Mannette, Tony Williams, and of course, Winston ‘Spree’ Simon. What we do not generally know about this first initiative to represent Trinidad’s cultural identity internationally through the steelband, was that it was spearheaded by a Barbadian musical maestro – Joseph Griffith.
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Web Posted - Monday April 25, 2022
When Steel Talks

Meet Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts - The Grand Master of Calypso - UpClose!

a Von Martin Interview

Lord Kitchener

Global - “Lord Kitchener, affectionately known as “Kitch,” composed a wide range of topical songs on a variety of national and international issues. In “Africa My Home,” he reminded many Caribbeans about their own history.....

“....most important of all was Kitchener’s marriage of calypso with Trinidad’s other indigenous musical form, pan, music played on steel drums. He composed and sang songs to be played on the steel drums during Carnival season. In 1944 he composed his first pan calypso, “The Beat of the Steelband,” which initiated a wonderful alliance between the steel drum movement and the calypsonian.”  -- Von Martin

An exclusive Von Martin–interview with the iconic and legendary calypsonian Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts, one of the world’s greatest practitioner of the art form.
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Web Posted - Sunday April 24, 2022
When Steel Talks

Calypso’s “Kitch” of the Day

by Von Martin

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - ....If Aldwyn Roberts, the calypsonian known as Lord Kitchener, had been born in a metropolitan country instead of the island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, he might have been considered one of the greatest composers of this century.

But then he would not have contributed so much to calypso music. For more than 50 years, Lord Kitchener...gave calypso some of its wittiest and most infectious musical compositions.

Calypso, a genre grounded in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, is both poetry in music and editorial in song. Calypso songs praise or condemn their subjects. The lyrics tell of the life of the island’s people and echo the social activities of its leaders, prominent citizens and the average man on the street.
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Web Posted - Thursday April 21, 2022
Trinidad & Tobago Guardian

TTGPA denies evicting Woodbrook Playboyz

Woodbrook Playboyz members wait to be remove instruments under a tent after they were evicted from their Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook panyard on Wednesday

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - The Trinidad and Tobago Group of Professional Associations Limited (TTGPA) has denied claims that it evicted the Woodbrook Playboyz steelband from its former home on Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook.

Rather, the TTGPA said on Thursday that it engaged in private discussions with the steelband and made proposals to Woodbrook Playboyz to extend its stay at its former location.

However, it said that the proposals were not accepted, so it was mutually agreed between the parties that the band would relocate.

The band is now located temporarily at the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen compound at Mucurapo Road.

The TTGPA has leased #6 Fitzblackman Drive, where the band was previously housed, since the 1990s from the Port-of-Spain City Corporation.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 20, 2022
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Pan arranger, musician, educator Desmond Waithe dies

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Many who knew Desmond Waithe, 77, referred to him as “Uncle Desmond,” and so many mourned when news of his death was shared on Wednesday.

The noted steelband arranger, chorister, educator and University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) lecturer died on April 20 after a prolonged illness.

He was awarded the Humming Bird Medal (silver) in 1993 for outstanding contribution to music in TT. He is also well-known for his work with the Marionettes Chorale.

....Exodus manager Ainsworth Mohammed said he had lost more than a friend, but a brother.

...."Desmond’s relationship with Exodus is more than that too. Desmond was the founder of Exocubs, our junior music school.”

Mohammed recalled that Waithe was responsible for giving the music school its name.
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Web Posted - Friday April 15, 2022
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Kernal: “Give my father the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago” - Keeping Kitchener’s legacy alive

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - The achievements of Aldwyn “Kitchener” Roberts are many and widely known. Even as generations pass, many know the name Kitchener is of extreme importance to this country’s cultural identity and space. Given this, his son Kernal Roberts is calling for his father to be awarded the country’s highest honour: the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT).

Kitchener was awarded the Hummingbird Medal Silver in 1969. In 1994, he refused the Chaconia Gold Medal then stating that the people wished for him to receive the then Trinity Cross which was the country’s highest honour. Verification checks at The National Library and Information System of Trinidad and Tobago’s (Nalis) Heritage Library showed newspaper articles dated between 1993 and 1996 which called for Kitchener to be given the Trinity Cross.
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Web Posted - Friday April 15, 2022
Oxford Observer

Miami University Percussion Ensemble will perform April 18

Oxford, Ohio, USA - The Miami University Percussion Ensemble will perform 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 18, in Hall Auditorium

The group’s featured work is to be Andy Akiho’s “To Walk or Run in West Harlem,” set to be played among several other tracks that will also infuse contemporary and electronic elements alongside the traditional percussion performance. The concert can also be streamed through the Miami University Department of Music webpage.

The concert comes a week after many student percussionists joined musician Tracy Thornton for a performance by Pan Rocks, a steel drum group that covers popular rock music.
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Web Posted - Thursday April 14, 2022
Daily Herald

Wednesdays@ One to present ‘All Things Steelpan’ May 4 in St. Charles

Illinois, USA - On Wednesday, May 4, Liam Teague will explore "All Things Steelpan" at 1 p.m. in the Baker Community Center in St. Charles.

He will talk about the instrument's history, construction, development of variously “voiced” steelpan instruments, its place in modern music, education trends and music repertoire, among other topics. While often associated with the sunny music of the Caribbean, the steelpan is a remarkably versatile percussion instrument that has evolved to encompass a family of instruments capable of producing any genre of music.

....Teague, who directs the internationally renowned Northern Illinois University Steelband, will be assisted by members of the steelband in demonstrating the instruments and playing some representative musical selections.
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Web Posted - Monday April 11, 2022
SFA News

SFA’s Jacks of Steel to perform music of Trinidad, Tobago

The SFA Steelband aka Jacks of Steel in 2014

Nacogdoches, Texas, USA - The Jacks of Steel at Stephen F. Austin Stage University will present the traditional soca and calypso music of Trinidad and Tobago, along with versions of rock and pop songs with an island twist, when the student ensemble performs at 6 p.m. Monday, April 18, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

The spring concert will feature steel band favorites “Soca Pressure” and “Rant and Rave,” as well as “some popular songs that will be sure to make you sing along,” according to Dr. James Vilseck, SFA adjunct music faculty member and director of the Jacks of Steel. Soca stands for “soul of calypso.”
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Web Posted - Friday April 8, 2022
When Steel Talks

Nestor Sullivan aka ‘Solos’ or ‘Sully’

Eulogy

by Andre Moses

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - In an original, the pieces of the puzzle may often seem contrasting and fit themselves together in unique ways. Nestor Sullivan was a rebel, a make-it-happen-man, a revolutionary and a ‘limer’, a man of impatience and patience, a mentor whose example was powerful and inspiring, and yet reflective of his human frailties and his own journey of self-discovery. He was at the same time a leader and a team player, a man whose passion combined, selfish and selfless purpose, with a love that he could only express in his own way. Our brother Nestor was by any definition an original and we are all extremely privileged to have known him.
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Web Posted - Thursday April 7, 2022
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Darren Sheppard gets Commonwealth Point of Light award

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Queen Elizabeth II, as head of the Commonwealth, has recognised Darren Sheppard, representing TT, as the 220th Commonwealth Point of Light in honour of his exceptional voluntary service running pan music education programmes for young people and seniors, said a release from the British High Commission.

Sheppard, 49, leads Fonclaire Steel Orchestra, which has helped teach music and run education programmes for over 1,000 children in schools in south Trinidad. He has been a member for over 40 years, and has since founded numerous steel orchestras, both in TT and in Canada, where he has worked as a musician.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 6, 2022
WINN FM 98.9

St Kitts-Nevis to be represented at “Panograma” for the first time

St. Kitts and Nevis, W.I. - Aaron Mentos, a panist, bass guitarist and producer in the United States will be the first person to represent St Kitts and Nevis at the upcoming Panograma competition.

....The panist shared that he received his inspiration to play the pan and music in general from his dad.

....Mastering the steel pan started early for Mentos at the age of 5. Since then he has been in pursuit of technical excellence in the instrument which was first introduced to him by his father.

....The panist said preparations for Panograma are ongoing and are coming along quite well; but not without challenges, such as finding the right instrumental that he can add his own spin to, but sounds good to him. According to Mentos, his friend, local recording artist Dejour Alexander is assisting him in that regard.
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Web Posted - Saturday April 2, 2022
When Steel Talks - Reboot

An Opportunity Missed - The Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Steelband

Opinion - by Nestor Sullivan

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Trinidad and Tobago missed a golden opportunity to ‘sell’ steelband to the visiting heads of states who came for the 5th Summit of the Americas. Try to imagine the level of publicity that could have been generated if we had given a tenor pan, a stand, a case and a pair of sticks to each visiting head of state.

Look at the sudden rise in popularity of a book given by Mr. Chavez to Mr. Obama, it became an instant bestseller. All the front pages of our dailies carried a photo of the US president playing a batting stroke with his gift from Brian Lara.

These two incidents indicated to me that we are still a bit shy when it comes to our national instrument.
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Web Posted -Saturday April 2, 2022
When Steel Talks - Reboot

The Demise of the Steelband Panorama - and the Possible Solution

Opinion - by Nestor Sullivan

Global - This year, 2010, steelbands in England participating in the Panorama at the Notting Hill Carnival, played for free. That is, the bands received no monies for appearance fees or for prizes. It is reported that this was due to the economic melt-down now being experienced in that country.

In neighbouring Grenada and St. Lucia there were no steelband Panoramas this year. In both cases the lack of appropriate funding silenced the orchestras.

At the Panorama in Toronto’s Caribana celebrations, the bands have been playing for ‘bragging rights’ and little or no money for the past few years. It is anyone’s guess how long this will continue. Miami has now wiped out Panorama completely from the diary of carnival events in that city.
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Web Posted - Saturday April 2, 2022
When Steel Talks

Scholar, educator, administrator and panist Nestor Sullivan has passed

The end of an era

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Scholar, educator, administrator and panist Nestor Sullivan passed on Saturday April 2, 2022. He was born in San Juan, Trinidad and Tobago. He attended the St. Joseph Boys’ R.C. School, and later went on to attend St. Mary’s College, and subsequently Teacher’s Training College. At the tertiary level he obtained a Master of Arts in Carnival Studies at The University of Trinidad and Tobago - where his final research paper focused on ‘The Steelband Movement in Trinidad and Tobago: Fundamentals for Its Further Development’.
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Web Posted - February 2020
When Steel Talks

Complete Summary of Results of all Conventional Steel Orchestras - 2020 Trinidad & Tobago National Panorama

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - At a glance and on a single page, access the comprehensive summary of results for the Small, Medium and Large conventional steel orchestras that participated in their respective categories in the 2020 Panorama.

Follow the musical journey of respective bands through all three phases - compare side-by-side preliminaries, semi-finals and finals through data on band info, scores, tunes of choice and arrangers - on one page.
access full summary