Moods Pan Groove - ‘Signal for Lara’ - Len “Boogsie” Sharpe - 1995
Moods Pan Groove 1995 panyard recording
Brooklyn, New York, USA - This is a special recording by Basement Recordings of the legendary Len “Boogsie” Sharpe’s arrangement of "Signal to Lara" - as performed by Moods Pan Groove in 1995. Over ninety musicians assembled on a Brooklyn Street in East New York to deliver this command performance - as they prepared for the 1995 New York Panorama just a couple of days before the event. The performance was captured with a 24bit digital recorder, one of the very few in the world at that time.
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“Goddammit! God-dam y′all bad...” These words, an emphatic and joyous declaration from the elderly Black American, heard shouting at the end of this recording, in a spontaneous outburst. It was in response to his first `live listening′ encounter with the works of the legendary Len “Boogsie” Sharpe as performed by Brooklyn′s Moods Pan Groove on the streets of Brooklyn.
The year is 1995 and the enigmatic Moods Pan Groove, a Brooklyn original, has taken up practice lodgings on the “dark side” of the `EL′ (elevated train line) along the border of Brownsville and East Flatbush.
Under the musical directive of “Boogsie,” the tune is “Signal to Lara.” Did we mention it was very dark there? Every steelband panyard was dark and unlit back then. New York City was not interested in providing lights or any sort of support. LOL. After all it was practically under the “El” and a block away from the Sutter Avenue train station. Back then it was the number `2′ to New Lots, not the `3′ as present day. If you are one of those deep listeners you can actually hear the train rumbling by from above. And if your hearing is above board you can hear the phase shift at high end caused by B47 buses every time one went by (or slowed to a crawl to take in the music).
“Behind God back,” as some would say. However, there was absolutely no doubt that Moods Pan Groove and Len “Boogsie” Sharpe are in direct communication, and walking, with - the gods, on this hot Summer night. The Brooklyn attitude is on full display. Not once does this orchestra drop its drive and edge. Nine months of Winter, eight-plus hours of your day job, and Rudy Giuliani lurking as the mayor will do that to a Brooklyn steel orchestra - turn a sweet candy into a bitter and sour Skittles. And of course NYPD was always in “Protect and Harass” mode - even in an area where there were no homes or people after sundown. And this was just the tip of the iceberg. In just a few years we would have the Steelband Raids of Brooklyn.
Some of the greatest music has been created in this type of hostile environment as this recording surely illustrates. It showcases the urgency of an era, the brilliance and resilience of a community under siege to maintain some semblance of its culture musically and artistically without scratching where they don't itch. Absolutely, “Yellow Birds” were not going to fly over these Brooklyn panyards. And if they attempted it, they probably would have been shot. LOL... Just listen to the intensity and seriousness of the engine room and pan players. Clearly, the times are reflected in the music.
Negatively impacted by the national push back to the civil rights movement - deliberately depressed and disenfranchised areas had been created and languished for decades; “benign neglect” is the phrase commonly used.
Before the threat of “Karen” and the renewed colonization of black urban neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Panyards were in abundance. And the original `hood′ residents were used to steel orchestras practicing into the night and wee wee hours of the morning - just as drum and bugle corps had years before them.
For decades before the rise of the great Brooklyn steel orchestras, these outstanding large drum and bugle corps were an integral part of all black neighborhoods and the black musical experience, particularly in Brooklyn. Icons, like the late Max Roach (Brooklyn), and Maurice White [Earth, Wind & Fire] (Memphis) - Billy Cobham [Mahavishnu] (Brooklyn), Omar Hakim [Weather Report] (Bronx), James ‘Diamond’ Williams [Ohio Players] - and more recently Jonathan Scales and Andy Ahkio - are among the many, many music notables who got their musical and percussion grounding in these music organizations. Indeed, the similarities and sense of purpose between the urban steel orchestras, and drum and bugle corps, are uncanny.
Leonardo Morrison:
“Inner City Drum Corps was very important to the community and individual growth of each Corps member. And Yes we were treated different in competition. But the Proudest times was when we would march in major parades in Brooklyn NY & NYC...the joy that was expressed on every black child was priceless. It was the motivating factor to keep representing the un-noticed and forgotten.
“I am really blessed for the four years that I spent in drum corps and the many friendships that were made along the way, many of which are still live and well today.”
Source: Facebook
Moods Pan Groove performs soon after in the 1995 New York
Panorama
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