Exodus manager Ainsworth Mohammed

Trinidad - In the first thirty seconds of conversation with When Steel Talks, Exodus' long-time manager Ainsworth Mohammed declared "We're going to win Panorama - people are upbeat!"  Their resident and panorama-winning arranger Pelham Goddard has finished the arrangement, and Ainsworth told When Steel Talks that only the introduction remains to be put in place.

Exodus is going to the competition arena this year with a composition by their arranger - We Jammin' Again - sung by Roger George.  In the recent past, the band had opted for selections penned and performed by other calypsonians; last year it was Destra Garcia's Max It Up.  For 2005, 2004 and 2003 it was De Fosto's music that got the nod each time; in fact Exodus were panorama champions in 2003 and 2004 with De Fosto's "Pandora" and "War 2004" respectively.  In 2006, Ainsworth Mohammed did not think that "the judges were open for the soca [Max it Up as a panorama selection] yet.  They weren't receptive to it." 

The orchestra is going into the semi-finals on February 4 (there are no preliminaries for large steelbands this year), with its full complement of one hundred and twenty players.  The number of musicians practicing nightly, which is the pool for the complement is down, though, from the usual high of about one hundred and fifty/sixty/ - to about one hundred and thirty-five.  Ainsworth noted that although Exodus is fielding the maximum number allowed, other large bands are not faring as well, and are having difficulty meeting even the minimum quota of ninety players.  He believes that the "uncertainties" relating to the carnival and panorama venues contributed to this present climate.

The Exodus manager says he is personally against the staging of the panorama finals in south Trinidad for 2007.  "I am a person for 'tradition'," he explained, adding his belief that Carnival and Panorama should be [held] at the savannah, and that there was no valid reason for "taking the panorama down to San Fernando at all...The grand stand is [still] up and the facilities are there..."  Ainsworth articulated further that he vacated his post as deputy NCC (National Carnival Commission) chairman on principled grounds for that same reason.  But as for the logistics of moving his entire one hundred and twenty-piece orchestra of players and instruments, Ainsworth says he really does not have a problem, as other bands have done it the other way [around, making their way north to the savannah].  "That really is not the issue...the issue is maintaining tradition."   Nonetheless, Ainsworth is encouraging "friends and visitors from abroad to come to the Carnival celebrations and to the Panorama...it's a fantastic show; it's a powerful show,"  and he would "really like to have the world in Trinidad & Tobago."

Contact Ainsworth Mohammed at:  ainsworthmoh@yahoo.com
 

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