When Steel Talks
was recently contacted by a well-known
steelpan music academic who expressed
some concern over certain tunes which
have been listed in the 2011 Pan Tunes
lineup.
The heading
“Panorama Tunes for 2011” simply means
the composer of the tune sent us written
confirmation, with the submission of
their music work(s), that they wanted
their tune to be considered by steel
orchestras for the global panorama
seasons of said year.
As to what
constitutes a panorama tune, that is
still up for debate. Is it musical
content and/or layout? Is it lyrical
content? Is it historical content that
relates to pan? Is it a tune written by
the band’s arranger? Or is a “pan tune”
simply a tune that a band has chosen to
play at panorama - no matter what the
reason?
If Desperadoes had
chosen “Discount”
instead of Benjai’s “Trini”
would it (Discount) now be considered a
legitimate panorama tune? In 2006
Exodus Steel Orchestra
chose the popular soca jam “Max
It Up” by Destra Garcia, and by all
accounts were severely punished, because
“Max It Up” was considered to not be a
‘legitimate’ tune for panorama.
However, Zanda took Siparia Deltones
with the very unconventional, “I’m Not
Drunk” to the panorama finals.
The late Clive
Bradley, made a name for himself
particularly in New York by choosing
tunes no one would dare to use or think
about using - for panorama. The result
was some of the greatest music
arrangements ever done for the steelpan
family of instruments. On the short
list, those that come to mind are -
Shadow’s “Dingolay”, “Horn”
and “Stranger”,
Andre Tanker’s “Ben
Lion”, Carl Jacob’s &
David Rudder’s “Trini
to D Bone”, Destra’s
“Celebrate”, Johnny
King’s “Darling”. And
just one panorama season ago,
Yohan Popwell took New York by
storm with the globally popular
arrangement of Miguel Reyes’
“Bandoleros.”
None of these songs can be considered
traditional “pan tunes”.
Incidentally, Clive
Bradley expressed to When Steel Talks on
numerous occasions, how much he
appreciated the ‘openness’ and
‘freeness’ of New York which did not
limit him, but instead allowed him to
arrange music he knew was not considered
“pan tunes” in Trinidad, but -
however brought out the passion of the
New York pan players, the true potential
of the steel orchestra phenomenon, and
the beauty and majesty of music played
by PAN.
One of Trinidad &
Tobago’s young soca stars who is herself
passionate about the steelpan art form, L’il Bitts, submitted to When Steel
Talks for the 2011 panorama season “We
Own the Night” offering
is probably considered not a traditional
pan tune -but it is firmly written
solely about the Panorama competition
itself!
Having said all this,
until - or if ever - there are some
definitive rules or criteria agreed upon
by all the major “parties” concerned -
When Steel Talks will not eliminate any
person’s submission, within reason. To
do so, could artificially hinder the
natural evolution of the Pan Tune Genre.
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