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Harmonites - Arranger - H. ‘Zorro’ Griffith, captain -
Bernard Stephen
The band is ten
years old and primarily a community band with young players
culled from the area of Babonneau, and functions with the
close involvement of parents. With a tutorial/practice
schedule on Saturday mornings from ten to twelve, year-round
the band is generally seventeen members strong and has a
performance circuit of hotels and general events in St.
Lucia, and for institutions such as the Tourist Board.
They have twice traveled to Martinique, and have also
performed in St. Lucia’s prestigious jazz festival.
For their first panorama appearance, the young people’s
enthusiasm was boundless. They pushed themselves
within the short time span of four weeks before the
panorama. When practiced ended at 2:00 AM, they would
plead to be allowed to run “one more.” Originally Harmonites was not at all considering competing in the 2008
panorama; instead their sights had been firmly set on 2009,
but with encouragement from people who thought they should
make some sort of statement and appear in the 2008
competition, plans were made to this end. Because of
the short runway, a relatively simple music piece was
selected as their tune choice. For the panorama, some
older retired pan players were prevailed upon and encouraged
to once more take up their pan sticks, rounding out the
final panorama compliment of about twenty-six players.
Emerald - Arranger and tuner - Guy Innocent
The orchestra has
been in existence for fifteen years, and started out with
students from secondary schools on the island.
Arranger Guy Innocent was a teacher at three schools, and
had taught the students for about five years. After
they graduated, he decided to continue the musical
relationship in the form of a band called Emerald Steel,
based on the colors of the three schools the students had
attended. For the 2008 panorama there were about
thirty-six to
forty players and Innocent said it was extremely ‘difficult’ to
field even that number, as some players stayed with the
orchestra, while others moved on. In the past Emerald
has competed with as many as fifty-five panists. This
year nine players from Trinidad were brought to St. Lucia to
bolster the panorama complement. The competition
allows for a maximum of fifteen “outside” players to be
included. Every year for panorama, Emerald is composed
primarily of students from the various schools where the
arranger teaches, and the age of the musicians ranges from
fifteen through eighteen. Innocent does double-duty as
the orchestra’s tuner, but acknowledged that it was
difficult to attract the interest of the younger generation
in that aspect of the steelpan artform. As Innocent
soldiers on, he has an equally committed sponsor in Busta, who pledge to continue their support of the orchestra
as long as possible.
Pantime - Arranger - Amrit Samaroo
The band’s first
panorama was in 2001 when they appeared with twenty-eight
players. Seven years later Pantime took the stage with
no less than seventy-three musicians. But founder/band
leader Cecil ‘Tortee’ Philgence noted that it is no easy
task, as only three of the seventy-plus strong
panorama side come from Gros Islet where the band is based.
During the panorama season, Philgence travels all over the
island to drop players home late at night after practice.
Still, it remains a labor of love. The band leader
deals with it, philosophically shrugs and moves on, saying
“I guess it is the tradition of the people in Gros Islet,
they don’t really like steelband; they see it as something
they’ve never been part of... but I guess we’re only
seven years [old]; but sooner or later they [players from Gros Islet] will come in.” Pantime returned to the
panorama arena in 2008, once more with Trinidadian arranger
Amrit Samaroo, and performed Pan Baby with music composed
by Samaroo.
Babonneau - Arranger - Allison Marquis
The panorama
representation of the band is currently down to forty-six
members after the breaking away of a small number of players
to form the group Harmonites, who had their first
panorama appearance in this year’s competition.
Marquis believes this has made Babonneau stronger.
“It made us leaner and meaner” Marquis declared after the
band’s performance. But he also voiced sincere hope
that Harmonites too, goes from strength to strength, so
“there will be two forces from Babonneau [to be reckoned
with]” come panorama time when they come up against the
other bands. In the meantime, Babonneau’s faithful and
stalwart supporter is Courts, who have been on board since
2000. Marquis thought the performance of his band for
the 2008 panorama was ‘fabulous’ and was very proud of his
players.
Diamond Steel - Arranger - Aimran
Simmonds
By, of, and for the
people - this is a band named by their fans when they were
first deciding on a name. “Diamond Steel” sounded
good, and they do not think they have gone wrong with that
choice. “...in fact it has brought us lots of luck and
fortune as well” says arranger Aimran Simmonds, touching on
the saying “Diamonds are Forever.” The band went on to
win several panoramas, and in fact when they entered their
first panorama back in 1971 they emerged victorious.
This is indeed a band of “firsts.” They were the
first steelband to play in a church in St. Lucia, the first
to record and the first to produce a CD. Diamond Steel
has been a popular staple at Dominica’s Creole festival for
the last four years, and has also participated in pan
festivals in Barbados. The band’s management is quite
pleased with its achievements to date, including their hat
trick in 2000, 2001, 2002, part of an overall stash of what
is now eleven national panorama titles. During the
year, Simmonds also performs as part of a six-piece band
called
Panergy on cruise ship lines such as Royal Caribbean and
Princess.
Back to the 2008 St. Lucia Panorama
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