When last you take dew in a panyard?

-


by Tillah Willah

Is when you ketch bout the fourth wind on a day that started at 5 a.m. and involved too many coffees and not enough food. Is then that the jumbie does guide your body to Radoes yard. Is just after 10 when you have to turn your face to the wall away from the band and the small but rapt audience because the sobs coming from deep in your belly. When last you was out your house so late? When last you take dew in a panyard? Is really two years? This panyard feeling like the dying moments of a fete, when you high on sleep deprivation and rum and you feeling so full of love and gratitude for life and that your knees make it through. The pan so sweet you want to rip the government mask off your face and scream out into the night 'Ogun is mih faddaaaaaa'


Desperadoes Steel Orchestra playing Lord Nelson's Party Tonight and Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise and this combination of songs is so apt and timely. And in the notes, in the grumbling bass, in the dancing of the players there is all your sorrow and relief and sweetness and grief of the last two years. Making it through only happened with the hope that these nights would come again.


#BlackHistoryMonth #SteelpanMusicExcellence #steelband

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A look at the new panyard under construction for Desperadoes Steel Orchestra by Sharmain Baboolal

-
Image
Here is an exclusive look at the TT$14 million panyard for the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra which has been homeless for several years, but which was gifted this piece of real estate at 25 Nelson Street in Port of Spain. When completed it will be the first steelband facility of its kind, anywhere in the world, occupying one and a half acres of land. Take a tour with me below: Under construction new Desperadoes Panyard
Read more

Dane Gulston - External Relations Officer of Pan Trinbago has resigned

-
Image
  Breaking News To: All Member Bands of Pan Trinbago Members of the National Community Date: November 5, 2021 Subject: End of “TERM OF OFFICE” I am writing to officially announce that my term of office as the constitutionally elected External Relations Officer of Pan Trinbago has ended effective October 27, 2021. When I was elected as the External Relations Officer Pan Trinbago, it was for the term October 28, 2018 – October 27, 2021. The election for that term was in compliance with the constitution of the organisation, and it was expected that all executive members elected at that time would either seek re-election in 2021, or leave office on time as required by the constitution. It is my understanding that the outgoing President Beverly Ramsey Moore and six members of the outgoing executive have gone rogue and refused to leave office. This follows an earlier announcement by the Secretary Denise Hernandez dated September 20, 2021 that the executive agreed that the constitutionally du
Read more

Remembering Lt. Joseph Nathaniel Griffith and TASPO

-
Image
by Roger Gibbs - Singer-Songwriter-Guitarist at Shak Shak Provided by and published with the expressed permission of, the author Lt. Joseph Nathaniel Griffith Joseph Nathaniel Griffith brought a vision and musical rigor to the steelband concept. In 1951, steelbands were basically rough musical percussion collectives, fit for street Carnival but little more. The top steelbands of the day were made up of a number of lead pans or ‘ping-pongs’. These lead pans played melodies in unison with limited alto versions adding a few harmony notes. The rest of the band was made up of biscuit tin drums with 2-3 notes each adding some basic lower parts and accompanied by an assorted percussion. The sound of this early steelband music was raucous, lively, spontaneous, polyphonic, polyrhythmic – but also very uneven in tones, lacking instrumental clarity and pitch, and with inconsistent balance and blend. Add to that, steelpan protagonists had reputations as hooligans and lawbreakers and were not consi
Read more

When Steel Talks extends condolences to the family and friends of Harry Belafonte

-
Image
  New York Times Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies; Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist Harry Belafonte, who stormed the pop charts and smashed racial barriers in the 1950s with his highly personal brand of folk music, and who went on to become a major force in the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 96. The cause was congestive heart failure, said Ken Sunshine, his longtime spokesman. At a time when segregation was still widespread and Black faces were still a rarity on screens large and small, Mr. Belafonte’s ascent to the upper echelon of show business was historic. He was not the first Black entertainer to transcend racial boundaries; Louis Armstrong, Ella F s he did, and for a few years no one in music, Black or white, was bigger. itzgerald and others had achieved stardom before him. But none had made as much of a splash a Born in Harlem to West Indian immigrants, he almost single-handedly ignited a craze for Caribbean mus
Read more

Patron of the Arts Artistic Bursary 2023 designed to assist aspiring panists across the Caribbean and beyond

-
Image
The Artistic Bursary 2023 award is designed to assist aspiring panists across the Caribbean and beyond in pursuing studies leading to the Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Performing Arts (BFA) with specialisation in Music (Steelpan) or the Advanced Pan Fellowship Program Certificate at The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).  The Award  The award will provide three (3) individual grants of USD$5000 to the first prize winner, USD$3000 to the second prize winner, and USD$2000 to the third prize winner. These amounts are to assist in covering the cost of tuition, travel, accommodation and course material for their first year of study.
Read more

When Steel Talks (WST) extends Happy Birthday greetings to scholar, educator, exceptional musician, music director and champion Panorama arranger James Clarkson

-
Image
James Clarkson   April 21st When Steel Talks extends Birthday Greetings to panist James Clarkson James Clarkson was born in Grenada on 21 April 1943 and has had a distinguished lifelong career in music with early exposure at the age of 12. He later joined the band of the Royal Grenada Police Force, appeared on stage with his father’s band, and by 17 was a member of the band of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force as lead arranger and first trumpet player. By 23 years of age, he was the Director of Music of the band of the Royal Grenada Police Force, and soon became the arranger for the very successful Republic Bank Angel Harps Steel Orchestra , a post he still holds today. The Officers and Ranks of the Royal, Grenada Police Force (R.G.P.F.) take this opportunity to thank Commissioner James Clarkson OBE, QPM, Lmus, F. Sci, for his invaluable contribution to to the R.G.P.F and to wish him a healthy and productive retirement. James Clarkson with daughter Ayana  Panorama Championships Gr
Read more

PRESS CONFERENCE Hosted by PAN TRINBAGO MEMBER BANDS November 9, 2021

-
Image
  MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL MEDIA OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO PRESS CONFERENCE – Newtown Playboys Pan Theatre Hosted by PAN TRINBAGO MEMBER BANDS November 9, 2021 Our purpose today is to present a balanced view of the current circumstances within Pan Trinbago, and to highlight acts of violations of Pan Trinbago’s Constitution committed by the Beverley Ramsey Moore led Executive during their term of office. The entire constitution document is available for review at  https://www.pantrinbago.co.tt/Overview/TheConstitution.aspx . Presenting below are excerpts of current and relevant circumstances affecting the operation of Pan Trinbago. Pan Trinbago Constitution dated 1986 states: ARTICLE 7 – STRUCTURE - The organizational structure of the Association shall be composed of: a. The General Body b. The Central Executive Committee c. Regional Committees PART A. THE GENERAL BODY i. The General Body shall consist of all classes of members of the Association. ii. Each member steelband shall elect two (
Read more