To the panyards!

The main event for steel pan is the Panorama Finals on Saturday night of Carnival.  Quarterfinals and Semifinals have occurred in the past 2-3 weeks to winnow down to the 10 finalist bands, each with 100-120 players.  It's hard to imagine what a 120-player steel band looks or sounds like before you have seen one in person, and also hard to explain once you have.

In preparation for Saturday night's competition, the bands start moving their drums from their panyards to the Savannah via semis or platform trucks on Friday.  So Thursday night is their final rehearsal night in their usual practice spaces, and this is the night to go around and hear a bunch of bands at their practiced peak, and get a sneak preview of any 'surprise' adjustments they have made to their arrangements since the earlier rounds.

First up is Starlift, arranged this year by the great Robert Greenidge (more on him later).

A '7-bass', each drum has 3 notes on it, and 2 of those are typically octaves of each other - so on each there are 2 tones, a 4th or 5th apart.  They really are made of 55-gallon oil barrels, heated and pounded and tuned by hand to produce resonant tones.

A little information about the development of the steel pan, often described as the only acoustic instrument invented in the 20th century.  (these info photos are from a museum exhibition)

Note the "we don't.." sign - in the early days, steel bands were seen as gangs, and were often associated with violence (sometimes rightfully so).  Even into the '70s/'80s, my friend growing up was discouraged by some family members from trying to join a band and learn to play pan.

Unfortunately we were at Starlift too early in the evening, and a lot of their players were attending some other competition, so we didn't get to hear them play.  Next up is Phase II Pan Groove, 5-time winner arranged by the mad genius Len "Boogsie" Sharpe.

They were just starting up full band rehearsal.  That's over 100 people in there, arranged as a packed rectangle with this as the front.  Here is a panorama shot..

And here is a video I took walking around the perimeter of the band.  Most of what you see here are various variations of bass pans, though you can hear the upper pans, and see them across the front at the end of the video.  In the middle, on the raised platform, is the percussion section, with drum set, congas, cowbells, timbales, and 3 'iron' players, playing actual brake drums from old cars.  They were learning a new section that Boogsie decided to change (2 days before Finals), so that's why they are playing the same 8 chords looped over and over.  Most players don't read sheet music, and it's usually not available anyway - parts are taught by rote, first by the arranger to a small set of section leads, and then by them to the members of their sections.  If you listen to the Phase II Finals performance recording, this section they are working in this video flies by in about 10 seconds.

Next we hit the Silver Stars panyard, just in time to hear them do a full runthrough of their tune "We are the Conquerors".  You can see the line of basses extending back along the left, some high-mounted white basses in back, and a line of 3- or 4-drum 'guitar' pans raised up along the right edge.  All the single- and double-pan players in the front center section are crouched down, part of the choreography they did in some sections.  They use two drum set players!  Their arranger is Liam Teague, an amazing, virtuousic pan player from T&T who also directs the steel pan program at Northern Illinois University.

These are quad pans, with two pans at waist level and two mounted in front of the player.  A steel band's sections and pan types can be compared to a choir's SATB, where each one contains about 2 octaves' worth of notes, in a different range.  These sets would be like the Tenor voice.

The 2-pan sets are like the Alto voice, either 'double seconds' (which typically strum, filling out the chords with repeated rhythms) or 'double tenors' (which tend to play or support the melody).  I would guess there are about 40 doubles players here, and there is a section of single pan 'tenor' players (highest range, usually melody) standing closer together, straight ahead in the background.

Some panyards didn't allow any type of recording - I wasn't sure about this one, so I didn't hold my camera high, and didn't get much to look at.  But, please have a listen.  This is the sound that comes out of a 120-piece Panorama band.  We happened to catch Renegades rehearsing one of my favorite moments of all the Panorama songs we would see, this crazy triplet breakdown and reentry.  See if you can tap your foot through the percussion drop-out, it stays in 4/4, really!

Renegades are one of the 5 bands playing another of the season's big socas, "Good Morning", arranged by yet another amazing Trini pan player and composer, Duvone Stewart.  The mural is of Jit Samaroo, long time arranger for Renegades, and one of the all-time greats.

Jit and the Renegades won 9 titles in the '80s and '90s, when some of the most legendary and inventive tunes were being arranged.  His "Pan in A Minor" is the most famous, often played in steel bands all over the world, but my favorites include "Mystery Band" and "Bee's Melody"..  He wrote guitar pan solo variations that just powerful and sinister, and went on forever!  He passed a few years ago, but his son Amrit is also a great arranger, this year with the Supernovas.

While on the subject of Jit Samaroo and his family, here is one of my favorite videos of them.  Something is in their water, or in their gene pool, but every one of them is an extraordinary player and musician.  I'll never get over how easy and relaxed they make it seem, to play some of the most difficult and complex stuff that fast, that cleanly!