Rough photos by tojo the Night Spectator at the Music Festival
© Islands Research Ltd
| Steelband EVENTS 2000 |  |
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| WSMF 2000 | |
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| Rough View 2 Rough photos by tojo the Night Spectator at the Music Festival © Islands Research Ltd |
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THE FINAL NIGHT |
| Near the Beginning 21st October, 2000 |
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| The Final Arena. Looking West. The Jean Pierre Complex, Wrightson Road, Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad The Original De Fosto Himself Winston Scarborough - Minutely red - Begins the evenings musical show with his 2000 calypso Pan For Ever More. The song had earned De Fosto 2nd place in the 2000 Pan Kaiso finals, and he had dedicated it in tribute to the late Merchant who had worked with him on the song. Merchant was responsible for that calypso classic Pan in Danger (1985). |
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The set of the Steelbands (West side - far) BWIA Ebony, Northern Illinois University Steel Band, TCL Group Skiffle Bunch and Exodus. (East side - near) BWIA Invaders, Steel Pan Lovers, T&T Defence Force Steel Orchestra and PANch 2000. |
| The Original De Fosto Himself, Winston Scarborough, rises to the ocassion to sing with gusto, without musical backing following a technical hitch, to the only full house in all of this WSMF 2000 concert series. |  |
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| The Steelbands SHOWN IN ORDER OF APPEARENCE Northern Illinois University Steel Band |
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| Northern Illinois University Steel Band USA - North America NIU had the unenviable position of starting the grand finale of the WSMF 2000 competition, that is, from a point of view with respect to the Panorama paranoid steelbands of T&T. Providently unaffected by so prosaic an ailment, this visitor band widely travelled both in the US and China, boldly stamped its authority on the proceedings with two sizzling performances that were to hold their own throughout the show, set the standard and opened the ears of the uninitiated to the wealth and breadth of musical excellence to which our steel drum instruments have risen, to meet this new and challenging millennium. Beginning with a calypso Pan 2000, written and arranged specifically for pan by Clifford Alexis, this ~42 member band, composed principally of music students, many of whom are specialists of percussive instruments, awakened the audience with a dynamic and rhythmic offering, replete with pan solos, the likes of which were decidedly familiar yet obviously foreign. And all supported by the players use of a musical score. DeKalb Illinois, this University bands home, being a good step removed from that direct link with the Caribbean in New York, USA, provided a style of music that broached calypso, jazz and contemporary young underground in a fusion of marvellous effect. But this was just the entire. To those of us who had heard it all before, through the preliminaries and the semi-finals, we were still being surprised by changes in content and a rise in the standard of performance that was becoming unimaginable. |
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Northern Illinois University Steel Band USA - North America DeKalb, Illinois Led by Clifford Alexis Start the show. |
| NIU's Uganden Amadinda and other traditional African drums out front. |
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| The wooden amadinda or huge Xylophone type instrument of Uganda, awaited at the head of the band, together with a number of differently sized skinned drums of African origin. Starting with a rhythmic clap, that was taken up by all members of the band, Wood and Steel composed by Robert Chapell began to unfold at an unhurried pace. Again in this unfamiliar style of fusion, middle passages on pan began to develop monotonically and grow to a larger sound. Passages developed in counter melody until the band was full to the bass. The base lines were sounding like slap-electric. The band moved in dynamics and through solos. Then to a change of mood to the wood and skins saw a gradual diminishing of the steel as members stepped out to the front of the band to take up the drums. |  |
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| It flowed to the drummers. After a bit of that the amadinda wailed in a melodinda of three voices with three players, two on one side, one on the other, striking its wooden bars at the ends with large sticks. Melodic rhythms moved to term to be passed back to the drums, and then back to the steel of the band. Some of the larger skinned drums remained active throughout. Later, two went back to the amadinda. The amadinda wailed its rhythms and the band faded entirely. Then the ‘dinda beaters beat their sticks against their partners sticks in counter rhythms with the ‘dinda; much as two playing children might alternately clap their thighs and hands in a rhythmic game. The ‘dinda players then moved to their sticks alone, carrying a rhythm as they began to stand, and finished the beat to crescendo, standing. The crowd roared with delight. |
| Northern Illinois University Steel Band, for their intriguing efforts, commanded 2nd place in The Worlds Steelband Music Festival championships of 2000. Their great achievement at this event was not their place in these championships, but in showing with authority the directions in which steel drum music can grow. They opened the mono-phonic ears of the Trinidad and Tobago pan community to the fact that steel pan music is multi-phonic, vibrantly alive and well - outside. |
| T&T Defence Force Steel Orchestra |
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| T&T Defence Force Steel Orchestra Trinidad - T&T Defence Force HQ, Airways Road, Chaguaramas Led by Hanlon Holder T&T Defence Force played as their tune of choice, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 4 in F Minor - The Final, conducted and arranged by Deryck Nurse. Their calypso was Penn Queen of the Universe by Aldwyn Roberts, the late Lord Kitchener, arranged by Recardo Dennis. T&T Defence Force placed 7th in this competition. |
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| BWIA Ebony
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BWIA Ebony UK - Europe London Led by Pepe Francis Ebony for their piece of choice performed Franz von Suppe’s Morning Noon and Night in Vienna, arranged by Frank Rollock. Their rendition was clear and true. In this final, Ebony did not use Mr Rollock as conductor, as they had done throughout the preceding qualifier rounds. Also absent from this performance was one of Ebony’s unusual but bright talents; a scratcher-man with a strong French accent. |
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| Ebony was too far from the vantage point to determine whether this scratcher-man was present at this performance; or had fallen ill (a variety of reasons possible here); or fallen in love and gone to Mayaro (pure speculation); or had fallen out with the band; or had his ‘piece’ removed from the performance due to him having accidentally clanged a cymbal with one of his gadgets at the end of a string - during the semi-final performance. But for whatever reason, this audience had missed two epic and virtuoso performances of unknown European (assumed) species of bird-song and twitter, precisely placed, pleasantly rising and falling within the early passages of Morning Noon and Night in Vienna. The convincing virtual birds (feathered) had been conjured from whistles, and gadgets spun on the end of a string, all orchestrated by this remarkable scratcher-man. |
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| Ebony played a very solid and recognisable version of Hollis Wright’s Celebrating with Steel, as arranged by Annise Halfers Hadeed. It was remarkable to note that someone had actually persuaded Halfers into a suite! Hadeed’s presence with this European band had made the band sound so similar to a T&T band, as makes no difference. But Ebony’s crisp interpretation of Morning Noon and Night in Vienna had soundly established the band as of European lineage. |
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| BWIA Ebony placed 4th in this competition. |
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| PANch 2000
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PANch 2000 Switzerland - Europe HQ in Leukerbad Project leader Martin Grah PANch 2000 conducted by Ms Yaira Yonne chose Franz von Suppe’s Dichter und Bauer (Poet and Peasant), arranged by Patric Bernhard as their piece of choice. Their calypso, Len Boogsie Sharpe’s Mind Yuh Business, arranged by Claudio Pini. PANch 2000 placed 6th in this competition. |
| PANch 2000 Switzerland - Europe |
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| Steel Pan Lovers
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Steel Pan Lovers Finland - Europe Karjaa Led by Ari Viitanen Starting in their waste-coats, the band played a melodious Finlandia composed by their late countryman Johan Julius Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957), as arranged by Ari Viitanen. The performance was delightfully light and loose and had a most pleasing tone now characteristic to the instruments of this band, most of which were made by Ari Viitanen himself. The performance was played with reference to musical scores scanned by the band members. |
| One of the gems of this WSMF 2000, Steel Pan Lovers were the smallest of the Orchestra section with 26 members including their erstwhile leader Ari Viitanen. This group of young Finnish teenagers, musicians all, so much impressed the spectators in the East stand, that they received the most enthusiastic applause for any band on this finals night. |
| Waste-coats aside, an informality to the proceedings pleasingly introduced by PANch 2000 earlier in the preliminaries, Steel Pan Lovers now let loose on Ari Viitanen’s arrangement of Aldwyn Roberts the late Lord Kitchener’s Pan in A Minor. |
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| Played with an enthusiasm and verve which equalled anything we could do here in T&T, and with added character totally their own, Steel Pan Lovers presented and pranced to an arrangement of staggering complexity that would have marked Ari Viitanen a serious Panorama contender had he been a resident of T&T. Steel Pan Lovers placed 8th in this competition. Lacking perhaps only in numbers to raise the volume, despite an exceedingly full sound nevertheless; and having intentionally made sacrifice to complexity of arrangement - that appeared to change and grow with each performance, an ability enhanced through playing from a score-sheet - and this was a sacrifice to the time available to practice, and one that may have diluted the ability of the players in this instance only, to display a tightness in performance sought after by the judges. Steel Pan Lovers presentations will however, long be remembered; and their abilities set a shining, distinct and endearing model for The Future of Pan, world-wide. |
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| TCL Group Skiffle Bunch
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| Skiffle Bunch perform Ken Professor Philmore’s Pan by Storm (1990) arranged by Len Boogsie Sharpe. |
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Later, under the energetic directorship of Ben Jackson, the bunch plays an unbelievably tight and near faultless impression of Len Boogsie Sharpe’s In The Rain Forest; having Boogsie himself present a virtuoso 40-second solo to finish the tune. Through their performances, TCL Group Skiffle Bunch became The Worlds Steelband Music Festival champions for the year 2000. TCL Group Skiffle Bunch Trinidad - T&T Coffee Street, San Fernando Are led by Junia Regrello |
| BWIA Invaders
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| BWIA Invaders Trinidad - T&T Invaders, the oldest steelband at this WSMF, have been playing under this name since 1945. Pre dating even that time, founder member and pan-maker genius Elliot Ellie Mannette from the days when the band was known as The Oval Boys, visiting Trinidad for the first time after 33 years of self-imposed exile in the US; humbly celebrates duties with his band after this long overdue homecoming. Ellie, the inventor of the Double Tenor among many other achievements, returns here after escorting Dr Jeannine Remy to the stage, Invaders festival conductor and arranger. Invaders were cheekily showing off their pedigree and sharing their warm and sincere welcome to a national hero with a world audience. |
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| Invaders under Jeannine Remy’s floating hands brought Antonin Dvorak’s Carnival Overture to festival fervour (above) together with the Grand Masters, Aldwyn Roberts the late Lord Kitchener’s Toco Band, arranged by Len Boogsie Sharpe, to a riveting climax. |
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In a further entertaining gesture after their performance; Invaders formed an avenue of honour through which the good Dr Remy was escorted under an arch of lifted pan-sticks on her return to the East stand. Invaders placed 5th in this competition. BWIA Invaders Trinidad - T&T Tragarete Road, Port of Spain Led by Ricardo Herbert |
| Exodus
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| Exodus Trinidad - T&T Played Tchaikovsky's Caprico Italian arranged by Desmond Waithe and Andre Tanker's Steelband Times arranged by Pelham Goddard. |
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Exodus was joint winner at the qualifying Pan is Beautiful-IX Music Festival of 1998. The T&T community roomer mill had placed Exodus as its main hope and contender; considering its classical bias and this Music Festival experience. Exodus had bent over backwards to comply, practising hard and correcting what it could. Their performance of Caprico Italian took a little time to settle and gel, about a ¼ of the tune, then the band purred. Their Steelband Times was tighter, with Pelham managing to get the ‘middle talk’ of the band going, where his passages were distinctly moving around through the different voices of the band, and further emphasised with silent voices. Jesus Acosta, Conductor for Exodus on this evening, returns to the East stand alongside the Flag man. Desmond Waithe had conducted the band throughout the preliminaries. Exodus placed 3rd in this competition. Exodus Trinidad - T&T St Johns Village, Eastern Main Road, St Augustine Led by Ainsworth Mohammed |
| Exodus
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| © 2000: tobagojo@gmail.com - 20001028 - 1m20071228 - 2m20151031 Historic Update: 30 October 2000; Last Update: 31 October 2015 24:00:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry |
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