The Other Pan 'War'
Posted: Sunday, January 23, 2005

new calypsoes vs 'classics'

By Terry Joseph

Even as medium and large conventional steel orchestras engage in musical battle on the Queen's Park Savannah turf at Panorama today, another quiet war is being fought offstage between protagonists of a new rule allowing bands to select any calypso and traditionalists clinging to the old format that limited choice to current releases.

Intense arguments have been flying ever since rule 5.1 was varied to now read: "Music Selection-For the purposes of the competition, each participating steelband may select and perform any calypso (whether from the current year or any previous year), as long as the same composition has not been played by said band in a Panorama competition."

Several bands leapt at the opportunity to select and begin rehearsing vintage calypsoes well before the Christmas break (27 of the 66 in the preliminary round for conventional orchestras), which others awaiting new releases perceived as an unfair advantage.

The war of words took to the airwaves with almost daily debate on talk-shows, and later in the print media, with those supporting delimitation of choice defining their selections as "classic" calypsoes, whereas antagonists described the same songs as "old" and the move as a retrograde step that stifled creativity among upcoming musical arrangers.

Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold, who came under similar attack when he opened the Panorama field to non-Trini musical arrangers in 2000, said the variation was overwhelmingly approved months earlier at a general meeting of steelband delegates, which latter-day protesters declined to attend. Their representatives, he said, were among those who approved the change.

"The top officials from those bands do not come to meetings and when changes are made, they wait until Carnival to complain," said a fuming Arnold.

Nowhere was polarisation more dramatic than among the 18 large conventional orchestras, 50 per cent of which played vintage songs in the preliminary round. Six of the nine have made it to today's semi-final.

Of the 21 medium bands, six played classic calypsoes and five of them advanced, while for small bands, 12 of the 29 went back in time for the first round, five making it to yesterday's semi-final for that category; which had its play-offs at the Arima Velodrome.

At the end of the preliminaries, the two top-scoring medium orchestras, Sforzata and Sangre Grande Cordettes, played Yohan Popwell's arrangement of Shadow's "Dingolay" (1994) and Dexter Simon's interpretation of Scrunter's 1982 prize-winning calypso, "The Will", respectively.

Among small bands, best points for vintage went to Hummingbird Pan Groove, who earned sixth place for Murchison Jules' work on Earl Rodney's "Steelband Music" (1978). Tamana Pioneers came in seventh with Paul Campbell's arrangement of Kitchener's "Rainorama" (1973).

In the large band category, best earnings for classic calypso went to TCL Group Skiffle Bunch, who ran fifth in the standings after preliminaries, doing Liam Teague's treatment of Kitchener's "Pan Night and Day" (1985), pushing the legendary Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars into sixth position for Leon "Smooth" Edwards' interpretation of Tambu's "Free Up", that song originally released in 1989.

In the sum, 16 of the 43 bands performing at this weekend's national Panorama semi-finals selected music from years gone by.

Today at the Savannah, 11 of the 28 bands will play vintage calypsoes which, pan aficionados say, will likely bring swift closure to the season-long argument when crowd response kicks in, as the massive Panorama audience will be more familiar with older calypsoes, particularly as new releases have not been enjoying high rotation on radio.

Among the more popular new releases being interpreted by bands playing today are de Fosto's "From Beyond", which will be performed by six orchestras and Oba Synette's "Action" being done by two bands.

Defending large band champion, Sagicor Exodus, has embraced both vintage and new, arranger Pelham Goddard using the theme of "From Beyond", purportedly a message from (the late) Kitchener, to infuse an introductory run from the Grandmaster's "Love in the Cemetery".

Showtime is 11 a.m. at what has become known as the "Savannah Party" and the 14 medium conventional orchestras will play first, followed by an equal number of large bands.

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