Steelpan Tales - Part 1.

Steel Pan Collective member Ruth Parsons recently uncovered a few articles she wrote during her time in Trinidad. Some cover Carnival, most cover steel pan playing in Trinidad. They are a fascinating read. If you ever wondered what it is like to play steel pan in Trinidad around Panorama time, these stories are for you.

Ruth and her husband George will also be profiled in the upcoming Pan e-Newsletter (June/July issue). (Be sure to sign up for your membership if you have not already. You don't want to miss the upcoming issue).

This week, we thought we would share one of her stories. Enjoy!!

It is the end of January, 06, and pigeon peas are in season and the smell of them cooking on the stove mixed with the smell of burnt brown sugar to begin the pelau is coming from the kitchen of the pan yard. It smells wonderful and I can’t wait until it is ready. I am starving. It is Saturday, a month before carnival and the message board in the yard says all day practice Sat and Sunday – lunch and refreshments served. In the upper part of Diego Martin, it is hazy and rainy and a little cool from the rain. The surrounding mountains are as green as mountains can get in this very rainy dry season. The pan yard sets up on the side of the mountain and looks out over the local sports field. A cricket match is going on in spite of the persisting light sprinkle. A few spectators are watching. The players are in their white long pants. In another part of the field, a soccer game is going on. A few guys are liming on the side of the street. Someone is cooking something on the corner in a big pot, probably corn soup. Lots of people talking, laughing, having fun, enjoying the  Saturday.

In the yard, Kendall Lewis, the arranger for Ice Water single pan band is teaching band members his arrangement of  “GoodTimes” by Denise Plumer. It is a wonderful and complicated arrangement. Some of the band members have it. Others are outside in the light drizzle with another member of the band, learning the song. They play the parts they have over and over, and then Kendall changes a part and they have to all learn anew. . One of the amazing things about the pan yard is how quickly the band members come in and pick up the song. Sometimes a few hours is all the time needed to learn a very complicated 8 minute song. Band members who range in age from 10-60 years learn the song by hearing the melody and by watching the hand movements. They learn very complicated movements in a very few minutes and are ready to go on and learn another set of complicated movements. They seem to hear it and therefore remember it.

Kendall Lewis has been playing with Merrytones for 30 years. Kendall, a retired policeman, has played in every panorama that has ever been held. He is the director of both Merrytones, a small band, and of Ice Water, a professional side band, which is entering the single pan band competition for the first time this year. He works for the Ministry of Education in the Pan in the Schools Program, and runs a pan school for kids. He loves his work; he loves teaching pan; he loves playing pan.

(To read more....)