Panecdotes

October 30, 2000
By Keith Smith

THE headline is Terry Joseph’s. As the after-glow of the World Steelband Festival dims with the old Ellie Mannette moving off centre-stage, I thought I should appropriate Joseph’s research, not only to share it with a wider audience than those sharp enough to have snared an official Festival brochure, but because, if the political scribes are reading Mr Panday right, the column is going to find itself captured this week by the campaign leaving no, or little room, for the wacky and the whimsical:

• In 1948, Tripoli pannist, Granville Sealey, was suspended for 99 years after he disobeyed an instruction from band captain Joseph “Joe Crick” Christopher. In 1991, after the captaincy had changed many times, Sealey met then band-leader Hugh Borde while Tripoli was on tour in New York and asked if the new captain could lift Joe Crick’s suspension. Sealey, it is said, was dumfounded when Borde replied that he had no authority to rescind the 43-year-old decision take by the then leadership of the band.

• The 1960 trial of Laurence Smith who, police alleged, was a member of the Tokyo Steelband, reads like comedy but accurately reflects the feelings of the authorities at the time. Smith, accused of the heinous crime of belonging to a steelband, appeared before MR Camacho, a Port of Spain magistrate. The matter had to be deferred and Smith had the temerity to apply for bail. In refusing Smith’s request, Mr Camacho was quoted as saying: “I have no sympathy for any steelbandsman. You will have no bail today.”

• In 1967, jazz genius Miles Davis recorded two songs with Desperadoes Steel Orchestra. The resulting single, “Sandman/Trinidad Jack”, was so successful it led to the RCA production of the album Steel Brass Gold. Davis was unavailable, so three Venezuelan trumpeters were hired and arranger Clive Bradley flew to America to record them. Local engineers then mixed their works with the pan tracks. If anybody out there has a copy of the original single I’d be willing to pay for it with its weight in gold.

• Some of the means by which pan became known to the world might still be conversation in the US and European immigration offices, as touring players frequently jumped ship. Several TASPO players stayed on in England and of the 28 Harmonites members who toured New York in 1969, only one returned. Many of those “pan refugees” started playing and teaching pan, spreading the sound across their adopted homes—the influence of Sterling Betancourt cannot be overstated in this regard.

• Pan also owes a debt to an unlikely source, a US naval officer stationed at the then Chaguaramas naval base at the end of World War II. After first hearing pan, Commander LD McDonald was moved to form a steelband comprising American sailors. He also organised concerts and competitions for local groups. And because his commission stretched to Puerto Rico, he began taking the navy steelband to other bases in the region and further afield.

• After Pan Am North Stars teamed with the acclaimed Winifred Atwell to produce the Ivory and Steel album (still one of my most prized possessions) the entire album had to be re-recorded after a piano pedal squeak showed up in the final mix.

• And did you know that “Fonclaire” got its name from the address of its panyard—at the corner of Fonrose and Clair Streets and that “Exodus” got its name when Amin Mohammed, a member of the “Gay Flamingoes” for many years, grew disenchanted with said band’s management and walked out during a general meeting, but before doing so called on members who shared his views to follow him and set up a new band. The result was an exodus...

I note that in the writing I have not only stolen TJ’s research as well. Oh well, if Chalkie could teef from Kitch, I could teef from Terry and, by the way, is there any of you out there who has ever heard the tall tale, I presume, about Emanuel “Cobo Jack” Riley rolling a single note from Invaders Pan Yard to Globe cinema one Jouvert morning. And what about the one about...well, you write or call and tell me. Do you have a panecdote to tell?

Well then, let’s hear it: the e-mail is ksmith@trinidadexpress.com

The End