Ohio, USA - Ohio Northern University’s Percussion Ensemble and Steel Drum Band will begin a tour to historic Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., on March 30. The ONU band is under the direction of Dr. Sarah Waters, assistant professor of music, who will take her students to Elder and Seton High Schools in Cincinnati before heading to Nashville.

The ONU Steel Drum Band and Percussion Ensemble will perform works for percussion and steel drums by composer Gary Powell Nash, a professor of music at Fisk. These works will include a concerto for horn and percussion ensemble that features Brandon Guillen, a second-year pharmacy major from Lima, Ohio, and “Deformation3,” which will feature A. Lewis Jones II, a junior music education major from Lima, Ohio, on drums.
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New York, USA - Some veterans of the New York steel band scene who, back in the 1950s and 60s, laid the foundation for the steel band movement that now exists in the city, will be honored at a gala tribute organized by the Trinidad & Tobago Folk Arts Institute at Brooklyn’s Tropical Paradise Ballroom, Sunday evening, May 20. In addition to eight individuals, each having a decades-long association with steel band activity in the city, who were selected for this special recognition, the institute will pay posthumous tribute to two well-known names in the evolution of New York’s steel band culture, Rudy King and Conrad Mauge.
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DeKalb, Illinois, USA - In the formidable building that once housed the Wurlitzer Company in DeKalb, music is still being made by hand.

Wurlitzer, which made pianos, organs, accordions and jukeboxes at the plant, ceased production there in 1979, but two local men are keeping the musical tradition alive in the sprawling building on Pleasant Street.

Dale Ludewig and Cliff Alexis are creating musical instruments in the mostly-vacant building that was originally built in 1904 to house the Melville Clark Piano Company, and that has been home to manufacturers of musical instruments almost continually since then. In one workshop, Ludewig hand crafts mandolins; in a separate workshop, Alexis uses 55-gallon oil drums to make drums for the Northern Illinois University Steelpan Band.

....“I have been here for about 10 years,” Alexis said. “The art department used to have a studio here. When I started to run out of space (in his studio on NIU’s campus), I went to the dean and asked if I could set up space over here.”

The location, in an industrial neighborhood, is ideal for the manufacture of steel drums, which requires many hours of pounding, cutting and tuning.
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St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda, W.I. - For the first time since Antigua & Barbuda’s staging of the Panorama competition, joint winners have been declared.

LIME Hell’s Gate Steel Orchestra and Hadeed Group of Companies AMP Halycon Steel Orchestra will share the 2011 title, Minister responsible for Carnival, Eleston “Namba” Adams announced Monday.

But in quick response, Hell’s Gate spokesperson Stafford Joseph said the band will hold off accepting the revised decision.

“We won’t accept anything coming from the minister as bona fide,” Joseph said when contacted by OBSERVER Media.

“We’ll await Mr Patrick ‘Stone’ Johnson, acting head of the association, to come forward and make a statement; then we’ll go from there.”
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Ohio, USA - Presented by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in partnership with Union Project Tuesday–Thursday, April 17–May 24 | Performance Wednesday, May 30.

Soundwaves is a full-scholarship intensive steelband music program designed for talented students (ages 12–17) to develop and hone their musical skills. Ten students will be selected to participate in an intensive six-week program consisting of 18 sessions, held Tuesday–Thursdays from 4–6 pm. Participants will be required to attend every session. The program will culminate in a special performance on May 30, 2012 at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Avenue in East Liberty.

The program is designed for students interested in a broad range of musical styles, with an interest in developing their skills. Training sessions will take place at Union Project, located at 801 North Negley Avenue in Highland Park.

World-renowned teachers will guide students as they advance their technique, gain experience in performing with an ensemble, and practice performing for an audience. This one-of-a-kind project provides young musicians a platform to expand their interests in music and a chance to make invaluable connections in the music scene in Pittsburgh and beyond.

After submitting an application, students will be asked to audition for the ensemble on April 17, 2012. If selected, tuition for the Soundwaves program is free. Students are responsible for the cost of instrument rental which is $10 per week, totaling $60 for the six-week program. Click here to download the application.
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St. Lucia, W.I. - Labowi Promotions is pleased to announce that pan virtuoso Andy Narell will be the Patron of Jazz in the South 2012, and that he will perform at Coconut Bay in Vieux Fort on Sunday 6 May. This performance will be with the quartet Sakésho, which includes pianist Mario Canonge and bassist Michel Alibo from Martinique, and drummer Gregory Louis from Guadeloupe. Since its formation 10 years ago, this quartet has been one of the most exciting and innovative groups on the Caribbean jazz Scene.

....Andy Narell has continued to provide support and advice to Labowi Promotions and Jazz in the South, and he has returned to Laborie, where he has worked with the Laborie Steel Pan Project.

....“I thought about what that meant, and since education and working with young people is so important to me, I offered to come to Laborie for a few weeks and to teach the kids’ steel band.
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Ohio, USA - Aug. 12 — 2012 edition of Pantasia.

Quote from Pantasia Director - Tim Mattis - “In September 1995, as I was beginning my second year as an assistant band director in the Findlay City Schools, I had a meeting with parents of high school percussion students to share some ideas I had for the percussion department, including the concept of a steelband. Almost one year later I was contacted by one of the parents, a local attorney, who had attended that meeting. He said that two of his elderly clients had expressed an interest in helping to nurture the musical arts at Findlay High School and asked him if he had any suggestions!

After meeting with the couple and their attorney, they made a donation of $10,000 toward the start-up costs of a new steelband. With an additional $6,000 from various other donors we were able to purchase two of each “voice” (lead, seconds, cellos, and bass) from Panyard, Inc. of Akron, Ohio. This also included all stands, cases, mallets, 12 music arrangements, and a variety of miscellaneous percussion instruments.

As of January 2003, the band has expanded to 35 pans covering 14 voices, a new drum set, and an estimated value of over $70,000. We are very thankful to our community for its support of the arts in public education. Without it this dream of a steelband would have remained just that.”
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Trion, Georgia, USA - It's the sound of the islands, coming from an unexpected place, the Trion High School band room. The Steel Drum Band is an after-school ensemble, but it's not as easygoing as it sounds.

Senior Alex Hatley said, "It may not sound hard, but it is. Part of what makes it fun is being challenged musically." Hatley plays clarinet in the school's marching band, but says she has learned an entirely different appreciation for music with the steel drum. Like all of the students, she had to learn her new skills from the beginning.

Senior Aaron Castro, long a percussionist in the marching band, said, "Most of the drum notes are written on the drums, but mine does not. When people first start they don't know what they're doing, or what their notes are, but the more you do it, the better you get. It takes a lot of practice."
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Santiago de Cuba - A steel band will play the “Ave María” for Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, this Tuesday, March 27.

The “Steel band” composed by 14 amateur musicians is one of the most important in the town of El cobre, located in the central part of Santiago de Cuba province. The group director, Hermes Ramírez, expressed that when the Pope arrives to the national sanctuary, the musicians will interprete Schubert´s “Ave María” and “Virgen Mambisa”, dedicated to the Virgin of Charity, patrones of Cuba. Cuban “Steel Band” was created in 1987 and since the beginning was composed by workers at the mines of copper, now closed.

This band has performed to other personalities like the Secretary of State of the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández.
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Global - Since I spoke with Les Slater this morning about the passing of Junior Pouchet (pictured), related to me by his family in Orlando, I’ve been playing Silver Stars’ double CD, 27 cuts by Junior’s band and nine by his brother Edwin’s. Their playlist has never sounded finer or resonated deeper.

....Here’s how former Trinidad All Stars captain and arranger Neville Jules reminds those who say that Junior Pouchet has been Pan’s unsung hero:

“Pouchet was no unsung hero. He was the real thing - a tough competitor. A great steel band man. We always had to worry about what he was coming with - his next Bomb. His music. Always.”
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - he event which saw steelbands performing in various parts of the twin-island of Trinidad & Tobago is set to commence on Saturday 31^st March, 2012 at the Brighton Recreation Ground, Pt. D’or, La Brea, from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.

The La Brea Pan jamboree will feature Phase II Pan Groove, La Brea Nightingales, Panosonic Connections, birdsong, Trinidad East Side Symphony and Jah Roots.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Desperadoes wasn’t at the finals on Panorama night, in part because the average fan could have hardly recognized the personality of the band, though 42-year tenor player Ursula Tudor stood out as usual.

For another, given the durable sponsorship of WITCO, a leathery leader in Kirt Gordon and the slick arranging skills of Andre White (Don’t be bamboozled by his 21 short years on earth.), the band remains displaced. Desperadoes is no longer a mainstay of Laventille because it finds itself in a steadily worsening plight - trying over the past few years with all its might to make do in the teeth of an unsound environment.
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Port of Spain, Trinidad - On Monday 19th March, in a moving ceremony held at the National Academy of Performing Arts, the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism presented 3 steelpans to members of the Steelpan Orchestra from the town of "El Cobre" in Santiago de Cuba.

The Cuban cultural delegation members were Julio Corbea, official of the Caribbean House and Historian of the town of “El Cobre”, Hermes Ramírez Silva, director and arranger of El Cobre Steelpan Orchestra and Juan Enrique Puente González, Principal Pannist. The delegation travelled to Trinidad and Tobago on March 1st to receive training in the art of tuning, orchestration and arrangement, as well as to learn the history of this original musical instrument, the only one to be created in the 20th century.

During their 18-day visit the Cuban cultural delegation had the unique opportunity to share with the renowned band Valley Harps Steel Orchestra, who won the National Steelband competition “Panorama 2011” in their category.

The three tenor pans were delivered, on behalf of the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, by Senator Embau Moheni, Minister of State in the Ministry of the Arts and Multiculturalism.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - In this fascinating exclusive When Steel Talks interview - the legendary steelpan innovator and leader of Pan Am North Stars, in his own voice, takes us on his own personal journey with the steelpan instrument - with facts, dates, places, influences, names and even in song - as he declares he will “set the record straight as there is a lot of falsification as it relates to him in the papers.” Even now, many years later, the genius and brilliance of Anthony Williams shine through. His attention to detail and incredible memory is amazing. Listen to him tell us how and why in his own voice - his humor, his wit, his intellect, his exceptional musical knowledge and description of his scientific approach to problem solving. As he explains you realize his marriage of astrology, philosophy, numerology, math and science put him in unique group of thinkers and innovators.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Flamingoes is a process in motion. It will take some time for the band to get back anywhere near to its former status in the ‘70’s. First of all it is not just ‘Bringing back the Band’; in reality, it is a community development project.

....Around 1980 the band was no longer able to continue with the same status quo. I was not involved in the eventual split-up of the band to form Exodus. But again my uncle Bob and Amin Mohammed (elder brother of Ainsworth Mohammed), were responsible for making the ‘Exodus’ from Flamingoes. The amazing thing is that the band was across the street from my late Grandmother’s (Ma Mena) property and with the exodus, they  moved back onto my grandmother’s property. So the now famous Exodus actually started right on my Grandmother’s (Ma Mena) property. How ironic could that be. Well, everyone knows about the continuing success of Exodus. However Flamingoes (the Gay being dropped for obvious reasons) remained in existence but a shell of its former self.
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Cheshire, England - Lacey Green Primary Academy senior steel band have triumphed in a borough wide music competition.

The pupils took part in the finals of the 3^rd Annual Cheshire East Primary Schools Music Competition at the Royal Northern College of Music on Friday 24^th February.

During the afternoon the children shared and celebrated the diverse and high quality of music making from young people in some of the Cheshire East's primary schools.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Invaders Steel Orchestra is calling on local and foreign pan players to assist Dr. Jeannine Remy, Senior Lecturer in Music in the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus - with her research into the band’s history.

In 1989 Dr. Remy embarked on her research journey. Delving into this legendary band’s mystical past, she has been able to capture a treasure chest of coveted interviews with the band’s founders Ellie Mannette and Francis Wickham, and other elders of the band such as George Goddard and James Inniss. These interviews accurately captured the unfolding of milestone events such as the name change date from the Oval Boys to Invaders on VE (Victory in Europe) Day 1945. Dr. Remy’s study also contains a large collection of photographs dating back to 1940.
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Asia - The Thwaites Brothers - Sherwin and Shawn recently toured Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Medan, Indonesia with Nayshid band “Native Deen.” The group is currently on a world tour supporting their latest release “The Remedy.” Native Deen performed for audiences estimated between 3,000-5,000 per performance during this tour.
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St. Vincent & the Grenadines, W. I.  - The Elite Steel Orchestra, one of the well known Orchestras in SVG, has been making contributions to the future of Pan for years.

A fixture in the Panorama competition at Carnival, the orchestra is responsible for harnessing the talent of their band members, as well as that of the students of the CW Prescod Primary School Band, where it has influenced the time-tabling of steel pan playing as part of the school’s music programme.

To assist in keeping Pan an uplifting part of the lives of youngsters, the Pan Against Crime (PAC) programme and Solidarity in Action Inc made a contribution of $5,000 to the band, on March 6, at the Solidarity Car Park.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.  - The Chamber has often called for Carnival to be recognised for the business it is, and for recognition of the exemplary collaboration between artists and the more conventional business sector. It is for this reason that the ‘fracas’ or ‘riot’- depending on which side of the fence you stood - which took place during the Panorama semi-finals, has left a bitter taste even after Carnival, and needs to be aired.

Panorama over the years has been characterised by its magnificent live performances on steelpan. The beautiful show has, however, been marred year after year as the organisers, in spite of all the other significant positives of the day, never seemed to get it quite right in terms of either crowd control or band flow. This year, the disorganisation appeared to reach a new level. Amateur camerawork from February 5 captured what was so far unprecedented - a handful of unshielded police officers trying to restrain an impatient mob which, for whatever reason provided, could not move freely from the stands to the greens. Many factors converged to cause upset to spectators; but, in one area, things came to a head as upset patrons began to shake the barriers.
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Global - “Do you want me to lose my job?” That was the reaction Clifford Alexis remembers he and the man who was his mentor at Northern Illinois University (NIU), Prof. Al O’Connor, got from an official in the university’s Human Resources division when O’Connor sought to bring Alexis on board, back in 1986, as resident steel pan expert, to give a boost to the program O’Connor had started since the early 70s. The initial resistance they encountered at Human Resources was somewhat of a jolt to Prof. O’Connor who expected that with Alexis being exceptionally skilled in such an unusual area, the normal rules of academic employment wouldn’t be so strictly adhered to.
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Florida, USA - ....It was during my student tenure in England in the early 1970s, as fate would have it I became a member of the Ebony Steelband. But, with the social stigma attached to the steelband that feat could not have occurred with the type of parents I had in Trinidad. I eventually became Ebony’s PRO where I was responsible for introducing “pan on wheels” with canopy … the first of its kind in the UK and by extension Europe. I also instigated the concept of (so called) steelband sponsorship.

....I taught, firstly, in Nigeria (1978-79) and more recently in Botswana. I left a teaching career in the UK in favour of another in Nigeria.
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New York, USA - On a brisk winter afternoon in Pleasantville, residents were given the sounds of a distant tropical island as they enjoyed the music of Steel Passion, an amateur eight piece steel drum band, that performed a concert Sunday at the Mount Pleasant Public Library.

“I think it’s great to have such a different and unique type of music here in Pleasantville,” said Debbie Jordan, program director at the Mount Pleasant Public Library.

Steel Passion has been performing steel drum music in the Hudson Valley area dating back to 1965 and with the current configuration since 1991. The band is based out of and plays for the Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Pan Trinbago has entered into an agreement to take the steelpan to schools in Nigeria. This was revealed by Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz, during a prize- giving ceremony on Friday for the People’s Choice winners in the medium and large band categories of the Panorama finals last month.

The agreement is among the national pan body and three other parties — the T&T Nigeria Chamber, FCL Financial Ltd and Xcel Steelpan Communication Co Ltd, a Nigerian firm. Diaz said the Nigerian company was formed for the purpose of producing and selling steelpans throughout Africa, with emphasis on schools, where the use of steelpans in schools in Nigeria and South Africa was taking root.
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Maine, USA - Tonight, March 3, everyone is invited to catch the beat and drum the winter blahs away at the Humane Society of Knox County’s Tropical Getaway. The fun event will run from 5 to 9 p.m. at Lincoln Street Center for Arts and Education, 24 Lincoln St.

Steelin’ Thunder, the Midcoast’s community steel drum band, will drive the festivities, which will include a limbo contest, hula-hooping, raffles and a silent auction. Attendees can listen to the sounds of the Caribbean, as the band plays all kinds of music on traditional steel drums.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Six cultural icons have been honored by the National Carnival Commission (NCC) for their outstanding contribution to the Carnival art form spanning more than a century.

....Those honored were calypso veterans, Robert Nelson aka Lord Nelson, Andrew Marcano aka Lord Superior, masqueraders Geraldo Viera Sr., Gilbert Maynard and ace steelband arranger Dr. Jit Samaroo and pioneer and innovator Anthony “Tony” Williams.
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Tobago, W.I. - The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) never refused to give financial assistance to Pan Trinbago for the 2012 Panorama steelband competition, Chief Secretary Orville London has said.

He recalled that Pan Trinbago's President Keith Diaz and his executive met him on January 10 2012 to request funding to the tune of $3.2 million to support the Tobago bands' participating in the Panorama semi finals and finals in Port of Spain. London said it was agreed that Pan Trinbago would approach the Minister of Multiculturalism Winston 'Gypsy' Peters to get the additional funding since it was a national event.

Therefore, he said, his request to Pan Trinbago was to write the Assembly informing it of the situation and to make it known in the letter that the association accepted it was the responsibility of that Ministry and that the Ministry of Multiculturalism had not held out its responsibility and in desperation the association had come to the Assembly. "We never received that communication and as far as we are aware that request never came," London added.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Over the years, the staging of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) has been has been costing the State an average of $100 million annually. This has caused questions to be asked about the success of the events and whether or not the objectives of the funds are being met.

However, Carnival interests groups says the funding is inadequate to develop and promote the cultural centrepiece of TT.

....Pan Trinbago President, Keith Diaz in a telephone interview on Monday told Business Day that the annual “subvention” of $100 million, or, $125 million allocated to the National Carnival Commission (NCC) this year is “an investment for the people by the State in Carnival.”

....Of the $125 million, $45 million is allocated to Pan Trinbago, NCBA and Trinidad Unified Calypso Organisation (TUCO). Pan Trinbago gets the biggest part of the funding, $25 million, while NCBA get $7.2 million, and TUCO, $7.8 million.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Veteran panman Milton “Wire” Austin is recuperating at the San Fernando General Hospital after toppling off a wrecker on Carnival Monday night. The leader of the San Fernando-based Fonclaire Steelband broke his right leg in two places. Speaking on his cellphone from his hospital bed yesterday, Milton was in good spirits. “My new address is Ward 4, Suite Three of the New Wing of the San Fernando General Hospital,” he joked.

Recalling the incident, he said around 10.40 pm, he was in the wrecker pulling the trailer transporting his band. He said they turned onto Hobson Street after having left the Bomb Competition on Carib Street: “We were not moving fast because people were chipping in the band.” He said he decided to come off the wrecker to make arrangements for the members to get refreshments at Seon’s Bar. “While I was coming off, I misstep in some loose soft sand. I lost balance and drop on the ground and all I hear was pacs. I couldn’t move and I was real pain.”
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - A recent article in one of our daily newspapers suggests that our culture, education and business environment are focused more on repetition and rote than in creative thinking and that we should not attempt to re-invent ourselves. I strongly disagree with this view which is most pessimistic. It does not take a whole population to produce at a world class level. St Lucia, with a population at the time of less than 100,000 souls, produced two Nobel Laureates, one in literature and the other in economics. Trinidad and Tobago has produced a Nobel Laureate in literature. The genius of Peter Minshall and Geoffrey Holder is widely recognised. The pan, a local creation, has also had worldwide recognition. Our research and development in cocoa is world famous.
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Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - With a new sponsor for 2012 Carnival, the Junior Sammy Group Skiffle Steel Orchestra, recently created history by becoming the first steel band in San Fernando to win every steel band competition staged in the city during Carnival celebrations.

The San Fernando Carnival Committee held three steel band competitions over the two-day Carnival period and the band won all. The Coffee Street, San Fernando band was adjudged winners of the J’Ouvert Steelband competition and Monday Night Steel Band competition. They also went on to win the Tuesday Night Steelband competition.”

In an interview with Newsday, elated captain Junia Regrello said the band’s success on the road on Carnival Monday and Tuesday was dedicated to the Junior Sammy Group of Companies, a new sponsor who he said came on board “a few weeks before Carnival.”
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