The recent, poorly timed, unilateral withdrawal of multiple steelband sponsorships (better described as “investments”) by state companies drew the regret-laden attention of Pan Trinbago President, Beverly Ramsey-Moore, at the start of last Saturday’s Single Pan Finals at the Queen’s Park Savannah.
By then, Ms Ramsey-Moore must have already
heard the term “dependency syndrome” applied to the condition purportedly being
addressed by some newcomers to official, corporate leadership. Such a conclusion
is clearly representative of appalling ignorance.
I have heard the unfortunate term more than
once myself and wondered about the extent to which some key decision-makers have
been aware of several longstanding, well-established facts about the relationship
between steelbands and national life.
Look carefully and you will witness a
situation in which both the corporate and state sectors have essentially been
outsourcing key socio-cultural functions via sponsorships (investments) in
steelbands.
Steelbands and their panyards – in
instances where they represent legitimate, cohesive organisations (some do not)
- have become important instruments through which key services, other than the
clearly musical, are being delivered.
Add to this (and I repeat this for the umpteenth
time) the value of pan as music, a platform for economic growth, socio-cultural
development, the generation of creative capital, and the panyard as a model for
social mobilisation and change.
I have employed the word “investment” at
the very top of this, because anyone with even the slightest clue about the
role of bands and their panyards to the development process must know that the
links are inalienable.
For example, just days after the
discontinuation of financial support for Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra (and curiously
instructive notice to refrain from all branding associated with Heritage
Petroleum), there was a break-in at the band’s homework centre. Yes, “homework
centre.”
Junia
Regrello would proudly submit for consideration the involvement of children between
the ages of 5 and 15 in the band’s activities. At Supernovas, teens and young
people are regularly in charge. (Unsponsored) birdsong remains a beacon in
music education among the young.
Panyards, you see, are not the single-purpose
facilities for performance of a single song at the Panorama competition some people
still think they are.
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| Supernovas Panyard (watercolour 2023 by WG) |
The folks at Siparia Deltones would also tell you that there is much more to not only what their organisation does, but almost all other large and medium bands. Stageside ensembles boast extensive repertoires in a wide variety of genres, keep people rewardingly busy, and generate alternative sources of band and player revenue.
Panyards are also not simply designed “to
keep young people busy and out of trouble.” Clinging to this point as a standalone
is almost as bad as subscribing to the “dependency syndrome” question. There is
a built-in presumption in this that the cohort that gravitates toward panyards
has “trouble” as default behaviour.
The reality is that the panyard has emerged
as a singularly egalitarian environment where a construction worker section
leader can instruct a medical professional on matters of timing and musical treatment.
As we learn from Skiffle and many others, general
education and academic instruction have also become routine features of the
panyard environment. People learn specific skills and are introduced to
different perspectives on entrepreneurship.
Birdsong has for some years not competed in
Panorama at the senior level and is paying greater attention to the junior band
and the creation of a new generation of musicians. Its vacation camp experience
includes academic, vocational, and music education covering a wide variety of
musical instruments.
Speak with Exodus manager, Ainsworth
Mohammed, and he will tell you about his “relay” theory of planning and the extent
to which his band focuses on nurturing the abilities of the young to enrich
prospects for the future.
I recently encountered young Niko Brewster
whose university dissertation in the UK was entitled “The Emergence of the
Panyard: Music, Cultural Production, and Spatial Contention.”
Brewster is clear that the “flexible space”
within which the panyard operates enables near limitless options to deliver
expanded services and to generate revenue. Look out for more on this in a
subsequent dispatch.
It is meanwhile true, as birdsong’s Dennis
Phillips suggests, that there is scope for changing the terms of reference of the
steelband establishment to bring it more in line with some realities such as
the fiction of over 100 registered conventional steelbands.
There is also a need for the steelband community
to better tell its stories beyond involvement/success in annual competitions.
Had this been effectively done, there would
be less of the prevailing nonsense that appears to be fuelling serious
decision-making on investments in pan and their consequential contribution to national
development.
