History of the Barbados Pan Festival by Michael Murray, Producer
Like many Bajans I had thought that steelband music was just a lot of noise. I first attended a Panorama finals back in 1986 and fell asleep. In 1995, I was living in Trinidad and I went to the Pan yards and actually listened. I was able to hear the sounds of each pan and follow the very intricate melody lines. I was intrigued and soon became hooked.
In 1997 I decided to bring this glorious music to Barbados with our first presentation of ‘Evening of the Classics’’ featuring Amoco Renegades Steel Orchestra of Trinidad and Barbados’ first lady of classical music Janice Millington at the Frank Collymore Hall. It was a bold musical statement that emblazoned an exhilarating stamp on the Barbados entertainment landscape.
The next year we produced for the BHTA a pan show featuring Panazz Players of Trinidad at Sunbury Great House. It was a great night and with the beautiful setting created by DB Productions my idea for ‘Pan Under the Trees’ came alive. We decided to make the effort to provide a platform for the best in pan music to be showcased in Barbados. And so the Barbados Pan Festival was born.
In 2001 we broadened the event to a 2-day festival in an effort to showcase 2 different formats of pan: pan jazz featuring the small ensemble and the conventional steel orchestra. We continue to bring the newest innovations in steel pan entertainment to Barbados. We put together the finest musicians our region produces. ‘Steel & Ivory’, ‘Calypso & Steel’, ‘Brass & Steel’, ‘Poetry & Steel’ are some of the many ways we present the steel pan in all its glory. Photo Gallery
Since our inception we have hosted many of the biggest names in the steelband world: PANAZZ PLAYERS,AMOCO RENEGADES, & Arturo Tappin, Liam Teague, WITCO DESPERADOS, EXODUS, Ray Holman, KEN PHILMORE,BoogsieSharpe,RobbieGreenidge, Hell’sGate,Ralph Mc-Donald, Andy Narell.
Caribbean Seven-A-Side Competition There are small steelpan ensemble competitions in almost every Caribbean Island, Pan Ramajay in Trinidad, Moods of Pan in Antigua, to name two. There is an ensemble category in the steel pan’s world governing body PanTrinbago’s World Steelband Music Festival. The format is stage friendly and the groups are highly competitive. This type of competition brings out the skills and styles of individual players.
The Caribbean Seven-A-Side ensemble consists of 5 pan players, a percussionist and a drummer. The first Competition winners, BWEE Invaders, took home a prize of BDS$5,000 in 2005.
The second Caribbean Seven-A-Side has attracted ensembles from Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. . Review 2006.
There is a Magic In Pan in A Minor. And it is especially exhilarating when a steel band interprets the classic in a way that would be sure to please its author Lord Kitchener.
Patrons who were caught up in the rapture on Saturday night in the Savannah Hotel car park, will loudly attest that the TCL Group Skiffle Bunch did just that.
The Trinidadian group predictably won the Seven-A-Side Competition in the eighth annual Barbados Pan Festival/ Pan Under the Trees 2006 with a score of 272 points.
It was thrilling just to see the tenors adding some dynamics that appealed to the visual, but the execution of the Boogise Sharpe arrangement was tops. Pan lovers were in bliss.
Even though the Skiffle Bunch were the second of the eight groups to appear, it was always going to be a challenge for any other group to out play them.
They were 42 points behind but members of the Park Side Steel group have several reasons to celebrate their second place, high on the list would be the historic appearance of a Guyanese Steel band on a Barbadian stage. Park Side got 230 points for Why Mi Life Gone.
Third place went to Digicel Rythmix out of St. Vincent. The Rythmix paid tribute to Ray Charles with I cant Stop Loving You, which was offered for judging and it earned them 223 points.
Grenada landed a fourth with the Courts New Dimension. Genesis and Cable & Wireless Starlift flew the flag for Dominica and St. Vincent respectively.
Barbados was well represented by the all-male group Pan Extreme and the Andre Forde project. The latter was put together for the competition and the youngsters, who averaged age 16, must be proud of their showing and should not be discouraged by their cellar position.
They had a good synergy and, given the standard of some of the other groups, the Andre Forde project played well.
The Barbados Pan Festival Vision
Since our first production in 1997, my main commitment is, preserving the cultural expressions of each island, developing a message and branding products that capture the essence of a unified Caribbean.
Showing support for each island, bridging cultural, economic, social and religious barriers, while having regional and international appeal. Selling the region to the global economy via the concept of Our cultural Exponents is my vision”.
This event has the potential to attract large numbers of our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean and beyond. There is enthusiastic response to the Festival in all the Caribbean Islands. We saw good numbers coming from these islands to the Festival over the last few years. Our website http://www.barbadospanfestival.com/ was launched in 2001 and we’ve had hits from most of the Caribbean Islands and as far as Mexico, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and South Africa.
We hosted 11 Workshops for school children from 1997-2006 at various school halls across Barbados as part of our ongoing effort towards the promotion of musical interest among the youth, and the strengthening of our vision for the formation of a national schools steel orchestra
Pan is an instrument that people around the world identify with the Caribbean. We in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean must satisfy the demand of visitors to see and hear the sound they all know to be from this part of the world. The Caribbean 7A-Side Steel Pan Competition will satisfy that demand.
Mike Murray
CEO Barbados Pan Festival.
We Coordinated the Advertising and Promotion of the Trinidad & Tobago Steel Pan & Jazz Festival in Barbados & the Eastern Caribbean in 2004 & 2006
Think Pan Enjoy Pan Dance to Pan
Like many Bajans I had thought that steelband music was just a lot of noise. I first attended a Panorama finals back in 1986 and fell asleep. In 1995, I was living in Trinidad and I went to the Pan yards and actually listened. I was able to hear the sounds of each pan and follow the very intricate melody lines. I was intrigued and soon became hooked.
In 1997 I decided to bring this glorious music to Barbados with our first presentation of ‘Evening of the Classics’’ featuring Amoco Renegades Steel Orchestra of Trinidad and Barbados’ first lady of classical music Janice Millington at the Frank Collymore Hall. It was a bold musical statement that emblazoned an exhilarating stamp on the Barbados entertainment landscape.
The next year we produced for the BHTA a pan show featuring Panazz Players of Trinidad at Sunbury Great House. It was a great night and with the beautiful setting created by DB Productions my idea for ‘Pan Under the Trees’ came alive. We decided to make the effort to provide a platform for the best in pan music to be showcased in Barbados. And so the Barbados Pan Festival was born.
In 2001 we broadened the event to a 2-day festival in an effort to showcase 2 different formats of pan: pan jazz featuring the small ensemble and the conventional steel orchestra. We continue to bring the newest innovations in steel pan entertainment to Barbados. We put together the finest musicians our region produces. ‘Steel & Ivory’, ‘Calypso & Steel’, ‘Brass & Steel’, ‘Poetry & Steel’ are some of the many ways we present the steel pan in all its glory. Photo Gallery
Since our inception we have hosted many of the biggest names in the steelband world: PANAZZ PLAYERS,AMOCO RENEGADES, & Arturo Tappin, Liam Teague, WITCO DESPERADOS, EXODUS, Ray Holman, KEN PHILMORE,BoogsieSharpe,RobbieGreenidge, Hell’sGate,Ralph Mc-Donald, Andy Narell.
Caribbean Seven-A-Side Competition There are small steelpan ensemble competitions in almost every Caribbean Island, Pan Ramajay in Trinidad, Moods of Pan in Antigua, to name two. There is an ensemble category in the steel pan’s world governing body PanTrinbago’s World Steelband Music Festival. The format is stage friendly and the groups are highly competitive. This type of competition brings out the skills and styles of individual players.
The Caribbean Seven-A-Side ensemble consists of 5 pan players, a percussionist and a drummer. The first Competition winners, BWEE Invaders, took home a prize of BDS$5,000 in 2005.
The second Caribbean Seven-A-Side has attracted ensembles from Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. . Review 2006.
There is a Magic In Pan in A Minor. And it is especially exhilarating when a steel band interprets the classic in a way that would be sure to please its author Lord Kitchener.
Patrons who were caught up in the rapture on Saturday night in the Savannah Hotel car park, will loudly attest that the TCL Group Skiffle Bunch did just that.
The Trinidadian group predictably won the Seven-A-Side Competition in the eighth annual Barbados Pan Festival/ Pan Under the Trees 2006 with a score of 272 points.
It was thrilling just to see the tenors adding some dynamics that appealed to the visual, but the execution of the Boogise Sharpe arrangement was tops. Pan lovers were in bliss.
Even though the Skiffle Bunch were the second of the eight groups to appear, it was always going to be a challenge for any other group to out play them.
They were 42 points behind but members of the Park Side Steel group have several reasons to celebrate their second place, high on the list would be the historic appearance of a Guyanese Steel band on a Barbadian stage. Park Side got 230 points for Why Mi Life Gone.
Third place went to Digicel Rythmix out of St. Vincent. The Rythmix paid tribute to Ray Charles with I cant Stop Loving You, which was offered for judging and it earned them 223 points.
Grenada landed a fourth with the Courts New Dimension. Genesis and Cable & Wireless Starlift flew the flag for Dominica and St. Vincent respectively.
Barbados was well represented by the all-male group Pan Extreme and the Andre Forde project. The latter was put together for the competition and the youngsters, who averaged age 16, must be proud of their showing and should not be discouraged by their cellar position.
They had a good synergy and, given the standard of some of the other groups, the Andre Forde project played well.
The Barbados Pan Festival Vision
Since our first production in 1997, my main commitment is, preserving the cultural expressions of each island, developing a message and branding products that capture the essence of a unified Caribbean.
Showing support for each island, bridging cultural, economic, social and religious barriers, while having regional and international appeal. Selling the region to the global economy via the concept of Our cultural Exponents is my vision”.
This event has the potential to attract large numbers of our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean and beyond. There is enthusiastic response to the Festival in all the Caribbean Islands. We saw good numbers coming from these islands to the Festival over the last few years. Our website http://www.barbadospanfestival.com/ was launched in 2001 and we’ve had hits from most of the Caribbean Islands and as far as Mexico, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and South Africa.
We hosted 11 Workshops for school children from 1997-2006 at various school halls across Barbados as part of our ongoing effort towards the promotion of musical interest among the youth, and the strengthening of our vision for the formation of a national schools steel orchestra
Pan is an instrument that people around the world identify with the Caribbean. We in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean must satisfy the demand of visitors to see and hear the sound they all know to be from this part of the world. The Caribbean 7A-Side Steel Pan Competition will satisfy that demand.
Mike Murray
CEO Barbados Pan Festival.
We Coordinated the Advertising and Promotion of the Trinidad & Tobago Steel Pan & Jazz Festival in Barbados & the Eastern Caribbean in 2004 & 2006
Think Pan Enjoy Pan Dance to Pan
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