Trinidad Carnival 2008 was great!!! It was a good experience for my wife (Angela) and children (Rochella & Jamani) to see the level of dedication & pride that goes into preparing the Bands and artist, to create such levels of excellence, in all the shows we attended. From when we arrived and was met by Yohan Poppewell, who took us to CLICO Sforzata Pan Theatre (The band Poppewell arranged for) it was none stop. The band sounded great and we stayed until the wee hours of the morning.
The following day we visited the Calypso review tent, which was a great show, with the backing band jamming sweet sweet Kaiso, it was nice to see Baron as well as Sugar Aloes and many other artists perform, finishing off with none other than Uncle Crazy. After leaving the Review I could not help with catching up with some old friends at the Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars Pan theatre, this was about 1.30am and practice was in full swing.
Saturday was very busy with us visiting the Children’s King & Queens competition; it was amazing to see the age groups of the children and size of the costumes they were wearing. It is so great to see how generations & generations have been carrying on these traditions from such a young age.
After resting for a bit, it was time for PAN!!! We attended the single Pan Semi finals, this was great as usual. The whole area was ringing to the sound of Pan & more Pan. Later we met up with some good friends from Trinidad All Stars, Daniel & Chappy who was on their way to rehearsal so we tagged along, All Stars sounded great, we had some bake & shark followed by a few bottles of Stag & Carib lager with the children having soft drinks. The food and music was like heaven, by then we had lost track of time. Yohan had to remind us that we have a long day ahead of us; Sunday was the conventional bands "Panorama semi finals" so we best get some rest.
We arrived at the Savannah for Panorama semi finals about 10.30am and the place was just buzzing with people, bands setting up, some were already practicing, and we knew it was just going to be a full day of non-stop pan music. There were the small, medium and large bands categories; it was just great – food, sunshine & pan music, any pannist’s dream. Yohan’s band, CLICO SForzata, played really well, as the day progressed I kept bumping into old friends that I had not seen for some time, Robert Greenidge, Boogsie, Jit Samaroo, Earl Brooks, & lots more, they were all glad to see us, & gave Jamani some good solid advice about Pan, Ray Holman was really surprise to see how much Jamani had grown, because the last time Ray saw Jamani was when we played together in Birmingham, and he came to my house, Jamani was about 3 years old, and was playing his drums for Uncle Ray, at that time Ray commented on how Jamani had a real good sense of rhythm for his age.
As the evening progressed the Big Guns were really intense, Exodus’s presentation look and sounded good. My brother, Norman of Pan Maestros, kept sending me text messages from England telling me to watch out for Phase II, but my Heart was with All Stars & Desperadoes. When I heard Robert Greenidge’s arrangement of ‘The Ten Commandments of Pan’, it hit me in my soul. But All Stars was the band on the night, full of Vibes & energy. After their performance you just knew without a doubt they had to come first.
The Monday was more Pan with the Schools Panorama finals, this was excellent to see the young players, playing to such a high standard Rochella & Jamani really enjoyed this event, which was also held at the Queens Park Savannah. On the Monday night we went to the Calypso tents clash at the National Stadium this was also a great show, they also had the Yangatang tent with jokes ‘till yuh belly buss’, and it was great to also see the Mighty Sparrow perform, and know that he is still going strong.
The Days were going so fast, by Carnival Wednesday we was at the Customs fete, this was also a wicked show, with Machel Montano, Bungi Garlin, Roy Cape, Sherwin Winchester and many more, it was none stop bacchanal. In the early hours of Friday morning around 4.30am, we went to All Stars pan yard for the Canboulay presentation, this was moved to the corner of Duke Street, and was a brilliant presentation of the Bois battalions stick fights which took place on Duke Street, Port of Spain in 1838. It was great to see what the people of Trinidad had to fight for to allow us to have Carnival today. This ended up like a mini Jouvert, with Freelanders Steelband playing. Carnival Friday morning the sun was beating down on Port of Spain and the music tempo was sweet, they even had Tamboo bamboo bands jamming on the streets, this was great to listen and see, and know this was responsible for the birth of Pan.
Carnival Saturday was great, after visiting the Kiddies Carnival we went down to San Fernando for Panorama finals, it was nice to watch the bands from the stands, but I really missed the Drag, all the bands played well, All stars was our favorite, but the judges saw it fit to name Phase 11 Pan Groove the winners. That’s life.
Carnival Sunday saw the Dimance Gras show which was magnificent with the King and Queens, it was really amazing and the calypsos were quite good, we felt Sugar Aloes was a clear winner. After Dimanche Gras, we only had a little time to rest and get ready for 4.am, the start of Jouvert, Yohan brought us to All Stars and we were in paradise, Carnival Monday we were all tired but kept on going, till about 3.pm by now we were on our last legs but knew we had one more day to go.
Carnival Tuesday was like being in heaven, we started the day with All stars played Sailor Mas with plenty of white powder, then enjoyed the costumes from other bands and by late evening we found Despers and heard more sweet pan until we reached the corner of Duke street and ended back at Hell Yard – All Stars pan yard. It was another day of Great Pan Music. I highly recommended for the soul.
On Ash Wednesday, myself and Jamani had the privilege of performing on the TV show, Community Date Line for Alison Hennessy along side Dane Gulstrom, "tenor soloist from Trinidad All Stars’, they were very impressed with the work we are doing over seas with pan. Then it was time to chill out at the beach.
But we can all say that Trinidad Carnival is definitely the Greatest Show on Earth, and the Land of Pan, Calypso, Rapso, Chutney, Groovy and Ragga Soca.
Check out Jamma's Carnival photos at http://www.jammasteelpan.net/trinidad.htm
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