Pannists show love at Sapa

TOP steelbands BP Renegades and CAL Skiffle teamed up for a show titled Hello, This is the Year for Love, which reflected the names of the calypsoes which earned the respective bands their first and second placing in the Panorama competition.

Renegades won with a Duvone Stewart arrangement of Aaron “Voice” St Louis’ Year for Love, and CAL Skiffle placed second with a Kendall Williams, Marc Brooks and Odie Franklin arrangement of Kees Dieffenthaller’s Hello.

The show also commemorated Renegades’ 70th anniversary. The band got its name from a Hollywood movie of the same name back in 1948.

The concert at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (Sapa) on Republic Day was nostalgic for San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello, who presented Renegades with a gift to commemorate the anniversary. He recalled sometime in the 1990s, one of the trucks transporting Skiffle’s float to Panorama, got into an accident. He said Renegades came to the band’s rescue, lending them its float, so they could perform.

He also spoke about the relationship shared with Renegade’s arranger, Stewart, who not only gave Skiffle the World the Steelband Festival championship, but also earned five victories, four consecutively, for San Fernando small band Pan Elders over the years.

Dressed in purple and white, Skiffle of Coffee Street, San Fernando opened the show with a repertoire that embraced all genres of music and featured gifted vocalists representing both youth and experience.

Led by its co-captains Joshua Regrello and Brandon Babb, the band chose the famous classic Nessum Dorma, piped from the robust voice of Edward Cumberbatch and conducted by Victor Prescod, as its opening act.

Young Zoe Webster’s choice of The Prayer, with the band being conducted this time by Shaquille Vincent, was delivered with elegance. Webster, a St Joseph’s Convent, San Fernando student, is one of this year’s Musical Festival winners.

Skiffle demonstrated its aptitude with The Swing, Georgia on My Mind and a calypso medley with the performance accompanied by choreographed and some spontaneous moves.

When David Rudder was announced, the almost packed venue greeted him with love and he reciprocated with three of his timeless pieces, the Land of Oil and Music, Adrenaline City and The Hammer.

September 24 also marked the birthday of ailing calypso icon Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) and in celebration of that, the two bands, with the aid of calypsonian El Drago, incorporated Stalin’s music in their repertoire and also presented his wife, Patsy, with tokens of their appreciation.

Skiffle ended their session on a high with a memorable performance of their Panorama arrangement of Hello.

But Renegades showed why they are number one as they opened with arranger Duvone Stewart performing a solo of Lionel Richie’s Hello, ending in a crescendo with the entire band.

It was uphill from there as the band demonstrated its proficiency, easily moving from one genre, into the other. From pop into the classics, reggae and calypso.

Mi Tierra, Harder They Come, Air from Suite No3 In D, conducted by Desmond Waithe, a medley of Stalin hits, including Play One and Bun Dem, Let it Be, Pan Patterns and of course, its winning Year for Love, were among their wide repertoire selected for this first-time collaboration.

The audience, however, did not seem prepared for vocalist Samuel Thomas whose rich performance of the spiritual, Change Gonna Come, filled the auditorium before he actually appeared on stage. His incredible vocals plus his showmanship earned him a standing ovation at the end of his performance.

Krisson Joseph, an equally gifted vocalist, had the audience singing along as he offered his special adaptation of Nelson’s King Liar.

Southerners lauded the show and most of all, the fact that it was at their door steps and they did not have to journey from Port of Spain when it ended.