Sweet music at Youth Steel Explosion

THREE of the top junior steelbands in TT were selected to entertain at the Youth Steel Explosion held at the Emancipation village in the Queen’s Park Savannah on Tuesday. BPTT Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra, Republic Bank Exocubs and St Margaret’s Youth Steel Orchestra, entertained for 30 minutes each, silently competing for bragging rights.

Following the playing of the National Anthem by Emmanuel Joseph, the lad joined his fellow young Renegades, and led by Barry Mannette, they started the event with an Ella Andall composition, The Redemption Song.

The band followed with a jazz piece Feel So Good, composed by Chuck Mangioni long before any of them was born, but the way it was executed earned them tumultuous applause from the small crowd on hand at the event.

Renegades closed their first half with a spirited performance of a calypso medley comprising Long time (Arrow), I Doh Mind (Winston Soso), Hot Hot Hot (Arrow) and Bassman/Stranger (Shadow). Manager Julie Williams next got her Exocubs to deliver Celebration (Kool & The Gang), Let’s Get Loud (Jennifer Lopez), I’m Not The Only One (Sam Smith) and Iron Love (Nailah Blackman).

St Margaret’s, managed by Nicholas D’Arbreau, opaened their repertoire with an African song Soobax, followed by a reggae medley of Bob Marley’s songs, My Redeemer (Nicole Mullen) and closed its first set with I Want You Back (Jackson 5).

A hyped up and excited Renegades returned with I Feel It Coming (The Weekend), Marley’s Redemption Songs, Comanchero (Moon Ray) and closed their upbeat performance with Savannah Grass (Kees Dieffenthaller).

Exocubs got their second set going with Too Hot, and continued with Day One (Farmer Nappy/Machel Montano), Pata Pata (Miriam Makeba) and Bring down The Power (Ella Andall).

For St Margaret’s second set they opted for an all out calypso and soca repertoire.

The calypso medley comprised Portrait of Trinidad (Sniper), Trini to De Bone (David Rudder/Carl Jacobs) and Lorraine (Explainer), and the soca medley included Savannah Grass, Hookin Meh (Farmer Nappy), So Long (Nadia Batson) and Famalay (Skinny Fabulous, Bunji and Machel Montano).

Hosted by the Emancipation Support Committee (ESC), Kadija Dyer, ESC youth officer said outside of the Carnival season one doesn’t really see the junior bands performing, hence the reason for including them on the programme.

“It is really good to see the young people interested in playing this musical instrument, the steelpan, the only one in the 21st century that was born in TT.”