Pan Ramajay is back after 16 years

IT’S time to Ramajay again. The folk word which means to let go or break away is particularly true for members of the pan fraternity as the Pan Ramajay competition has returned after a 16 year hiatus.

When the competition began in 1989 it was done to create a competition outside of Panorama and the Steelpan Music Festival. Fernandes Vat19 Fonclaire and the Samaroo Jets jointly won the first Pan Ramajay. The competition stopped in 2004 because there was insufficient funding to host it properly, Republic Bank Exodus’ manager Ainsworth Mohammed said on June 10 in a phone interview with Newsday.

Initially, “the alternative competition would allow small ensembles of up to ten members to show their talent in the art of improvisation coupled with their virtuoso performance on the pans,” mypanyard.co.uk said.

It added, “In 1993 the soloist competition was introduced to Pan Ramajay. As soloists they are accompanied by an in-house band and take centre stage to display their skills. The winner of the first soloist competition was Dennis ‘Smithy’ Smith from Saint Madeleine Village, South Trinidad. In 1994 Natasha Joseph became the first female to enter the competition, playing the double tenor, and was placed as runner up.”

The management of exodus always considered hosting the competition again. The growth of online events in the wake of the covid19 pandemic encouraged the management to do so. It will take place from June 13-27. Originally, the competition was only open to TT pannists.

But this virtual Pan Ramajay “is open to steelpan musicians internationally, regardless of time zone/country and is designed to feature soloists, duos and quartets using any instrument in the steelpan family,” a media release said. Pannists were required to register via e-mail by June 3. Registration was free and they could enter any or all categories. The preliminary list posted on the band’s Facebook page showed pannists from TT, the US, St Maarten, Barbados, Japan, Denmark, Puerto Rico, Guyana, St Thomas, Antigua and Barbuda competing.

The participants will be judged on verse, chorus; melodic/motivic development; harmonic/rhythmic embellishment; dynamics; technicality; tonal quality and nuances, the release said and musicians in all categories are required to improvise.

The top soloist will receive US$,2000, second place – US$1,500 and third place – US$1,000.

The duo and quartet winners will receive US$3,000, US$2,000 and US$1,000, respectively.

Preliminary soloists, duos and quartets performed via a private live feed on June 8 and 9 and submitted a video for judging. The players performed one song from a list of five which was provided to all musicians.

Mohammed said there were 47 soloists, 17 duos and 12 quartets in the preliminaries. The semi-finalists will be announced on June 14 and there will also be a 30-minute broadcast showing some aspects of the preliminaries from 6 pm on the band’s Facebook and YouTube pages. From the preliminaries 20 soloists, ten duos and ten quartets will go on to the semi-finals, the release said. The songs for the semi-finals were distributed on June 10.

Mohammed said the preliminaries would not be broadcast as it would be far too long to do so.

The semi-finals will be held on June 15 and on June 20 the performance of the semi-final soloists will be shown. The semi-final performance of the duos will be shown on June 21 and the quartets on June 22.

From the semi-finals, ten soloists, five duos and five quartets will go on to the finals. The finals take place on June 27 from 8 pm.

For each category, soloists and duos will submit one video, quartets will submit two videos and duos and quartets must record together, the release said.

The primary objective of Pan Ramajay was “to provide a platform (other than Panorama and the Steelband Music Festival) for pan musicians to showcase their skills.”

Mohammed said the event’s four adjudicators are music professors and highly-qualified musicians including Prof Liam Teague, and Prof Ron Reid, Dr Eugene Novotney and adjunct professor Victor Provost.

Mohammed said Exodus hopes to build international brand awareness by hosting the event and hopes to return the competition to TT after the covid19 pandemic. However, he said the event will be hosted online for at least two years.