Indiana memorial concert to honour pan pioneer Cliff Alexis

RAY FUNK and ANDREW MARTIN

Pan pioneer the late Dr Clifford Alexis will be the subject of a special tribute at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The tribute will feature a special memorial concert in honour of the influential tuner, pannist, composer, arranger and educator. It will showcase a steelband comprising former students, bandmates, and friends and will be held on November 12.

Pannists from across the globe, including Antigua and Barbuda, Canada, Jamaica, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago and the US, are scheduled to play in the memorial steelband. Many of them were former students of Alexis at Northern Illinois University (NIU) where Alexis co-led the steelband programme from 1985-2016.

The tribute is being organised by Yuko Asada of NIU and Dr Elizabeth DeLamater, an NIU graduate who has taught at UWI and other institutions, including the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Asada took over the master tuner’s role as instrument technician for the NIU steelband programme on Alexis’a retirement in 2016. Asada also leads the NIU community steelband and was recently featured in the Women in Pan film series created and produced by Mark Loquan and Maria Nunes.

Several notable TT NIU graduates will be travelling to PASIC to perform in the tribune concert for their former teacher, including Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin, Dr Jeannine Remy, Akua Leith, Seion Gomez and Barry Mannette.

Gormandy-Benjamin says the educational focus of the Percussive Arts Society is the perfect backdrop.

“PASIC is a prime space to honour the great Dr Clifford Alexis,” she said. “Given the historical significance of his work and his legacy that has continued to live on, I am honoured to be part of the celebration of his life and contributions to steelpan.

“The stage will be a representation of what was, what is, and what will be in the world of steelpan, all in the name of Dr Cliff Alexis.”

In addition to those travelling from TT, several TT nationals now teaching in the US will also participate, including Josanne Francis, Kenneth Joseph, Jason Woodley, Joshua Bedeau and Daron Roberts.

Besides his work at NIU, Alexis also worked closely for decades with seminal American-based pan programmes like Dr Eugene Novotney’s at Humboldt State University in California and Dr Larry Snider’s at the University of Akron, Ohio. Both will be attending the tribute to their late friend and colleague.

Novotney noted: "Truthfully, the Humboldt Calypso Band owes its entire existence to Clifford Alexis. Cliff was the inspiration for the band, made all of the original instruments for the group, and was our first ever guest artist, way back in 1987.

“Cliff made the trip up to Humboldt at least 20 times throughout the years, and every time he came, he inspired a new generation of students, both through his words and through his actions. The students loved him and so did the Humboldt community. Cliff made everyone feel like they mattered.”

Since 1987 Alexis was a regular clinician, performer and attendee at PASIC, mostly via his role as co-director of the NIU Steelband. He co-ordinated the first mass steelband at PASIC in 1987 and was honoured along with fellow pan pioneer Ellie Mannette in 1994 for their contributions to the art form.

Throughout his storied career, Alexis was no stranger to awards and accolades. He was recognised with the 1983 and 1984 Minnesota Black Musician of the Year award. In 1997, he was given an Award of Excellence by Pan Trinbago. In 2001, he received the Pan Legend Award from the TT Folk Arts Institute in New York. In 2002, he was inducted into the Sunshine Hall of Fame Award. In 2006, Alexis and the other members of the 1964 TT National Steel Orchestra were honoured by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs for their groundbreaking work. In 2012, he received two Emmy nominations for his work on Hammer on Steel, a documentary produced at the University of Akron.

As part of a tremendous honour that recognised his entire career in pan, Alexis was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2013. The society said, “Clifford Alexis has come to represent quality and innovation for steelpan builders, tuners, educators, performers and aficionados.”

Throughout his impressive career, Alexis always carried a piece of Trinidad with him and was quick to tell a story, give advice, or offer a glimmer of insight into his homeland, which gave to him what he shared with the world for nearly 60 years.

For Novotney, PASIC was a favourite place. "Cliff loved everything about PASIC! He saw it as an opportunity to see old friends and make new ones. He was a trailblazer and steelpan pioneer, but above all, he loved interacting with people and talking about pan ­– and that was what he did non-stop at PASIC.”

The story of Cliff Alexis’s life is one of extraordinary achievement and extraordinary consequence.

The PASIC tribute concert will feature new works, including a new composition dedicated to him by long-time friend Robert Greenidge.

A second composition is a medley of four separate Alexis arrangements spanning three decades of popular music, ranging from doo-wop to 90s R&B, edited into one piece by Delamater.

This will be followed by two by of Alexis’s best-known compositions, Confusion Reggae, one of his earliest published compositions, which is a favourite of many pannists and steelbands in the US, and Pan 2000, composed by Alexis for the 2000 World Steelband Festival in Trinidad. The NIU Steelband famously won second place performing it at the competition.

The programme concludes with Liam Teague’s recent piece Dream, a concerto for pan, with soloists given a chance to improvise, which is dedicated to Alexis and references three of his compositions – Summer Song, Song to the Chiricahua, and Confusion Reggae. It was commissioned by Michael Mizma and the San Jacinto College Steelband, and is a unique calypso-based concerto with improvised solos.

Historic audio and video recordings of Alexis will also be played as part of the tribute concert between musical selections.