Despers goes Pan in the 21st Century

THE 15 minutes of fireworks which started at 11.00 pm was the perfect celebration for what followed one hour later. There was jubilation on stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Saturday night as WITCO Desperadoes  and La Horquetta Pan Groove were crowned winners in the TSTT sponsored Pan in The 21st Century and Pan Down Memory Lane competitions. For the third year running, arranger Duvonne Stewart placed the Arima-based La Horquetta Pan Groove in winners’ row in the Pan Down Memory Lane competition. Stewart took JC Lodge’s “Someone Loves You Honey” and made it into a gem for pan while his charges executed the arrangement with minor flaws. After their performance it was all over, bar the shouting.

Before La Horquetta, second placed World Wide put in a fantastic rendition of “Do Ray Me” and Ice Water Pan Ensemble did justice to “You Are My Special Angel.” Arima All Stars trilled the audience with Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind” while Laventille Serenaders rendered a Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe’s arrangement of “Que Sera Sera.” The songs chosen by the 12 Single Pan Orchestras in this competition were well received by the audience. They (the bands) were required to play a non-calypso song in calypso tempo. Dubbed “The King of slow tempo” veteran arranger Clive Bradley took John Legend’s current hit “Ordinary People” and turned it into a winning composition in the Pan In The 21st Century competition.

Bradley was the only arranger to use a recently composed song as the others went down memory lane with their choices. From the first note of the arrangement Witco Desperadoes had the audience spell bound, their tonal quality and general performance did wonders to the arrangement and when they were finished the audience in both the Grand Stand and Northern picnic area were shouting at the top of their voices. Leaders coming into the finals Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove (one point ahead of Despers) continued where they left off in the preliminary round with Boogsie’s arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean.” This time though, they completed the performance with many of Jackson’s moves and screams as well as the one glove routine. In the end they were only able to muster a second place behind Despers failing by three points.