A parang love affair

Sunday Newsday recently spoke to vice captain of the band, Simmone Edwin, and the band’s PRO, Lisette Khan, who said it felt good to win, not for bragging rights, but because it meant that all their hard work paid off.

“It took a lot of energy, time, and effort out of us to prepare for the competition. I was just so glad we got everything right on the night of the competition that, by the time our performance was over, it didn’t matter to me if we won, but of course, we were very glad that we did,” said Khan.

Voces Jovenes has been a band for 19 years, but competing since 2002.

Edwin explained the band emerged from a carolling group founded by Aelsar Sealy, the current manager of the band, who organised the children in her Petit Valley community. They performed from house to house and at old folks homes in the area, the also sang some Parang songs.

However, when most of the children got to their teen years, they did not want to continue carolling and so the older children decided to form a parang band.

Voces Jovenes performed in seventh position with the Annunciation song, “Maria”, and the Nacimiento, “Una Sola Voz”.

“Maria”, was composed by Jennifer Mc Pherson in 2009, and “Una Sola Voz” was composed by Alicia Jaggasar for the competition.

The simple songs were then arranged by the band’s musical director, Candice Corbie, who they described as a “mad genius.” “I think everything just fit together on the night of the competition.

We started off with good material - it was correct, well written - and the execution of it matched the message we were transmitting,” said Khan.

They said only a deep love for parang and the family atmosphere of the band could have kept them playing all these years.

“You definitely have to have a love for it because the money is definitely not there, and the respect that we would like to see the rest of the country have for our artform is definitely not there so if you look to those things to get any kind of satisfaction you would probably not stick around for long,” said Edwin.

Khan added that the band’s motto was “Keeping the Tradition Alive.” She said the band members believe they have a responsibility to the tradition, and so have to present it as best as they can.

“We have a responsibility to teach and to encourage young people around us to one day join and pick up an instrument, learn some songs and continue. Parang is a really beautiful thing that I would hate to see die,” Edwin added.

To this end, members of the band visit two schools in the west helping school parang bands and teaching the students about Parang.

When it comes to youth, Khan and Edwin had nothing but praise for the band Voces de Promesa. The band, which tied for second place in the competition, is not only the youngest band on the NPATT circuit, but all its members are under 30. “The level that they brought this year shocked us in a good way. It definitely gave us a new-found respect for them as a band,” they said.

Khan noted that she remembered some of the members of the band from the Junior competitions and said she was impressed by the level of maturity they attained. In fact she stated that several bands on the senior circuit were from the junior competition, and that some of the younger members of older bands have young people who came out of the junior competition.

She therefore praised NPATT for it’s junior competition and encouraged the organisation to continue their work.

Edwin admitted that one of the most challenging aspect of the music is composing, especially since most of the members are not fluent in Spanish. However, the band still insists on proper Spanish lyrics which involves a lot of checking and rechecking.

“With the format of our traditional parang song, we practised so long for the competition to get it perfected.

Not only in our diction and the musicality, but with the structure of the song, which, for the competition, has to be a certain way,” Edwin explained.

Khan said the problem with some parang songs is that they are passed on to others who are not Spanish speakers.

“These people are learning the songs according to how the words sound and, of course, over time, the song would change so what you may end up with is different from the original in terms of grammar and pronunciation and you get a lot of broken Spanish,” she explained.

In addition to the band’s insistence on proper Spanish, the band is also all acoustic.

Therefore, they do not use any recorded tracks, bass guitars, synthesisers, or drum machines - even when performing in non-competitive programmes.

Although they keep the music traditional, Khan and Edwin believe change is good, but that any change should add value and not detract from the artform.

“Change is inevitable and necessary to ensure that the artform doesn’t stagnate. I see certain innovations that I find admirable, things that bring a freshness to the way the artform is presented,” Khan admitted.

However, she expressed disappointment that soca parang has been reduced mainly to sexual innuendoes. She also believes that there needs to be a strong distinction between parang and Latin music, although she did not mind if a parang band added contemporary Latin songs to their repertoire.

Edwin agreed saying that one of her pet peeves is what radio stations “pass off” as parang. “You can’t play a cuatro, a marac and a box bass, and throw in any lyrics and call it a parang. It’s a very poor reflection of what we do and I think it’s a little bit on the disrespectful side because, with the wide audience that stations reach, they are making people think this is what parang is,” she said.