The shackles of Panorama

Outside the concert halls and music rooms, in a panyard shackled by a Panorama format, the holder of a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s in Music Performance, with an emphasis on the Steelpan, from the Northern Illinois University (NIU) –the first institution in the world to make room for the steelpan– Teague has created a buzz in the Panorama circles that’s been largely ignored except by the droves that journey to the Silver Stars panyard at 56 Tragarete Road, Newtown, to hear what he brings to the table.

Getting to the core of his belief which is “going beyond the status quo”, Teague explained: “The bass line is very different.

It is not the classic calypso or soca bass line, I always trying to keep one foot in traditional while I genuflect to what’s happening in the contemporary world.

“Arranging music for Panorama is the biggest creative challenge that I have because I am trying to win a competition,” he said, explaining how he works against the odds.

“As steelpan musicians, for Panorama there is a certain degree of accountability that is expected from us. Nobody is gonna pay money to hear us play in a mediocre fashion so we work so hard because we are accountable to the adjudicators and to the audience,” Teague said.

“We need to demand the same of the adjudicators as it should not be that 20 years ago I could look at a comment sheet where they make very general comments and today it is the same.

The type of comments that I could teach the layman to make in a day or two.

“You find a lot of arrangers being disillusioned because they feel like it is the tail wagging the dog, a lot of times. If this event has to continue as a competition these things have to change. We need to have faith that the adjudicators are actually hearing what they say. Admittedly, there are some who make the effort.

“I would feel more respect if a judge could say to me, ‘Mr Teague that diminished scale that you have there, I did not feel that it was the right place to put it in’,” he said. “I may not necessarily agree but at least I could respect that they are hearing with that degree of specificity.

We don’t always get that accountability.

“As opposed to the Steelband Music Festival, in Panorama you are not only adjudicating the execution of the music but the music of itself and now you have a panel in which some of whom have not created anything for steelpan, many have not played the instrument and they are being asked to evaluate the Boogsie Sharpes of the world, so you can understand why some arrangers are upset,” he emphasised.

There is a growing core of musicians among steelpan players who deserve that level of professionalism, Teague contends.

“In some ways it is being done at the tertiary level at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). I see that because a lot of the students who are playing with Silver Stars, when they talk to me about the music, it is very, very profound, it’s not just making general statements.

“That is the change that I am seeing,” Teague said.

“What can actually help Panorama is educating the masses.

A lot of people come into the panyard and sit and listen but aren’t aware of the intricacies and the subtleties in the music.

“We can spend five or ten minutes speaking to the audience to give them a deeper appreciation and a lot of people will be more inclined to visit panyards because what they are hearing won’t be a mystery.

“It is all around us and truth be told many people think about the steelpan as noise and if I was a layman and my only experience with steelpan was with Panorama a lot of the bands may sound the same and that is where education is important,” said Teague who has performed with the National Symphony Orchestras of the US, Taiwan, Panama and Czechoslovakia as well as diverse international ensembles.

“The symphony orchestras don’t play the work of just one composer, and I think it is very educational for players to learn different styles and appreciate the different arrangers here in Trinidad and listen with impartiality because it is important that it would help us to grow and bring us together as a fraternity,” Teague said.

“Panorama is stagnant; we are still dealing with theme and variations which is still true since the 1960s.

“It makes you wonder why try anything new if they are not gonna recognise it. That is placing creative shackles on the whole movement,” Teague ended.