Steadman’s girls big on calypso, studies

WHAT would top off the day, Father’s Day, for Stedman Hazell is a specially prepared dish of dumpling, provision and salt fish, “or oil down, anything like that, creole food,” he specified, by the hands of his loving wife Michelle. The Hazell girls burst out laughing. “As a matter of fact, if daddy could have dumpling and salt fish or smoke herring everyday for the rest of his life, he would be happy,” said his elder daughter, St?chelle. Michelle was not surprised by her husband’s request, but for a moment, was secretly plotting “to hop a plane” to anywhere, just like he did for Mother’s Day. Last month, Stedman accompanied his daughter, Sheynnene, Junior Calypso Monarch of 2003 and 2004, to New York for the annual Mother’s Day Show, where Sheynnene was an invited guest.

The grin on Michelle’s face, seconds later, suggested she was joking. The singing Hazell sisters — St?chelle, 13, Sheynnene, 10, and Shalleike, eight, would love to spend the entire day entertaining their daddy. It is a norm for each of the girls to take turns, singing karaoke style, atop the dining room table. Perhaps, simply watching television together as a family, or a trip to the beach would be enjoyable. Their only wish was that their eldest sister, Shenilee, who is pursuing a degree in dentistry at a university in London, England, could join them.  Days, like today, don’t come often. The Hazells all lead busy lives. Michelle, 38, is a standard four teacher and choir mistress at St Margaret’s AC Primary School in Belmont. Moments before our interview, she was taking a student through her lines for a musical number which the choir would perform for the SEA students’ graduation the following day.

At the end of a long day, she ensures that everyone in her household has a hot meal and their lunch bags packed for the next day. St?chelle, on the other hand, is a Form Three student at St Joseph’s Convent, Port-of-Spain. Although she hasn’t returned to the singing spotlight after her glory days as NJAC Jewels and Pioneers winner, she occasionally plays steelpan with Invaders Steel Orchestra; this apart from other school activities which keep her occupied. Sheynnene and Shalleike, both students of St Margaret’s AC, starred in last week’s edition of the newspapers for receiving prizes won over the Carnival season. Shalleike made her debut at this year’s Junior Calypso Monarch with the Larry Harewood composition, “Daddy’s Horn” — an idea she herself came up with — placing fourth. Sheynnene, however, reclaimed her trophy, and only recently, was bestowed the honour of tributing two heroes in song — batsman Brian Lara on his world record of 400 runs not out, and freedom fighter and former South African president Nelson Mandela, on his visit to Trinidad. Sheynnene, this year’s school Valedictorian, is awaiting SEA results.

At her school’s graduation on Thursday she was attributed the Principal’s Award and Most Outstanding/Best All-round student. Stedman, 47, however, has the mammoth task of managing hundreds of pupils and a staff at Four Roads Primary School in Diego Martin, as well as his household of five at Emerald Gardens, Charlieville. The differences? “At home you don’t have much to do besides reinforcing and supporting,” he laughed. (He has given up cooking and sewing for the children, temporarily, because of time constraints.) “You can shape and help mould personalities; and it’s a constant environment you can control. At school you can control to an extent, but you are guided by the school’s basic policies handed out by the Ministry (Education) as opposed to rules I would set at home.”

Stedman has a history of 20 years in the school system. In 1982, he started out at St Anthony’s College teaching “for free” after acting on his brother’s complaints, who was a student at the school, that his Mathematics class was short of a teacher. “I went to the school, spoke with the principal and he offered me to teach that Form Four class for free.” This, after Stedman had presented passes in A’level Math, Physics and Biology attained at Fatima College. “I was later offered the job as Maths teacher of the Form Five classes and after attending Teachers Training College, I moved on to Crystal Stream Government where I stayed for seven years,” Stedman told “People”. Thereafter, he moved on to Diego Martin Junior Secondary as Maths teacher and three years later, he became principal at Four Roads Primary, a post he continues to occupy since 1999.

He is also a member of TTUTA, public relations officer of the Principals Association and was a former officer at TUCO. Last week he visited the sister isle on business for the launch of the Tobago Principals Association. Stedman and Michelle recently celebrated a double golden anniversary, as they termed it — 11 years of marriage celebrated on April 11 and 17 years as a couple, celebrated on April 17. Together they work as a team, catering to the needs of each of their children, whose desires are to pursue various aspects of medicine, and still keep their calypso flag flying. It was a case of the domino effect that each of the Hazell sisters got involved in singing calypso. Of course, chief instigator of it all was Stedman. He related: “I was a single parent at the time with one daughter, Shenilee. And at nights, while putting her to sleep I would sing her nursery rhymes, and just to frustrate me so that she wouldn’t fall asleep, she would sing the wrong thing. Many times I used to fall asleep before her.

“She was in second year at the time when her teacher called me one day. She said that Shenilee amazed them when she sang for the school at assembly. At that time I didn’t have a clue about junior calypso so I decided to register her for the competition (NJAC Juniors) but the school said she was too young so I went behind the principal’s back and signed her up,” he said. Stedman sat down one day and penned the words to the song ‘Infant Power’ which, up til today, is sung by children in schools throughout the country. After Shenilee’s win at the NJAC Pioneers competition, Stedman was on a roll. He then composed the songs “My Ambition”, “A Tribute to Boogsie” and “Pan in the School System” for her. At her Junior Calypso Monarch debut she placed second and the following year, she placed first with a song composed by Harewood. In 1995, at six years of age, Shenilee picked up two titles winning NJAC Juniors and Junior Monarch.

The singing fever caught on to St?chelle, who won NJAC Pioneers on two occasions and Jewels, one time around. Stedman wrote St?chelle his last composition, “School Day Jam”, an idea that burgeoned while commuting to and from work with the children every day. A brave and adamant Sheynnene was thrilled to follow in the footsteps of her sisters. She was taken under the wings of Christophe Grant who wrote her winning songs.

Shalleike, whom her siblings described as ‘Shenilee-struck’, is still adjusting to the stage and pays special attention to her father’s coaching on her presentation. She wants to become a dentist. St?chelle wants to be a paediatrician “because I just like kids”, while Sheynnene wants to be a gynaecologist. She said: “I enjoy watching ER and channel 29 and seeing them deliver babies. I want to do that. I think we have a connection between us.”

Stedman foresees great things for his girls as far as calypso is concerned. He shared his vision: “I look at calypso as an avenue because, I don’t know if it would happen in their lifetime, but it would make a breakthrough. If they nurture it well and use it wisely we could present the Caribbean as the home of calypso, not just Trinidad. “Let’s take the Cricket World Cup for example, if gates were open for the recent game against England at 7 o’clock, could you imagine the thousands of people lined up outside the Oval in 2007? The gates would have to be opened by 3 a.m; and between that time and the start of the game there is need for entertainment. Apart from that, tourists looking for a lime could go to places where there is live entertainment. So, they can study their school work and at the same time, music can get them where they want to go.”