Why must panmen play old tunes?

THE EDITOR: Pan Trinbago’s concept of introducing preliminary judging in the panyards was in my opinion, one of the most innovative ideas coming from the organisation for a long time. This helped to reduce costs drastically and at the same time bring the communities closer to the instrument, but somehow this year’s idea of allowing orchestras to perform tunes of 2005 and those gone by (once not played before in Panorama) is yet to catch my fancy. Calypso is a folk music which is indigenous to its people but we have not yet decided whether we should keep the music to ourselves or allow it to evolve into a form of international acceptance.

I will always agree that the calypso music of the past is of a higher quality, but the music is still evolving and we have to allow new ideas in order to encourage the creative process. It doesn’t matter how much garbage is thrown at us, young minds must be able to explore all possibilities; there is something about youth that is irreplaceable. A lot of modern music we hear today is heavily recycled but in a different form; I often laugh as a music enthusiast when I hear entertainers taking other melodies from past performers and putting a new twist to it in a very bold face manner. All this is the price you have to pay as technology advances. I don’t have a cell phone because my privacy is important to me; I am not against the use of cell phones and I suppose it has its advantages.

My reference to cell phones is merely to bring home the point that the progressive nature of ideas must be allowed to flourish. Carnival is a seasonal thing and we have grown accustomed to new products every year, why then go back to the past when there are already events such as “Pan Down Memory Lane’ and ‘Pan in the 21st Century’? What about the Road March? This year’s road march, as the rule states, must be a song produced by Ash Wednesday of the last year and not before. I know the argument will be raised that steelbands no longer play an integral part of that aspect of judging, but Shadow was able to make a clean sweep not too long ago and quite a few steelbands played “Stranger,” food for thought.

It is wrong to blame the president of Pan Trinbago, Mr Patrick Arnold because the panmen themselves voted in favour of this new idea, although it appears to me that somehow the president of Pan Trinbago is always fortunate to have some ‘yes” men around him (smile); just my opinion. I am all for giving it a try but I don’t think that it is a right move. The modern day soca artistes are already sampling other people’s melodies so what is the point; let the music evolve.

EARL MARTIN
Trincity