| To give you an idea of my connection to | | | | Sailor" band (Michael Jackson's source of his |
| Carnival and what I would prefer L.A. or any | | | | "Moonwalk") depicting the various sections of |
| other place to experience, let me begin with | | | | a ship; or having to avoid "Lucifer" and his |
| the fact that when I began playing mass, | | | | Entourage From Hell, to name just a few . . . |
| "Invaders" steel band did not even yet exist; | | | | All of whom were to be found not just in a |
| and when the band eventually came on the | | | | few isolated places on Carnival day, but in |
| scene, they were known, initially, as "Oval | | | | almost every district in the island. |
| Boys". You may therefore assume, and | | | | |
| correctly so, that I grew up in Wood brook. | | | | These traditional portrayals are now shunted, |
| | | | for the most part, and replaced by |
| Music of the steel bands - in addition to | | | | nondescript fluff and semi-nudity. Our |
| other LIVE music played by LIVE musicians on | | | | Carnival has fallen so low, in my humble, |
| conventional instruments - used to be the | | | | traditionalistic opinion, that it no longer |
| backbone, the catalytic driving force in our | | | | surpasses Brazil's but more resembles it, |
| Carnival. It was a creative, artistic | | | | having fallen almost to the level of Las |
| pursuit; and pan was synonymous with our | | | | Vegas "Schmaltz". Traditional has become |
| Carnival. | | | | almost a dirty word. A word to be ridiculed |
| | | | by a new generation of players showing no |
| To play mass used to mean, literally, to | | | | interest in embracing the history of their |
| portray a character. To tell a story. It was | | | | culture. Instead, they have been satisfied to |
| our own expressionistic, local theatricality. | | | | emulate and imitate "outsiders", either |
| Theatre of the street. Or as the late | | | | ignoring or not realizing the fact that it is |
| Trinidadian auteur, Dr. Errol Gaston Hill, | | | | their own "culture", the very same, which has |
| termed it: a "Mandate For A National | | | | been taken, exploited, dumped down, recycled |
| Theatre". Playing mass used to involve | | | | and sold back to them. And they have bought |
| research. Who or whatever you played, you | | | | it. |
| made a point of learning, studying and | | | | |
| practicing for the portrayal of that entity. | | | | As for the music - and I use the term |
| But most of all, it required some amount of | | | | advisedly - first of all, FASTER and LOUDER |
| talent and imagination and a certain desire | | | | is not necessarily better. Especially with |
| to "entertain" the spectators. | | | | that sort of (synthesized) music that doesn't |
| | | | "breathe"!! . . I never thought I would see |
| But in the early 1970s a "cultural sell-out" | | | | the day when pan would lose its place in our |
| of "The World's Most Spectacular Festival" | | | | Carnival and we would be subjected to the |
| (as our Carnival used to officially be | | | | American Square Dance fashion of "crowd |
| called) began to prevail - for monetary gain | | | | control"- - When some guy, some person of no |
| - and the integrity of our Carnival has since | | | | consequence whatsoever, and most likely from |
| then been progressively and shamefully | | | | another island, would be telling me when to |
| compromised. | | | | "Lay down on the ground' and wine". Or, to |
| | | | "Hold on to the big truck." or to wave my |
| No longer do we face the challenge of fending | | | | hand in the air! Such utter nonsense. This is |
| off the threats of "Midnight Robbers", or | | | | by no means the Carnival atmosphere that I |
| witnessing the hypnotic realism of a family | | | | have known and loved. Or as a journalist from |
| of "Bats", or enjoying - which has always | | | | "The Trinidadian Guardian" succinctly summed |
| been my personal choice to play - the | | | | it up a couple of years ago, "Rhythmic |
| fanciful movements and dancing of a "Fancy | | | | rhetoric for dictation dancing. |