Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
SIZZLA
MUSIC IS... a steel drum turned into an instrument, resonating the joys, the hopes, the angst, the doubts, the essence of those who made it and those for whom it was made. Music is ... clusters of those steel drums turned steel pans caressing the lights on the stage of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, pulling the attention of a full house like a moth to the cheery flame, without the pain. Music is ... the coordinated arm movements that tap out the collective spirit of the players of the steel pans, along with drums, congos and percussions.
'Music is ...', the title of the UWI Panoridim Steel Orchestra's Panfest 2005, ended with a deserved standing ovation, foot stomps on the wooden flooring and chants for 'more, more' on Sunday night on the Mona Campus, St. Andrew.
SEGMENTS
The concert, performed four times over the one-weekend run, was presented in seven segments, 'Music as Narrative', 'Music as Praise' and 'Music for the Masses' coming in the first section. 'Music, the Art Form', 'Music is FUN!', 'Music Symbolises Culture' and 'Music is Mi Jumbie' came after a 15-minute break, the Orchestra satisfying the demand for an encore with Steel Pulse's 'Stepping Out'.
Music is ... also presentation and the effort that was put into making the concert pleasing to the eye as well as the ear paid off in laughter, smooth transitions between pieces and a sense of cohesion. The chain from which 16 musical pendants dangled was narrator Rosemarie Murray, who was a patron at a jazz club before the cool jazz of 'Sermonette', a 'roots' woman for Bob Marley's 'Is This Love' and a happy-go-lucky Carnival reveller before the closing 'Dead or Alive'.
Murray dropped in titbits about the genres ("pop music is like bubblegum.... You listen to it a couple hundred times and then you forget it, until it becomes a classic"), the songs ("when Santana recorded it ('Oye Como Va') in 1970 it pushed them from being a good Latin band to being a commercial success, in nine words!") and the intention behind the songs ("Lord Kitchener best captures the sense of regret, depression, sadness when 'The Carnival Is Over'.")
There was flair and drama from the players, brief dialogues preceding the two-person 'Les Deux Bavardes' (The Two Gossips), which ended with the humorous comment "a lie!", and the ensemble style 'Workout'. There were at times coordinated movements from some sections of the orchestra, and the 'Thunderclap', 'Shelly Belly' and 'Willie Bounce' dances made their way into the energetic 'Pandora', the piece which Murray said best sums up the spirit of the orchestra.
DANCEHALL STYLE
And when a red, green and gold flag waving, high-stepping, white-clad young man pranced on stage when the bass of Sizzla's Solid As a Rock came in, there was an explosion of applause and a 'pull up', dancehall style.
The UWI Panoridim Steel Orchestra's 'Music Is...' embraced dancehall, rocked with reggae, gloried in the gospel of 'Awesome God', caressed the classic of 'Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major', lavished over the Latin of 'Mi Tierra' and hit the road with the soca of 'Dead or Alive', visiting Switzerland, Cuba, the USA, Trinidad and, of course, Jamaica, in the process.
The action was staged against a backdrop with changing images to reflect the music, with Sizzla and Marley larger than life where required, and the theme of the concert set against vinyl records, members of the band and carnival revellers where required.
Music is... the melee of the UWI Steel Orchestra's players before playing 'Workout'. Music is... the sway of a steel pan waiting for the tap of its acolyte to bring it to life. Music is... orange, red, green and blue rags on the stage of the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts after being released from their joyous whirring by the players of pan in a Carnival mood.
'Music is'... beautiful.
