Glenville Ash­by

Flanked by mem­bers and well-wish­ers, the new chair­man of the Unit­ed States Steel­band As­so­ci­a­tion (US­SA) Kei­th Mar­celle promised sweep­ing changes to what he called, "an in­ef­fec­tive pan in­dus­try in the US."

In a low-key cer­e­mo­ny on Church Av­enue in Brook­lyn on Jan­u­ary 16, Mar­celle was op­ti­mistic that the in­stal­la­tion of new of­fi­cers would ush­er in an ex­cit­ing era "for every­one in­volved in pan." He said: "We have to change the cur­rent laws we have on the books to al­low tuners and arrangers to be­come mem­bers." He down­plays the in­ter­nal shake­up which had led to the for­ma­tion of an­oth­er pan as­so­ci­a­tion, led by US­SA's for­mer chair­man, An­tho­ny Hinds.

"I have wished him well. This is not about us, but about the best rep­re­sen­ta­tion for pan mu­sic," he stat­ed. US­SA still boasts of hav­ing re­tained the more es­tab­lished steel­bands in New York. Sesame Fly­ers, Casym, Pan Sonatas, Cross­fire and Des­pers USA are few of the bands that have thrown their weight be­hind the as­so­ci­a­tion.

"Some bands are wait­ing for the side­lines to see how things play out," Mar­celle added. Vice-chair­man Mar­tin Dou­glas spoke can­did­ly about the vote of no-con­fi­dence in the old guard. "Peo­ple say it was a coup, but no. There was no ac­count­abil­i­ty, no trans­paren­cy in how things were op­er­at­ing. We had to say 'enough is enough'." Both gen­tle­men�strong­ly be­lieve that�pan­nists, arrangers, and tuners have nev­er been prop­er­ly rep­re­sent­ed. "Be­fore, on­ly steel­bands with at least 12 mem­bers were el­i­gi­ble for mem­ber­ship. This has to change. The in­di­vid­ual pan­nist must al­so be a pri­or­i­ty. We al­so must ac­com­mo­date steel­bands from oth­er states," Mar­celle said. He con­tin­ued: "This is the Unit­ed States and we are in the 21st cen­tu­ry. Our vi­sion must re­flect that. Our im­me­di­ate ob­jec­tive is to forge part­ner­ships with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in New York and even abroad. "We in­tend to ex­pand in­to the ed­u­ca­tion field and get more pan mu­sic in schools and even­tu­al­ly build a pan fac­to­ry right here in Brook­lyn."

Mar­celle lat­er spoke about es­tab­lish­ing health in­sur­ance and oth­er ser­vices, such as re­tire­ment plan­ning and an­nu­ities for mem­bers. And as if to high­light the glob­al vi­sion of his as­so­ci­a­tion, the chair­man end­ed:�"We are present­ly sched­ul­ing some meet­ings with Pan Trin­ba­go. I can­not say what's go­ing to come out of it, but this is a step in the right di­rec­tion.

(Glenville Ash­by is a New York-based jour­nal­ist)