Glenville Ash­by

It can be tough grow­ing up these days. Youths are of­ten­times lumped in­to an un­flat­ter­ing cat­e­go­ry–re­bel­lious, tardy, dis­re­spect­ful–lack­ing the so­cial graces and the in­dus­tri­al spir­it as past gen­er­a­tions. This is for the most part emo­tion­al talk, that has lit­tle bear­ing�in re­al­i­ty. There are many of youths out there whose ideals are ex­em­plary, striv­ing in many a laud­able role. For ex­am­ple, the over­whelm­ing­ly youth­ful ap­pear­ance of Cross­fire Steel Or­ches­tra, with�artistry and pro­fes­sion­al­ism to match, is suf­fi­cient to si­lence the naysay­ers.

Just days be­fore the long Memo­r­i­al Day week­end in St Al­bans, Brook­lyn, melodies poured del­i­cate­ly from steel pans�as the au­di­ence swayed to catchy gospel�ren­di­tions and the peren­ni­al­ly pop­u­lar, Where is the Love. Speak­ing with mem­bers of this pop­u­lar Brook­lyn mu­si­cal out­fit was re­fresh­ing and proud mo­ment for those who still have faith in the West In­di­an youth. Not all were born in Trinidad or the neigh­bour­ing is­lands. Some were sec­ond gen­er­a­tional, born in the US but still were very West In­di­an. The event was ap­pro­pri­ate­ly dubbed a "Cur­ry Q." Again, vin­tage West In­di­an. The goal was to raise mon­ey for their steel or­ches­tra. In­deed, it was a demon­stra­tion of their grow­ing ma­tu­ri­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

"They are young but know that their work is much more than "jump up," says Khuent Rose the arranger.�Khuent, who re­cent­ly grad­u­at­ed from Brook­lyn�Col­lege with a de­gree in Mu­sic Com­po­si­tion, with em­pha­sis in Pi­ano Stud­ies, speaks vol­umes about the prodi­gious work of his young band. "I re­mem­ber com­pos­ing a piece called Cot­ton, about the hor­rors of slav­ery and I was sur­prised–the in­ter­est they showed in know­ing more about their his­to­ry...and this re­al­ly showed in how they prac­ticed and played. It was as if they were part of his­to­ry...the way they played."

Navarre Eli­jah and Sparkle Dem­ming are the vet­er­ans of Cross­fire al­though they are un­der 22-years-old. Navarre be­gan play­ing at 12 years, Sparkle, two years ear­li­er. They are both from Trinida­di­an parent­age and still at Uni­ver­si­ty. They both read mu­sic and un­der­stand the fun­da­men­tals of mu­sic the­o­ry. "I will say that Clive Bradley and Jit Sama­roo are my he­roes," Navarre says, with a broad winnable smile and shoul­der length dread­locks. Clear­ly, he is one rea­son why Cross­fire en­joys a big fol­low­ing among teenage girls.

Sparkle who played for In­vaders in 2007 has played the tenor pan at the last four ap­pear­ance with Cross­fire at Panora­ma in New York. "I know we have not done well re­cent­ly, but we are de­ter­mined to im­prove. It's all about learn­ing from your mis­takes." Lid­dell Rose and Ryan Os­borne are the ba­bies in the Cross­fire fam­i­ly–14-years-old–but their wit and mu­si­cal abil­i­ties be­lie that look of in­no­cent. They are a bun­dle of en­er­gy, laugh­ing, danc­ing, and crack­ing jokes–the ul­ti­mate pranksters. But when they are be­hind the pan, they in­spire.

"My par­ents are Grena­di­an and I start­ed learn­ing to play the drums at around five and the pan, a lit­tle lat­er. I al­so play for Sesame Fly­ers...I played for them for last years Panora­ma, but I like Cross­fire...this is my state side band...a lot of fun, all young peo­ple." For her part, Lid­del has seen her con­fi­dence lev­el sore since join­ing Cross­fire. "I am go­ing in­to act­ing and dra­ma. I have a sense of what I want to do now. I feel cre­ative," she adds.

Of­ten times we hear that the fu­ture be­longs to our youth. It is for them to nur­ture and shape–with some help from us.�Well, that cool spring evening Cross­fire said that we should wor­ry very lit­tle about the West In­di­an art form out here; if at all. More im­por­tant­ly though, is the sense of ca­ma­raderie shown; the dis­ci­pline, the pa­tience, and their thirst for knowl­edge. Laud­able qual­i­ties for which we should all strive.

Glenville Ash­by is the New York

cor­re­spon­dent for the Trinidad & To­ba­go Guardian.

E-mail:glenvil­leash­by@gmail.com.