Pan Buzz

Pan­nist, arranger and com­pos­er Den­nis Smith (Smithy) is tak­ing his ca­reer to a new lev­el. He is now a pro­duc­er. The ever-smil­ing pan­nist, cel­e­brat­ing 40 years as a pan pro­fes­sion­al, burst on the scene in 1993 win­ning the Pan Ra­ma­jay soloist cat­e­go­ry beat­ing a qual­i­ty field. Since then he has not looked back. Smithy has gone on from strength to strength, tour­ing ex­ten­sive­ly and spread­ing the gospel of pan, plus mak­ing a name for him­self. He plays on the cruise ship Caribbean Princess with his band Sug­ar­cane. How­ev­er, he is on va­ca­tion these days, work­ing fever­ish­ly on his 2013 Panora­ma se­lec­tions and oth­er songs. Den­nis in­vit­ed Pan Buzz to his D'Pan­man Stu­dios at 17 Archibald Street (Off Del­hi Road) Fyz­abad.

There Pan Buzz saw Den­nis at work in his com­put­erised stu­dio, and was blown away with the songs com­posed by Den­nis and their qual­i­ty. I tell you that Den­nis is tru­ly a men­ace for Panora­ma 2013, fol­low­ing up on his suc­cess this year with Pan In Yuh Face sung by sis­ter Di­ane Saun­ders, and Jump Up An Play Yuh­self vo­calised by for­mer Volts Ex­press singer Garth David. For 2013 he un­leash­es Pan Uni­ty (sung by David), Mu­sic Is Meh Busi­ness, Al­ways Next Year, Keep D'Pan and Gih Me Some More on which he does the vo­cals. He hasn't de­cid­ed which song his sis­ter will sing, but he as­sures Pan Buzz she'll be back again. It is hard to choose a favourite song, but Pan Buzz is giv­ing read­ers a zep­po (when last you heard that word?) look out for Gih Me Some More. Any­one wish­ing to con­tact Den­nis can e-mail him at:dpan­manstu­dios@gmail.com or cell-793-9700 or 677-7075.

De­fence Force con­quers Ja­maica

De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra, the on­ly march­ing steel­band in the world, was a hit at the Ja­maica Mil­i­tary Tat­too held re­cent­ly at Up Park Camp, St An­drews, Ja­maica.

The band cel­e­brat­ing 19 years, mash up Ja­maica for four sold-out nights, jam­ming sweet mu­sic and get­ting on bad Tri­ni style. The tat­too was a tremen­dous suc­cess and Pan Buzz un­der­stands if all goes well, we will see a Ja­maican con­tin­gent at our Mil­i­tary Tat­too to cel­e­brate our 50th an­niver­sary In­de­pen­dence. Again the De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra is gear­ing for the oc­ca­sion, com­ing off this Ja­maican high. The band has al­ready con­quered Aus­tralia, Ger­many, Scot­land and Cana­da.

Fran­co back in the sad­dle at Star­lift

In oth­er re­lat­ed pan news, the Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra held its An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing (AGM) re­cent­ly, and the old ex­ec­u­tive head­ed by cap­tain Michael Fran­co was re­tained by mem­bers. Pan Buzz un­der­stands that a new spon­sor will come on board for Panora­ma 2013. The Won­der Boys of Pan St Mar­garets Boys will hold their pan ex­plo­sion on Ju­ly 14 at the Grand Stand Con­course, Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. The Ris­ing Stars of the US Vir­gin Is­lands will be the spe­cial guest. The Pan in The Coun­try­side se­ries will re­sume in Char­lot­teville to­mor­row evening at 5 pm. The recre­ation ground will come alive with the sound of steel from Steel Xpol­sion, Carib Dix­ie­lend, West Side Sym­pho­ny, Metro Stars, Nat­ur­al Mys­tic and RBC Re­demp­tion Sound­set­ters. Dee­jays Klass is Class and KC will be in the house.