Mr Muzik

Leon Fos­ter Thomas, a Tri­ni pan­nist based in Mi­a­mi, must be com­pli­ment­ed on a bril­liant CD ti­tled Leon Fos­ter Thomas, What You Don't Know. The CD fea­tures ten ex­cit­ing tracks; nine orig­i­nals by Thomas, and a cov­er of Spar­row's Obeah Wed­ding. The mu­sic is easy lis­ten­ing jazz from this pan­nist. The songs are Rite Dey, No look­ing back, Thingz Hap­pen, Tor­ment, Won­der­land, High­er Heights, What You Don't Know, Wish and an ex­tend­ed ver­sion of ti­tle track What You Don't Know.

I like all the songs on this CD, es­pe­cial­ly the treat­ment of Spar­row's Obeah Wed­ding. Thomas plays with skill and sen­si­tiv­i­ty, gained from years with lo­cal steel­bands be­fore he mi­grat­ed.

He cred­its Roger Charles for in­tro­duc­ing him to the steel­pan at Pleas­antville Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School. A grad­u­ate of Flori­da Memo­r­i­al Uni­ver­si­ty, Leon Fos­ter Thomas thanks the guys at Hood­ing En­ter­tain­ment for mak­ing the CD pos­si­ble. Mr Muzik is al­ways thrilled by great pack­ag­ing and Thomas gets bonus points for a well pre­sent­ed CD.

Brook­lyn's pan grannies Age­less Dreams

The pan grannies of Brook­lyn, USA, have re­leased a new CD called Age­less Dreams. These grannies, hav­ing kicked away their rock­ing chairs for pan sticks, are un­der the tute­lage of mas­ter pan­nist Al­ston Jack. Called the Blen­man Steel Sounds, these gals have been mak­ing some ter­rif­ic sounds with the pan. Age­less Dreams is an ex­cit­ing CD, which shows the ver­sa­til­i­ty of these pan mu­si­cians.

The ten tracks on this CD are Brazil, Take The A Train, Cher­ry Pink and Ap­ple Blos­som White, Fly Me To The Moon, Misty, Let's Have Some Fun, Blue Bossa, Per­di­do, Cute and One Note Sam­ba. The songs are well arranged by Jack, who has been work­ing with the se­nior cit­i­zens of the Blen­man Se­nior Cen­tre, spon­sored by the Fort Greene Coun­cil, and fund­ed by the New York City De­part­ment for the Age­ing.

More In­fo

For more on Age­less Dreams,

you can con­tact the Blen­man Cen­tre at 718-773-7400,

Fax 718-778-5644,

e-mail mbruce@fort­green­coun­cil.org