Ray Funk and An­drew Mar­tin

On March 9, Queen Eliz­a­beth and nu­mer­ous mem­bers of the Roy­al Fam­i­ly ac­com­pa­nied her to West­min­ster Abbey for the an­nu­al Com­mon­wealth Day in­ter-faith cel­e­bra­tion. Fea­tured on the pro­gramme was the Melo­di­ans Steel Or­ches­tra led by Ter­ry Noel MBE who had led Melo­di­ans since 1987. They have the dis­tinc­tion of be­ing of­ten called up­on by the diplo­mat­ic corp to help cel­e­brate the Queen’s birth­day in coun­tries around the world and to date have trav­elled to 33 coun­tries. They fea­tured a new com­po­si­tion—Com­mon­wealth Med­ley—by Rob­bie Thomp­son of Ari­ma, long-time arranger of the Trinidad Melo­di­ans.

Ter­ry Noel notes, “The UK Melo­di­ans Fam­i­ly rep­re­sents a large part of the Com­mon­wealth. We see this as a Com­mon­wealth fam­i­ly event. Our mem­ber­ship rep­re­sents Africa, Asia, The Caribbean and the UK. We al­so unite many cul­tures and ages from nine to over 60 years. This is the ninth time we have per­formed at this ser­vice but the first time at this lev­el. Nor­mal­ly we play as peo­ple are com­ing in and leav­ing. Nev­er be­fore have we played as part of the ser­vice hence the need for a spe­cial piece of mu­sic, some­thing bright and cheer­ful. Rob­bie, our favourite com­pos­er and ma­jor con­trib­u­tor to Melo­di­ans reper­toire al­ways rel­ish that sort of chal­lenge.”

Jonathan Scales Fourches­tra

NPR Tiny Desk Con­cert

For fans of steel­pan, pro­gres­sive fu­sion, jazz, and in­die mu­sic, the Jonathan Scales Fourches­tra’s re­cent per­for­mance on NPR’s Tiny Desk Con­certs se­ries was ground­break­ing. https://youtu.be/qYPQ0EUmbTs

The vir­tu­osic pan­man, Scales, now based in New York City, has long been known for his bound­ary-cross­ing mu­sic and col­lab­o­ra­tions with oth­er mu­si­cians.

This short con­cert was no ex­cep­tion, a tour de force show­cas­ing his mu­si­cian­ship, orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions, and steel­pans. The Tiny Desk Con­certs per­for­mance fea­tured three songs from his 2018 Pil­lar al­bum, joined by leg­endary ban­joist Bela Fleck.

The Tiny Desk Con­certs se­ries is a web-based video se­ries of live con­certs host­ed by NPR (Na­tion­al Pub­lic Ra­dio) at the desk of All Songs Con­sid­ered host Bob Boilen.

The se­ries is shot in Wash­ing­ton, DC at NPR head­quar­ters and since its in­cep­tion in 2008, the beloved con­cert se­ries has fea­tured near­ly 1,000 short con­certs and amassed over three bil­lion views on youtube—mak­ing it an im­por­tant venue for es­tab­lished and in­de­pen­dent artists from through­out the world.

Un­til the Jonathan Scales Fourches­tra’s per­for­mance in Feb­ru­ary, the con­cert se­ries had yet to fea­ture a steel­pan of any kind mak­ing this per­for­mance pi­o­neer­ing for the in­stru­ment.

In the two months since its re­lease, the con­cert has al­ready amassed over 140,000 unique views. Youtube com­menters show­ered the pan­nist with praise, and it is clear from com­ments such as “steel­pan played like that? Who knew,” and “Nev­er heard Steel­pan Jazz be­fore. This is why I love Tiny Desk Con­certs” that Scales con­tin­ues to bring new au­di­ences to pan.