Well, it's all over and now most of us are back to sobriety, especially those of the Christian faith for the next 42 days during Lent, until Easter Saturday. Entertainment-wise, the major events include Talk Tent and UWI's Tribute to Black Stalin at the Hyatt Regency this weekend, Jazz on the Greens and Tobago Jazz.
However, before those, the finale of Carnival 2015–Pan Trinbago's Steel Plus–takes place tomorrow at the Queen's Park Savannah. Billed as a night of champions, this event will showcase the winners of Carnival, plus some very special guests.
I have many fond memories of this Carnival, but these were sobered by sadness, including the murder of media colleague Marcia Henville; the passing of media icon Raoul Pantin and politician Martin Joseph; former national calypso monarchs Black Stalin and Singing Sandra being sidelined from the festival because of illness; and, the destruction of former monarch Duane O'Connor's home in St James by fire.
An amusing and memorable Carnival moment for me was on J'Ouvert morning when the band Mudders 34 appeared on South Quay just as the sun was beginning to peep over the Laventille Hills. There they were, hundreds of masqueraders covered from head to toe in caked mud, suddenly stopping the music and standing at attention to face the judges and sing the band's anthem, its refrain "haul yuh mudda....shhhh."
Among my otherpleasant memories this season were Machel Montano's flawless Machel Monday; LIME all-inclusive at the Hyatt Regency; and, Lingo's overwhelming win at the National Extempore Monarch final on Carnival Thursday night.
Also high up there is Chucky's performance in the second round of National Calypso Monarch singing I Believe. After his performance, Chucky was unbeatable and went on to win the 2015 National Calypso Monarch title, beating out two previous monarchs (Karene Asche and Duane O'Connor), and pre-competition favourite Devon Seale, in the process. Chucky is only the sixth calypsonian to register back to back victories in this competition, the others being Atilla the Hun, Striker, Duke, Sparrow and Chalkdust. I rank Chucky's I Believe, written by Fazad Shageer, Ray Holman and Chucky, and produced by Junior "Ibo" Joseph, right there amongst the better composed calypsoes through the years.
Other memorable moments include Olatunji's performance of Ola in the Digicel International Groovy Soca Monarch final; Stephanie Kanhai's performance of The Sweet Waters of Africa, on ten-foot-tall stilts to earn the Queen of Carnival title; and, Yannick Holdip's energetic performance of When You Say Africa...I Say Shaka to cop the Junior King of Carnival title.
One regret I had though was that one of the sweetest songs for Panorama this year wasn't played by any large conventional steel orchestra. I'm referring to Lucy, performed by Destra.
I must also compliment the T&T Police Service and members of the protective services for maintaining law and order and ensuring that Carnival 2015 was one of the safest ever, though marred by one murder on Ariapita Avenue on Tuesday night.
Looking forward to next year's Carnival, the National Carnival Commission (NCC) and its Special Interest Groups have less than 12 months to improve on some of their shortcomings this year. At the top of my head is a need for Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO) to take another look at its judging process and its production of competitions. I feel that selecting 40 calypsonians for the semi-final in Skinner Park, San Fernando is much too much, especially with the wishy washy songs selected by what I feel is flawed judging process.
I also feel that TUCO needs to revert to days of yore and make the singing of two selections at the semi-final a requisite for qualifiers. The poor calypsoes performed on Carnival Sunday night at the Queen's Park Savannah final ought to be ample proof of that.
Pan Trinbago also has to pull up its socks as no competition/show should last 12 hours. The steelband body needs to also take another look at these competitions and maybe find some other formula to accommodate the medium sized steel orchestras on a night apart from the competition for large bands.
The National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) should not stage its junior Carnival on the same day as the staging of the National Panorama final. This year, after the junior mas, minutes before the start of the Panorama final, cleaners were hastily trying to clean the premises for incoming patrons, made to stand in a long line at the Savannah for over two hours. Staff were also observed in a frenzy stencilling letters of the alphabet on the floor for row seating, as well as affixing chair numbers. One idea would be to move the junior competition away from the Savannah all together and stage it at the South Quay venue?
I feel that Pan Trinbago should make it mandatory that no large conventional be allowed to play a calypso from yesteryear. Enough new music is composed each year for bands to resort to vintage songs as their tune of choice. Retro calypsoes should only be played by bands in the smaller categories as it is good to hear the arrangements of the old calypsoes, especially of songs that were never performed in Panorama, like Duvonne Stewart's winning arrangement of Bally's Party Time for Pan Elders.
With thousands of satisfied visitors leaving our shores it's waiting time again for Carnival 2016, scheduled for February 8-9. With Carnival being even earlier next year, the first fetes may very well be held before Christmas? There is precious little time to fix the ills, especially with the World Panorama competition being scheduled for August.