Steelpan soloist extraordinaire, Noel La Pierre, brilliantly performed a dazzling 20-plus selections on the tenor pan at Intimate Moods on Pan, his concert staged at the Kaiso Blues Caf� on Woodford Street, Port-of-Spain, last Thursday evening.
The event was partitioned into five musical "moods," with La Pierre displaying his musical expertise in presenting an astonishing variety of music in each segment. Opening with a smooth rendition of Celine Dion's The Prayer, he followed with the beautifully haunting Love Theme from The Godfather, Parla piu, then gave an animated rendition to Andrea Bocelli's Time to Say Goodbye.
La Pierre has been featured as a premier pan soloist "one man band" for over 35 years. Over the last 20 years or so he has been an entrepreneur promoting and performing the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago both locally and internationally. One of his career highlights was receiving the Cott World/Jazz Music Composer Award in 2008 for the song My One And Only.
His international appeal has taken his solo career across the globe, and his versatility on the instrument enables him to entertain and educate the masses with ease, which he did, effortlessly, on the night before an audience that included celebrated pannists Jimi Phillip and Clive Telemaque, veteran calypsonian Explainer (Winston Henry), and other notables from the entertainment fraternity.
After giving a steelpan interpretation to the Luther Vandross version of The Impossible Dream, written by Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion, La Pierre was joined by show host KV Charles on vocals to deliver A House Is Not A Home from Vandross' album Never Too Much, released in 1981. Charles would later entertain patrons with his saucy presentation of the Mighty Sparrow's Mae Mae, and win solid appreciation for his rendition of the 1972 soul classic Me And Mrs Jones, made popular by Billy Paul.
Saxophonist/flautist Pedro Lezama also contributed to the evening's entertainment in a brief appearance, going among audience members, to deliver with consummate ease silky smooth playing on the instrument of Oye Como Va, Lady Soul, Tobago, and Feeling Ah Feeling.
Among the other popular, superbly played songs we heard from La Pierre at the concert were: When I Was Your Man (Bruno Mars), One Hundred Ways (Quincy Jones), All Of Me (John Legend), Stay With Me (Sam Smith), Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran), Give Me The Night (George Benson), and Can't Get Enough Of Your Love (Barry White).
Soca artiste Tommy Sanchez also had his moment in the limelight when La Pierre utilised his extraordinary talent on the instrument to accompany him for the showcase of his popular song My Passion.
Between 1995 and 1996 La Pierre consolidated his professional status at home by forming his own production company Pan Groove Production. He has recorded with renowned names such as La Petite Musicale of Toronto, Pamberi Steel Orchestra, and jazz exponent pianist Raf Roberterson, among others. The one-man act not only performs jazz, classical, R&B, and calypso standards, but also provides public address systems for audiences, and does CD duplication and printing.
La Pierre is also the recipient of the Best Participating Award 2011 at the 13th Shanghai Arts Festival hosted by the Ministry of Culture of China and Shanghai Performing Arts Festival committee (SPAF). The festival is an international performing exhibition, which has become the largest and the most fruitful international performance fair held in China.