KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@trinidad­ex­press.com

Pan icon Len “Boogsie” Sharpe has giv­en US Sec­re­tary of State Antony Blinken and US De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Ha­keem Jef­fries a les­son on play­ing T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment—the steel­pan.

The Sec­re­tary and Con­gress­man, who were in the coun­try for the Cari­com Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing, vis­it­ed the Had­co Phase II Pan Groove pa­n­yard, in Wood­brook, on Wednes­day evening.

They were ac­com­pa­nied by US Am­bas­sador to T&T Can­dace Bond and US Con­gress­women Am­a­ta Cole­man Radewa­gen, Joyce Beat­ty and Yvette D Clarke as well as Con­gress­men Gre­go­ry W Meeks, Steven Hors­ford and Joaquin Cas­tro.

As Blinken ex­it­ed his ve­hi­cle, the Laven­tille Rhythm Sec­tion struck its first note. The pow­er­ful sounds of the band im­me­di­ate­ly filled the air, trans­form­ing the venue in­to a cel­e­bra­to­ry at­mos­phere.

The pul­sat­ing sounds of the Re­al Chaot­ic Tas­sa Group chimed in with tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters in­clud­ing the moko jumbie, ba­by doll and blue dev­il danc­ing to the beat of their an­ces­tors.

Fol­low­ing his short pan les­son, Blinken spoke about the im­por­tance of Caribbean mu­sic in uni­fy­ing peo­ple.

“One of the things I learned from trav­el­ing all over the world, every cor­ner is noth­ing brings us to­geth­er more than mu­sic,” he said.

He added: “It breaks down bar­ri­ers, it brings peo­ple to­geth­er. The mu­sic you are pro­vid­ing, the Caribbean has pro­vid­ed so much, the sound­tracks, the rhythms of our lives, not just in the Unit­ed States but all around the world. You do more than any­one to bring peo­ple to­geth­er. And we need that more than ever.”

Jef­fries, who led a bi­par­ti­san Con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion to T&T—his sec­ond Con­gres­sion­al Del­e­ga­tion as the top De­mo­c­rat in the House, thanked Sharpe as he de­scribed him as the Michael Jor­dan of pan mu­sic.

He said, “We are thank­ful to you and all of you for just open­ing up to us in such a mag­nif­i­cent way shar­ing just a bit of your in­cred­i­ble cul­ture in art and mu­sic and po­et­ry and heart and soul that is such a part of the Trinida­di­an and To­bag­on­ian peo­ple,” he said.

Dur­ing the ex­change of gifts, Had­co Ltd CEO John Hadad and Mu­si­cal In­stru­ments of T&T Com­pa­ny Ltd (MITTCO) Di­rec­tor Akua Lei­th pre­sent­ed Jef­fries with a MITTCO tenor pan.