Wes­ley Gib­bings

The three-day Jit Sama­roo Fes­ti­val, host­ed be­tween Oc­to­ber 31 and No­vem­ber 2, com­bined mu­sic, film, and con­tem­pla­tive el­e­ments to re­flect on the life and work of the late steel­pan arranger/com­pos­er, Jit Sama­roo, who would have turned 75 on Feb­ru­ary 24.

The dec­o­rat­ed pan­nist and men­tor to a gen­er­a­tion of play­ers, com­posers, and arrangers re­ceived a Hum­ming­bird Medal of Mer­it (sil­ver) in 1987. In 1995, he was al­so award­ed a Cha­co­nia Medal (sil­ver).

In 2003, Sama­roo was recog­nised for his work in the field of mu­sic by the St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies when he re­ceived an hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters.

By that time, he had al­ready clocked nine Panora­ma vic­to­ries as arranger for Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra, in­clud­ing an un­prece­dent­ed hat-trick be­tween 1995 and 1997.

The Iconog­ra­phy full-length fea­ture doc­u­men­tary on Jit Sama­roo, pro­duced by Pome­gran­ate Stu­dios, ex­plored the mu­si­cian’s de­vel­op­ment from child­hood, his per­son­al tri­als, his as­cent to na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al promi­nence, and the ill­ness that led to his death on Jan­u­ary 7, 2016.

The film’s screen­ing on day one at the Sur­rey Vil­lage pa­n­yard of First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas, found­ed by his son Am­rit Sama­roo, bore spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance for a com­mu­ni­ty out of which the Sama­roo ge­nius was nur­tured. Some of the doc­u­men­tary’s key fig­ures were present.

From Sur­rey With Love—a short doc­u­men­tary film pro­duced by Livin Lo­cal En­ter­tain­ment led by di­rec­tors Aaron Fin­gal and Josi­ah Lord—fo­cused on the chang­ing face of the com­mu­ni­ty via the work of Su­per­novas in pan mu­sic and new­er mu­si­cal gen­res.

On day two, a pan­el mod­er­at­ed by UWI De­part­ment of Cre­ative and Fes­ti­val Arts (DC­FA) head, Jes­sel Mur­ray, and com­pris­ing this writer along­side Carl­ton Maltin, Sama­roo’s cousin, and mu­si­col­o­gists Dr Jean­nine Re­my and Sa­tanand Shar­ma, dis­cussed the main el­e­ments of Sama­roo’s con­tri­bu­tions to mu­sic and so­ci­ety.

The fes­ti­val cul­mi­nat­ed in the stag­ing of a “Grand Con­cert” fea­tur­ing the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra (NSSO), First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas, and bp Rene­gades be­fore a packed Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) au­di­ence in Port-of-Spain.

The fes­ti­val was ex­e­cut­ed by a team com­pris­ing Am­rit Sama­roo, fes­ti­val co­or­di­na­tor, Tene­ka Mo­hammed, and a crew of vol­un­teers dom­i­nat­ed by young Su­per­novas mem­bers.