SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The fifth edi­tion of The French Panora­ma, a vir­tu­al steel­band com­pe­ti­tion held in France, took place on Sat­ur­day. Pre­sent­ed by the French Panora­ma As­so­ci­a­tion (FPA), the event was host­ed by its pres­i­dent and di­rec­tor, Wan­da Atkins.

Twelve bands com­pet­ed, in­clud­ing three from the over­seas ter­ri­to­ries of La Réu­nion, Mar­tinique and Guade­loupe.

In her open­ing re­marks, Atkins said, “The event has con­nect­ed steel­pan play­ers from across France for the oc­ca­sion, and bands of­ten in­vite mu­si­cians from oth­er steel or­ches­tras, some­times join­ing forces for a sin­gle per­for­mance. That’s The French Panora­ma.

“The num­ber one goal is shar­ing the joy of steel­pan mu­sic and the cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The com­pe­ti­tion opened with Karukéra from Capesterre-Belle-Eau, Guade­loupe, fol­lowed by Steel Vi­bra­tion, Les Amis de San Fer­nan­do, Pan’n’Joy, EMIB, Pan’n’Co, Ca­lyps’At­lantic Ju­niors, The Pan­vengers, So’Ca­lyp­so, Ca­lyp­so­ci­a­tion Sun­day Steel­band, An­oth­er Steel Or­ches­tra, and Panatchao.

Ca­lyps’At­lantic Ju­niors was the on­ly ju­nior band in the line-up.

Pan’n’Co per­formed Thank You, com­posed by Di­do, ded­i­cat­ing the piece to their for­mer cap­tain Roland “Jero” Au­gus­tine, who died un­ex­pect­ed­ly near­ly a year ago. A band rep­re­sen­ta­tive not­ed that Au­gus­tine, orig­i­nal­ly from Val­ley Harps in Pe­tit Val­ley, T&T, had part­nered with them for more than a decade. The se­lec­tion, they said, evoked mem­o­ries of the “sweet melodies of the Pe­tit Val­ley pa­n­yard.”

An­oth­er Steel Or­ches­tra, formed 10 years ago out of work­shop ses­sions, per­formed Ne me quitte pas in trib­ute to “a great la­dy of steel­band in France, Dame Na­dine,” ac­cord­ing to their man­ag­er.

The reper­toire re­flect­ed a wide mu­si­cal range, with in­flu­ences from France, Africa, Ja­maica, Britain and T&T, span­ning gen­res such as dance­hall crossover, clas­si­cal, soft pop/trip-hop and reg­gae.

Emerg­ing on top was The Pan­vengers from Lille, whose ren­di­tion of Roar­ing Li­on’s Miss Dorothy, arranged by Yann Bra­bant, se­cured first place with 281 points. They de­throned de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Ca­lyp­so­ci­a­tion Sun­day Steel­band from Ro­mainville, which placed sec­ond with Mighty Spar­row’s Ah Fraid Pussy Bite Me, arranged by Math­ieu Borgne and Emile Lalsin­gué (275 points).

Third place went to So’Ca­lyp­so from Bassens, near Bor­deaux, with KMC’s First Ex­pe­ri­ence, arranged by Fan­ny Broueilh (274 points). There was a tie for sixth place.

Oth­er se­lec­tions per­formed in­clud­ed Signs of the Times, En­gine Room, In My House, En­core, La Foi, Take Me Home, Ou­vrez les Fron­tières, Last Train, Yopop and Cyah Be­have. Arrangers fea­tured in the com­pe­ti­tion in­clud­ed Lau­rent Trouchaud, Les Frères Dé­jean, Gus Mar­tineau, Ko­bi Al­leyne, Tapha Mvo­go and Michelle Hug­gins-Wy­att, along with mem­bers of Steel Vi­bra­tion.

Ad­ju­di­ca­tors for the event were Japan’s Yuko Asa­da and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Au­gus­tine Pe­ters and Akua Lei­th.

The FPA ac­knowl­edged con­tri­bu­tions from Math­ys Me­u­nier, Waz D’Scene Pro­duc­tion and SNZD, as well as Agatha De­la­porte and Clé­ment Bazin. Recog­ni­tion was al­so giv­en to the com­posers and rights hold­ers of the mu­sic per­formed, in­clud­ing Gus Mar­tineau (France), Les Frères Dé­jean (Haiti), Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast), Di­do (Britain), Jacques Brel (Bel­gium), and Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Voice, Des­per­a­does, Machel Mon­tano, Sug­ar Aloes, Free­town Col­lec­tive, Olatun­ji, Roar­ing Li­on, KMC, Mi­cal Te­ja and Mighty Spar­row.

Of­fi­cial Re­sults

The Pan­vengers – 281

Ca­lyp­so­ci­a­tion Sun­day Steel­band – 275

So’Ca­lyp­so – 274

Pan’n’Co – 260

Steel Vi­bra­tion – 249

EMIB – 247

Karukéra – 247

An­oth­er Steel Or­ches­tra – 242

Panatchao – 239

Pan’n’Joy – 229

Les Amis de San Fer­nan­do – 210

Ca­lyps’At­lantic Ju­niors – 204