Hear­ing the strum of a cu­a­tro or the pluck of a man­dolin string or the shake of a pair of mara­cas in the sec­ond quar­ter of the year may sound quite un­usu­al to a Tri­ni ear. Grant­ed, on the parang cal­en­dar, the sea­son ends in Jan­u­ary, on the Feast of the Epiphany, to be ex­act.

Parang mu­sic is syn­ony­mous with Christ­mas, keep­ing the tra­di­tion of the Co­coa Pa­ny­ols (Venezue­lans) who came to Trinidad to work the co­coa plan­ta­tions. As these mi­grants missed home, they con­tin­ued the tra­di­tion of singing from house to house, shar­ing the mirth and joy felt dur­ing the sea­son.

But late­ly, the parang genre has be­come a lit­tle more forth­right, step­ping out of the con­fines of Christ­mas time, to demon­strate that it is an art form to be reck­oned with.

“While par­ran­deros are known to be mes­sen­gers of the ‘good news,’ we know the art form can soar be­yond that. We have very tal­ent­ed mu­si­cians and singers just like in any oth­er genre, so it is de­serv­ing of them to be in the spot­light out­side the Yule­tide sea­son,” said Ali­cia Jag­gas­sar, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The wing span of parang has ex­tend­ed to high­light per­for­mances in a con­cert on Sat­ur­day (April 22) at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um. In the past weeks, voic­es and in­stru­ments have been warm­ing up, cre­at­ing some­thing beau­ti­ful for this event. In ad­di­tion to mark­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion’s 52nd an­niver­sary which falls on Wednes­day (April 19), the show will fea­ture some of the best women voic­es un­der the ti­tle “Di­vas of Parang”.These ladies will be ac­com­pa­nied by par­ran­deros who form La Orques­ta Na­cional de Par­ran­da de Trinidad y To­ba­go.

‘Cel­e­brate when we can’

“The idea to have a gala con­cert start­ed when we host­ed our 50th-an­niver­sary event. Then, we in­tro­duced the Orques­ta to our au­di­ence, and it was well re­ceived. The ob­jec­tive then was to demon­strate our fra­ter­ni­ty’s ver­sa­til­i­ty by per­form­ing in a clas­si­cal con­cert style. We proved that parang can trans­form in­to some­thing more grand and beau­ti­ful. We de­cid­ed then and there that we should not wait for a mile­stone an­niver­sary, but cel­e­brate the as­so­ci­a­tion and its mem­bers when we can,” Jag­gas­sar ex­plained.

As for call­ing par­ran­deras, di­vas, the show is a trib­ute to the women who have con­tributed to the art form over the years. A di­va, ac­cord­ing to any dic­tio­nary, is a fa­mous fe­male opera singer. In con­tem­po­rary mean­ings, a di­va is a “fa­mous fe­male singer of pop­u­lar mu­sic.” Sub­sti­tute pop­u­lar with parang and one would re­alise the art form has had its col­lec­tion of di­vas, start­ing with Glo­ria Al­cazar, Daisy Voisin, and Clari­ta Ri­vas.

One sto­ry of Al­cazar, for ex­am­ple, is her re­turn­ing home from the Tu­na­puna Mar­ket with bags full of pro­duce free of charge as the ven­dors re­fused to let her pay. Or Voisin’s en­er­gy on stage that had au­di­ences grav­i­tat­ing to her as she sang. Or Ri­vas’s com­po­si­tion Fe­liz Nochebue­na, as per­formed by La Pe­tite Mu­si­cale, topped the lo­cal mu­sic charts for 13 weeks.

Dur­ing their time, these women were adored on and off stage. They al­so demon­strat­ed that a di­va in the parang world was more than be­ing a good look­er. The de­f­i­n­i­tion car­ries the gift of a song­writer, com­pos­er, mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, band leader, or for­mi­da­ble sig­na­ture vo­cals.

An­oth­er lev­el of per­for­mance

Al­cazar, Voisin, and Ri­vas made way for the next gen­er­a­tion of par­ran­deras who have en­hanced and strength­ened the art form. As tra­di­tion would have it, men were in the lead as they wrote, arranged, or man­aged bands. In­stead, women have tak­en to the stage, car­ry­ing parang to an­oth­er lev­el of per­for­mance.

Di­vas of Parang will fea­ture 12 voic­es who have made their mark–some of whom have worn the crown of Parang Queen, the cov­et­ed ti­tle for the best fe­male lead singer at the na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion.

“A di­va for me is more than a queen. She is a per­son who loves the art form, who ex­press­es her­self grace­ful­ly, who loves what she is do­ing with melody and pas­sion to in­spire and build a younger gen­er­a­tion,” said Sal­ly Granger, of La Fa­mil­ia de Rio Claro. She knows of that lega­cy as her moth­er, Ra­mona led the fam­i­ly band, pass­ing down to Sal­ly and her sib­lings the pow­er and beau­ty of the art form.

“The word di­va cel­e­brates women for their out­stand­ing tal­ents, in what­ev­er we women can do,” said Carmeli­ta Williams, of Amantes de Par­ran­da, who has been in the band since she was 16 years old.

Oth­er mem­bers of the cast in­clude Francesca Al­lard of Los Di­nam­i­cos, Can­dice Cor­bie of Vo­ces Jovenes, Gail Gan­pat of Los Buenos Par­ran­deros, Olivia Ro­many of Ami­gos Can­ta­dores, Claire Piper of San­ta Rosa Parang, Jen­nifer McP­hear­son of Los To­cadores, Joanne Brig­gs of Los Par­ran­deros de UWI, and Jag­gas­sar of Los Alum­nos de San Juan.

Kalisha Ward will pay trib­ute to Al­cazar and Ma­ri­na Marchan of La Div­ina Pas­to­ra will pay trib­ute to the leg­endary band leader and lead vo­cal­ist, Voisin. Ri­vas will make a spe­cial ap­pear­ance on the night.

“This con­cert is proof that parang is not on­ly for Christ­mas time. Parang can be played at any time of the year,” Jag­gas­sar said.

The show­time for Di­vas of Parang is 6 pm. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, check NPATT’s so­cial me­dia pages.

The parang di­vas

Jen­nifer McPher­son:

Mem­ber of Los To­cadores for about 36 years. Lead singer and com­pos­er of the band’s orig­i­nal parang mu­sic.

Kalisha Ward:

Of­fi­cial­ly start­ed parang­ing in 2009. The first lead singer at El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary’s first parang band in 2010. She has been singing ever since.

Claire Piper:

Lead singer for more than three decades, song­writer 15 years.

Gail Gan­pat:

Singing parang since child­hood. A lead singer with Los Buenos Par­ran­deros for 44 years. Leader of the band for 28 years and com­pos­er of the band’s orig­i­nal parang songs.

Can­dice Cor­bie:

Singing parang from the age of nine. Mem­ber of Vo­ces Jovenes for 23 years

Lead vo­cal­ist, mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, arranger as well as song­writer/com­pos­er of orig­i­nal parang mu­sic.

Ali­cia Jagges­sar:

Joined Los Alum­nos de San Juan age of 14. She has been the lead singer for 30 years. Main com­pos­er for the band

Joanne Brig­gs:

Joined Los Par­ran­deros de UWI in 1990. She has been the lead singer for over two decades.

Francesca Al­lard:

Co-founder of the band Los Dinámi­cos in 1986. She was named COTT Parang Com­pos­er of the Year in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Olivia Ro­many:

Lead singer of Ami­gos Can­ta­dores. She has been the lead singer for over two decades.

Ma­ri­na Marchan:

A mem­ber of La Div­ina Pas­to­ra. She took over the reins as lead singer af­ter Daisy Voisin died in 1991.