SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra has an­nounced its tune of choice and arranger for the 2024 Na­tion­al Panora­ma Small Band com­pe­ti­tion.

The band, based at John John in Laven­tille, has se­lect­ed the Scrunter (Ir­win Reyes John­son) clas­sic Sing in she Par­ty and will be com­pet­ing with a Carl­ton “Zan­da” Alexan­der arrange­ment of the ca­lyp­so.

The band said in a state­ment that “mu­sic afi­ciona­dos can ex­pect a de­lec­table treat”!

Tokyo cap­tain Os­wald “Farmer” God­dard said the de­ci­sion to work with Zan­da was based on his be­lief in the pow­er of good mu­sic to en­hance the com­mu­ni­ty and al­ter the neg­a­tive stereo­types that have stymied the de­vel­op­ment of the John John com­mu­ni­ty.

Zan­da has been the Panora­ma arranger and con­duc­tor for large band Des­per­a­does, the first steel­band to earn the dis­tinc­tion of win­ning the most na­tion­al Panora­ma cham­pi­on ti­tles.

He will be work­ing along­side mu­si­cal co­or­di­na­tor and drill mas­ter Rikky An­dre Rob­ley to pre­pare Tokyo for the com­pe­ti­tion.

Farmer said oth­er arrangers were ap­proached to as­sist the band but ex­pressed reser­va­tions about work­ing in John John.

He said Zan­da’s will­ing­ness to work with the band was a re­flec­tion of his heart and a vi­sion shared with the mem­bers of Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra.

Sing in she Par­ty was pre­vi­ous­ly a Panora­ma tune of choice for Pan­de­mo­ni­um Steel Or­ches­tra in 1987, un­der the ba­ton of cel­e­brat­ed arranger and mu­si­cian, the late Clive Bradley.

Tokyo, one of the coun­try’s old­est sur­viv­ing steel­bands, was found­ed in the 1940s as Des­ti­na­tion Tokyo.

One of the band’s ear­li­est cap­tains was the late pan pi­o­neer Win­ston “Spree” Si­mon.

The band gained its first spon­sor­ship in 1963 from Carib Brew­ery. Tokyo’s suc­cess­es over the years in­clude win­ning the test piece in the 1968 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val with a tune con­sid­ered the “stiffest test for pan­men,” Sun­day Morn­ing by Ben­jamin Brit­ten.

The band al­so won that year’s Bomb 4 Com­pe­ti­tion with Fin­lan­dia and was run­ner-up in that com­pe­ti­tion in 1970 and the sec­ond-best beat­ing band on the road on both days of that Car­ni­val.

In 1971, they were Panora­ma fi­nal­ists with Ma­ma Say by Blakie and placed sec­ond place in 1972 with Mrs Har­ri­man and in 1973 with My Con­nie.

Panora­ma judges will vis­it the Tokyo pa­n­yard on De­cem­ber 11 for the pre­lim­i­nary round of the small band com­pe­ti­tion.

Prepa­ra­tions for the com­pe­ti­tion are now in full swing un­der the lead­er­ship team that in­cludes gen­er­al man­ag­er Trevor Byam, tuner Desmond “Map­po” Ri­card­son, Rick­ie Rouff, Her­cules Fran­cis and Dex­ter Har­ris.