Wes­ley Gib­bings

There is suf­fi­cient Panora­ma pedi­gree, his­to­ry, home­town ad­van­tage, and mu­si­cal tal­ent to con­vert to­day’s Panora­ma Medi­um Band Fi­nals at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in To­ba­go in­to a glad­i­a­to­r­i­al en­counter ca­pa­ble of spring­ing some dra­mat­ic sur­pris­es.

Ac­cord­ing­ly, Pan Trin­ba­go Pres­i­dent, Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore, told T&T Guardian she ex­pects a sell-out crowd this evening and the or­gan­i­sa­tion may have to deal with a pos­si­ble over­flow re­sult­ing from en­thu­si­asm over the com­pe­ti­tion.

So far, the top slot in the com­pe­ti­tion has been oc­cu­pied by home-grown Katzen­jam­mers of Black Rock which has held its ground since the pre­lim­i­nary round. The band has a 72-year his­to­ry with two Medi­um Bands wins un­der its belt–in 2011 and 2012.

Katzen­jam­mers was a crowd favourite on Sun­day play­ing Baron’s 1990 clas­sic en­ti­tled Tell Me Why. It is the tenth band in line to play this evening.

Hold­ing steady in sec­ond place through both rounds so far has been NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders–a rel­a­tive new­com­er to com­pet­i­tive pan but is the cur­rent ti­tle­hold­er.

Joy­lan­ders, which plays third to­day, has gained ground fol­low­ing the semi­fi­nals, low­er­ing its points tal­ly from a deficit of six to three points be­hind Katzen­jam­mers. It is play­ing Pos­er’s The Fete Ent Over Yet from 1993.

Sforza­ta, which jumped one place to third last Sun­day has proved to be wor­thy com­peti­tors play­ing the 36-year-old hit–‘John­ny’ by Taxi. With Panora­ma wins in 2005, 2006 and 2009, Sforza­ta is no new­com­er to the game, hav­ing been es­tab­lished in St Au­gus­tine in 1975. It plays as band num­ber 11 to­day.

Such is the depth of Panora­ma achieve­ment in to­day’s line-up that semi­fi­nal fifth-place qual­i­fi­er, Pan El­ders, holds a record six wins in the Medi­um Band cat­e­go­ry and, in 2008, had won as a Small Band.

With arranger Ter­rance “BJ” Mar­celle hold­ing the ba­ton, Pan El­ders plays One for the Road - a 1992 hit by Baron. It is band num­ber four in to­day’s line-up. There are 14 points sep­a­rat­ing this cham­pi­on San Fer­nan­do band from Katzen­jam­mers, but lit­tle to sep­a­rate it by way of crowd re­spons­es so far.

Courts Sound Spe­cial­ist, which opens the show at 7 this evening, is it­self a two-time Medi­um Band win­ner and comes to the stage in ninth place, ty­ing with Siparia Del­tones–the 2007 Small Band win­ner that now has flag-wav­ing sup­port from so­ca star, Machel Mon­tano. Mon­tano pro­vides vo­cals on its tune of choice, The Meet­ing Place–Amapi­ano Ver­sion, a col­lab­o­ra­tion in­volv­ing the late Hugh Masekela to­geth­er with Mon­tano and the band.

Front runners Katzenjammers in action at last Sunday's semis at the Queen's Park Savannah.

WESLEY GIBBINGS

Play­ing sec­ond, Ari­ma An­gel Harps with an Aviel Scant­er­bury arrange­ment of Bun­ji’s Car­ni­val Ta­ban­ca, has not been find­ing the go­ing easy. The 62-year-old Ari­ma band bare­ly reached both the semi­fi­nal and to­day’s fi­nal–lan­guish­ing at 25 points be­hind Katzen­jam­mers af­ter the semis.

Dix­ieland, en­joy­ing home ad­van­tage in To­ba­go, plays in sixth po­si­tion with Ex­plain­er’s Lor­raine from 1981, arranged by Ojay Richards. Dix­ieland will be fol­lowed by Curepe Scherzan­do play­ing Mash Up by Blaxx.

Po­ten­tial Sym­pho­ny is eighth in line hav­ing placed eleventh at the semis, af­ter which NGC Steel Xplo­sion will de­liv­er its Vanes­sa Headley ver­sion of Voice’s Out And Bad. Its per­for­mance on Sun­day brought a tie with Dix­ieland.

Pam­beri, which placed fourth at the semis, brings up the rear on the pro­gramme and will be hop­ing for the last-play for­tunes that some­times fol­low Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tions. Its re­sound­ing per­for­mance at the semis promis­es tighter go­ing for all oth­er con­tes­tants this evening. The Pam­beri team will be hop­ing that An­dre White ren­di­tion of Ben­jai’s The Peo­ple’s Cham­pi­on will mean some­thing for its plac­ing at the end of the evening’s com­pe­ti­tion.

Ram­sey-Moore says she ex­pects smooth go­ing, giv­en the sea­son’s string of suc­cess­ful stag­ings. She was high in praise for the high lev­el of cor­po­rate sec­tor sup­port, which she says emerged from reg­u­lar­is­ing the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s busi­ness, its fi­nan­cial au­dit in par­tic­u­lar.

“Now we are up-to-date…we now have a clean au­dit in Pan Trin­ba­go…that has helped,” she said. Now, she adds, at­ten­tion turns to the per­for­mance of an in­creas­ing­ly young cadre of par­tic­i­pants. “Thanks to the young peo­ple of pan.”

It mean­while re­mains to be seen whether Katzen­jam­mers can re­tain its hold on the lead. There are 11 oth­er bands in­tent on break­ing its dom­i­nance at a time when it mat­ters most.

Or­der of ap­pear­ance

1. Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille

2. Ari­ma An­gel Harps

3. NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders

4. Pan El­ders

5. Siparia Del­tones

6. Dix­ieland

7. Curepe Scherzan­do

8. Po­ten­tial Sym­pho­ny

9. NGC Steel Xplo­sion

10. Katzen­jam­mers

11. Sforza­ta

12. Pam­beri