Officials had raised the flag at the formal handover of political authority to an independent Trinidad and Tobago on August 31, 1962, but it was at the 1963 Carnival that the people consumed and declared their Independence.
Singing “Dan is the Man,” a calypso that satirically subverts the colonial elementary school curriculum, the Mighty Sparrow took the calypso crown for the fourth time.
On the road, Lord Kitchener announced his return after some 14 years abroad with “The Road”, including the road march competition with a warning that steel-band violence must be a thing of the past. While such violence would prevail until the mid-sixties, Kitchener would dominate the road march competition for another decade.
1963 also saw the year of the first Panorama Steelband Competition with the revolutionary innovations of Anthony Williams, captain and arranger of the North Stars Steelband in St James, setting the template for arranging Panorama music. Of his winning arrangements, Sparrow’s “Dan Is the Man” (1963) and Kitchener’s “Mama Dis is Mas” (1964), it was said:
“Everybody prepared, but they didn’t expect that standard. He did things that people had not thought of. The way he would tune it… … Tony wouldn’t just play chords… he’d be running up and down, counter-melodies and stuff. So they won and everyone sat up and took note…. The following year, 1964, he won with “Mama Dis is Mas”, Tony changed three keys! First time in a Panorama competition. Gone again.” (Eddie Odingi quoted in Shannon Dudley Music From Behind the Bridge: Steelband Spirit and Politics in Trinidad and Tobago, OUP, 2008).
In 1965 and 1967, when Bobby Mohammed launched his assault on Port of Spain, these victories belonged not only to his generation of steel Cavaliers, but to the entire Southland questioning its historical claim and contribution to national identity and attention .
Anthony Williams set the design not only for the Panorama arrangements, but for the pan instrument itself. His ingenious arrangement of notes, known as the ‘circle of fifths’, in his Spider-Web pitch, remains the standard format to this day for building and tuning tenors.
Among his earlier innovations, at the age of 20, had been the creation of a three-pan oil drum tenor bass (as opposed to the usual biscuit tins) for TASPO’s 1951 UK tour. The use of heavier instruments would then lead to the bass section of his band, the North Stars, being put on wheels for the carnival ride.
Anthony Williams was considered “a classic man” in the pan fraternity. The Northern Stars were the undisputed champions of the Music Festival, even after leaving Panorama. Their 1968 recording with Trinidadian-born star pianist Winnifred Atwell, “Ivory and Steel,” is a musical triumph and another first of its kind.
Anthony Williams’ story shows how the fledgling band had already boldly begun to indigenize Western classical music and, more importantly, began to create our own classical tradition. Evidence of our classical tradition can be found in the compositions of Nelson Caton, Anthony Prospect, Lord Kitchener, Ray Holman and, of course, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe.
“What talent!
great talent,
You listen to what I say
Steelband music is the biggest talent today.’
Mighty Terror proclaims on his 1965 calypso “Talent Pan.”
Set in the early fires of hope, Panorama defined itself as the people’s school, the concert and the musical climax of the festival. Moreover, Panorama became the arena where, not only musical battles took place, but social forces engaged with each other and, in the energy and function of the carnival, sought solutions. Panorama would represent a coalition between the community, the state and the private sector. Community pride in the 60s crystallized around steel bars and football/cricket teams (often the same players), in arenas open to all.
Today, these spaces continue to be where Independence is being affirmed by the people.
