Sounds of steel echo over Brooklyn Museum grounds, environs for Panorama

The sweet sounds of the steel pan reverberated for over five hours Saturday night and early Sunday morning over the Brooklyn Museum Grounds and the surrounding neighborhoods in Crown Heights as the West Indian Day Carnival Association (WIADCA), organizer of the annual New York Caribbean Week, showcased Panorama.

Guest Steel Orchestra Eruption Steel Orchestra performs at Panorama 2024. Photo by Nelson A. King

Thousands of pan lovers filled the grounds as eight steel orchestras provided a lively prelude to the grand Carnival Parade on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway on Labor Day Monday.
Defending champions Metro Steel Orchestra gave a much-spirited performance, to loud applause, in competing with Steel Sensation, Pan in Motion, Despers USA, Philadelphia Pan Stars, D’Radoes, Harmony Music Makers, and Pan Evolution Steel Orchestra.

Steel Sensation plays “How Ah Living.” Photo by Nelson A. King

Between performances, a D.J. provided soca vibes to pan fans, who either rocked in their chairs or gyrated to the captivating rhythm.
The 100-member Metro Steel Orchestra, dressed like pilots, dedicated its “Lauren” rendition to Trinidadian Rawlston Charles, the owner of Charlie’s Records on Fulton Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Eighty-five players in Steel Sensation banged out Farmer Nappy’s “How Ah Living”; Pan In Motion and Despers USA, with 100 players each, played “DNA”; and Philadelphia Pan Stars and D’ Radoes offered “Inventor.”

Pan in Motion plays “DNA.” Photo by Nelson A. King

Several local legislators attended the event, giving citations and proclamations to WIADCA and Beverley Ramsey-Moore, the president of PanTrinbago, the steelpan association in Trinidad and Tobago.
Among them was Rita Joseph, the Haitian-born representative for the 40th Council District in Brooklyn; Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, the son of Grenadian immigrants; State Assemblywoman Monique Chandler-Waterman, the representative for the 58th Assembly District in Brooklyn and daughter of Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants; and State Sen. Kevin Parker, the representative for the 21st Senate District in Brooklyn.

U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, and New York State Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, sent citations and proclamation.

Despers USA plays “DNA.” Photo by Nelson A. King

Trinidad and Tobago Consul General to New York Andre Laveau was among other dignitaries.

WIADCA also honored its Board Member Trinidadian Roger Young Lao posthumously, the co-founder of the Brooklyn-based Carlos Lezama Archives and Caribbean Cultural Center (CLACC-C).

Philadelphia Pan Stars plays “Inventor.”Photo by Nelson A. King

The carnival group also recognized the late Randy Brewster.

“May their souls be missed!” said co-MC Jemma Jordan, who shared duties with Sheldon Hoyte.

D’Radoes plays “Inventor.” Photo by Nelson A. King

Former Trinidad and Tobago Road March Monarch Super Blue also rendered an abbreviated version of his famous hit.

Trinidadian-born attorney Roger Archibald, the new WIADCA president, noted that the Government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley “did a good job in replacing vestiges of colonialism with the pan” on the twin-island republic’s coat-of-arms (applause).

“We celebrate pan more than ever before,” he said, stating that the Panorama was livestreamed in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the United States, and Canada, among other places.
“Pan is the only instrument invented (by Trinidad and Tobago) this century,” Archibald added. “And pan belongs to us.”