Pe­ter Ray Blood

As icon­ic steel­bands Massy Trinidad All Stars and CAL In­vaders cel­e­brate their 80th and 75th an­niver­saries, re­spec­tive­ly, in 2016 Des­per­a­does will cel­e­brate 50 years of suc­cess in steel­band com­pe­ti­tions. The steel or­ches­tra with the most na­tion­al Panora­ma vic­to­ries in its bushel, as well as three Steel­band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val cham­pi­onships, has em­barked on a re­ju­ve­na­tion pro­gramme aimed at lift­ing the Laven­tille Hill steel or­ches­tra to its for­mer glo­ry hav­ing lost some of its spark in re­cent years.

Des­per­a­does PRO Pa­tri­cia Rock-Ross said this week: "Des­per­a­does re­cent­ly elect­ed a new man­age­ment com­mit­tee, its mem­ber­ship be­ing a mix of rel­a­tive­ly young mem­bers with a few of the el­der heads. Our new man­ag­er is Cur­tis Ed­wards who comes with a wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence in not just mu­sic, but in lead­er­ship as well. A past cap­tain of Des­per­a­does and of his own band, Crescen­does, he is al­so a UWI grad in mu­sic."

Rock-Ross added that the new com­mit­tee is in­tent on cre­at­ing a bond be­tween the play­ers, the sup­port­ers and the com­mu­ni­ty. "Jump high, jump low, all of Laven­tille and Des­per­a­does is one fam­i­ly and it is high time that we erad­i­cate any form of di­vi­sion that may have ex­ist­ed in re­cent years. It is not nice when we hear peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly some of those who have sup­port­ed us through the years, say­ing that De­per­a­does is a has-been. Our mis­sion is re­store the pride and dig­ni­ty of this great in­sti­tu­tion and of course to win the 2016 na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tle.

"One of the first things this new com­mit­tee in­tends do­ing is to pay recog­ni­tion to the lead­ers, play­ers and mem­bers who start­ed it all, like Rudolph Charles, Eu­gene "Gun­ga Din" Mc Clean, Carl Greenidge, Den­nis "Tash" Ash, Elias "Peu­got" Phillip, Roy "Baby­lon" Cor­ri­g­an, Rudolph "Crab­by" Ed­wards, Thomas "Thun­der­bolt" Williams, Ur­su­la Tu­dor, An­tho­ny Mc Quilkin, An­tho­ny "Ben' Up" Kin­sale, Robert Greenidge and Lloyd Mal­oney, just to name a few. Even I, af­ter 28 years of be­ing part of Des­per­a­does, am learn­ing. I re­cent­ly learned that Franklyn Ger­ald was the band's first nine bass play­er when that in­stru­ment was in­vent­ed by the late Rudolph Charles."

Af­ter Ger­ald, Des­per­a­does has al­ways been served by some out­stand­ing nine bass mu­si­cians, like Crawl, Gun­ga Din, Sen­sie, Ban­do and Jakes.

Iron­i­cal­ly, when first formed, Des­per­a­does was more fa­mous as a "mas band" than a good steel­band. In those days, the band was led by Wil­fred "Speak­er" Har­ri­son. All that changed with the as­cen­dan­cy of Rudolph Charles as the band's cap­tain in 1961 and by the mid six­ties the mas-play­ing en­ti­ty of Laven­tille Hill was con­vert­ed in­to the coun­try's most po­tent steel or­ches­tra, pro­duc­ing ex­cel­lent mu­sic with the lead­er­ship of Charles, arrange­ments by Bev­er­ly Grif­fith and skilled pan­tuners like Bertie Mar­shall and Lin­coln Noel.

Rock-Ross con­tin­ued: "For starters, the band will come to­geth­er to host an awards cer­e­mo­ny at which these stal­warts and he­roes of Laven­tille will be re­mem­bered.

"Part of my re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to fa­cil­i­tate the younger mem­bers with the his­to­ry of the band and its achieve­ments. If peo­ple don't know where they have come from up, not on­ly will they be un­able to de­rive pride in that they are do­ing, but will not be able to go for­ward with any suc­cess."

Des­per­a­does has had a ful­ly equipped con­cert au­di­to­ri­um on the Hill which has been un­der utilised. "It is now be­ing ren­no­vat­ed so that we can have our own con­certs in our home, as well as make it amenable and ac­ces­si­ble to the com­mu­ni­ty."

The mu­si­cians who have aid­ed Des­per­a­does to these achieve­ments since 1966 have been Bev­er­ly Grif­fith, Clive Bradley, Robert Greenidge and Dr Pat Bish­op.

Des­per­a­does won its first Na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tle in 1966 play­ing Grif­fith's arrange­ment of Spar­row's Mel­da. Play­ing Borodin's Polovet­sian Dances, the or­ches­tra won Pan Is Beau­ti­ful Na­tion­al Steel Or­ches­tra Mu­sic Fes­ti­val in 1986.

Rock-Ross said: "We in­tend to re­fresh the peo­ple's minds as to who we, Wit­co Des­per­a­does, re­al­ly are and all of what we have ac­com­plished. Of course our his­to­ry and achieve­ments are much more than 50 years as the band was ac­tu­al­ly formed many years be­fore, since World War II in the for­ties.

"We want all the Des­per­a­does fam­i­ly to come back home. I want to tell them they all have a home and in our house, in which there is love in every room, when we come to­geth­er and unite we are a force to reck­on with and no­body can de­feat us."