A new book of un­seen his­toric pho­tos of Car­ni­val is be­ing cel­e­brat­ed at a book launch that will of­fer amaz­ing un­seen film footage of Stephen Lee He­ung's bands in­clud­ing the on­ly known footage of Par­adise Lost, the first car­ni­val band de­signed by Pe­ter Min­shall.

The book We Kind ah Peo­ple, The Trinidad Car­ni­val Mas­quer­ade Bands of Stephen Lee He­ung with pho­tog­ra­phy by George Tang and text by Ray Funk will be launched at the AV Room at Nalis at 6 pm on Oc­to­ber 7, a re­lease said.

Stephen Lee He­ung is one of the great mas band­lead­ers whose lega­cy is un­par­al­leled. He briefly led small bands in the 40s but it was 1964 that he formed a ma­jor band, hir­ing Carlisle Chang as his first de­sign­er and im­me­di­ate­ly leaped to the top ranks of bands like those of George Bai­ley, Harold Salde­nah, and Ed­mund Hart.

From 1964 to 1996, Stephen Lee He­ung was al­ways con­sid­ered a lead­ing band­leader. He won band of the year six times, was award­ed the Hum­ming Bird prize and of­ten had king of the band or queen of the band. His late wife Elsie was an in­te­gral part of the band every year and the book is ded­i­cat­ed to her. With hun­dreds of pho­tos this book is part of the need­ed lega­cy on doc­u­ment­ing great mas­quer­ade band­lead­ers of the past.

The stun­ning pho­tos are by Stephen's cousin George Tang and have re­mained un­seen for these many decades. "Dis­cov­ered" by Ray Funk who met Tang through his son in law Mark Lo­quan, the com­pos­er of mu­sic for the steel­pan and founder of the Mu­sic Lit­er­a­cy Trust. They worked to­geth­er to pro­duce this first book of his pho­tos with Funk con­tribut­ing a de­tailed his­to­ry on Stephen Lee He­ung's bands.

Tang pho­tographed 20 years of the band's his­to­ry from 1974 to 1994. These pho­tos rep­re­sent key years from the bands de­signed by Carlisle Chang to those of Fol­lette Eu­stace in­clud­ing Band of the Year We Kind ah Peo­ple to sev­er­al Wayne Berke­ley de­signed bands like Co­coyea Vil­lage and Fol­lette Eu­stace's bands like Colum­bus and Fes­ti­val.

The or­gan­is­ers of the book launch said it will be a bit un­usu­al be­cause it will be as much a film show as it is a book launch. For the first time, the pub­lic will have a chance to see a part of the film that Tang took. The plan for the book launch is to show the silent film footage and have Tang and oth­ers talk about the bands. It is hoped that many peo­ple who were part of the band will come to the launch.

For the le­gions of Min­shall fans the book will have spe­cial in­ter­est be­cause of Tang's doc­u­men­ta­tion of Par­adise Lost. The book in­cludes a num­ber of amaz­ing pho­tos from that year and the book launch will fea­ture this footage of Par­adise Lost that is the on­ly known footage that has sur­vived for that year.

Ray Funk is a re­tired Alas­ka judge who has been com­ing to Trinidad for Car­ni­val for al­most two decades. He start­ed with a love of ca­lyp­so that has grown in­to a pas­sion for pan and an ob­ses­sion with tra­di­tion­al car­ni­val char­ac­ters and clas­sic mas bands. He writes ar­ti­cles for the Trinidad news­pa­pers, co-cu­rat­ed an ex­hib­it on the glob­al­i­sa­tion of ca­lyp­so, and gives an­nu­al pre­sen­ta­tions at Nalis dur­ing Car­ni­val and now presents rare his­toric film clips each Car­ni­val for the T&T Film Fes­ti­val.

He al­so co-wrote and pro­duced a ma­jor study on the Ca­lyp­so Craze of 1957 that has just been re­leased by Bear Fam­i­ly Records in Ger­many as a box set with a large cof­fee ta­ble book, six CDs and a DVD. It will soon be avail­able in Trinidad with a launch planned for next Car­ni­val.

MORE IN­FO

Be­cause of lim­it­ed seat­ing and ex­pect­ed high de­mand, reser­va­tions should be made.

E-mail rfunk99707@gmail.com with a name and the num­ber of seats re­quest­ed.

We Kind ah Peo­ple will be avail­able from Pa­per­based at the Nor­mandie Ho­tel in Trinidad and lat­er this year on Ama­zon. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion or to arrange in­ter­views, con­tact Ray Funk at rfunk99707@gmail.com or call 868-714-8555.