Bo­bie-lee Dixon

For al­most two decades un­der the man­age­ment of Nestor Sul­li­van, the Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra has brought the peo­ple of Japan the sweet sounds of T&T's na­tion­al in­stru­ment. To­day, even af­ter Japan's dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake that wreaked hav­oc in the north­ern part of the coun­try, Sul­li­van as­sured, earth­quake or not... his band will con­tin­ue wav­ing the flag of T&T cul­ture high in Japan. "It is not just about hav­ing a steel band that plays in Japan. We have de­vel­oped a very close affin­i­ty with the peo­ple of Japan and they al­so hold us dear to them and in high es­teem," ex­plained Sul­li­van.

His­to­ry

The band, orig­i­nal­ly from San Juan, was formed in 1980 af­ter the merg­ing of Fin­land Or­ches­tra and Marscians Steel Band. Hav­ing carved its name on the lo­cal scene, Pam­beri would be­gin tour­ing Eu­rope-vis­it­ing, France, Italy and Switzer­land. The steel or­ches­tra al­so em­barked on the record­ing of its first CD in 1992, ti­tled Pam­beri In Paris. Ac­cord­ing to Sul­li­van, it was at that point the band met its fu­ture "friend"-Japan. "It so hap­pened that the stu­dio (Blue Moon Record La­bel) where we were record­ing the CD, a Japan­ese com­pa­ny op­er­at­ed right next to it. As time passed we be­came ac­quaint­ed with the peo­ple of that com­pa­ny, and we gave them a copy of the CD and they in­tro­duced the band's mu­sic to their 'con­nec­tions' in Japan. "We toured Japan for the first time in 1993 as Pam­beri, and for four con­sec­u­tive years they re­tained our ser­vices. We took a break in 2001 and by 2003 we were back in Japan and have been play­ing there ever since," ex­plained Sul­li­van.

Pan has a home in Japan

Sul­li­van de­scribed the peo­ple of Japan as not on­ly warm peo­ple, but he al­so found them to be quite con­struc­tive and en­thu­si­as­tic about learn­ing oth­er cul­tures and in­cor­po­rat­ing them in­to their own.

"When we first went to Japan there were al­ready about six or sev­en Japan­ese steel bands ex­ist­ing, now there are over 50 bands. "T&T cit­i­zens will be proud if they could see the achieve­ments of Japan­ese pan play­ers. We al­ways see ev­i­dence of their hard work in Panora­ma. There is al­ways a pres­ence of more than one Japan­ese pan play­er in Panora­ma," added Sul­li­van.

Japan made us bet­ter

Ad­mit­ting that the lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism dis­played by Japan­ese pan-play­ers made them (Pam­beri) step up their 'game,' Sul­li­van said: "The most im­por­tant thing when it comes to en­ter­tain­ment in Japan, is the ques­tion of pro­fes­sion­al­ism. From the arrange­ments, con­tracts, to the stage set­tings and sound en­gi­neer­ing-every thing is done with ut­most pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Not to men­tion you are liv­ing amongst ad­vance tech­nol­o­gy, so there is no ex­cuse for not do­ing a good job. "As a re­sult of this, the bands will al­ways per­form at their best be­cause they have all they need to work with."

Play­ing one for Japan

Al­though Japan's fo­cus is on re­build­ing af­ter mass ru­in caused by its re­cent earth­quake and tsuna­mi, Sul­li­van as­sured his band's ties with Japan were not lost. "I have been in touch with our agent in Japan and he has not giv­en us any rea­son to be­lieve our re­la­tion­ship was over," Sul­li­van dis­closed.

"Last year we were spe­cial guest at the Japan­ese Steel Band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val in Yoko­hama, just out­side of Tokyo. "There were about ten Japan­ese steel­bands play­ing and the mem­bers of Pam­beri were fas­ci­nat­ed by the tech­ni­cal abil­i­ty of the Japan­ese play­ers-they could play. "The mem­bers of Pam­beri hold a very spe­cial place in their hearts for the peo­ple of Japan. We have all been sad­dened by what has hap­pened and so any ef­fort that is made to bring a smile back to the faces of the Japan­ese peo­ple...we in that. "Pam­beri was one of the steel­bands that sent its love and sup­port to Japan at the lo­cal­ly pro­duced Gan­bare con­cert-a fund-rais­ing event that was held at the Zen Night Club on March 29. "We just want to say thank you to Japan for mak­ing Pam­beri al­ways feel at home."

More in­fo

For more in­fo on Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra vis­it www.pam­beri.com or email the band at pam­beri_steel_or­ches­tra@hot­mail.com