SAN­DRA L BLOOD

In­spired by an en­dur­ing love for his late fa­ther and the lega­cy he left be­hind, ac­claimed mu­si­cian and steel­pan arranger Am­rit Sama­roo is ho­n­our­ing the life and work of Dr Jit Sukha Sama­roo with a new three-day event — The Dr Jit Sama­roo Mu­sic Fes­ti­val 2025 — to be held from Oc­to­ber 31 to No­vem­ber 2. The fes­ti­val co­in­cides with what would have been Jit Sama­roo’s 75th birth­day, cel­e­brat­ing his un­matched con­tri­bu­tions to T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment and cul­ture.

Am­rit, who leads the award-win­ning Su­per­novas Steel Or­ches­tra, has long fol­lowed in his fa­ther’s foot­steps as an arranger and di­rec­tor. But this fes­ti­val, he says, goes be­yond his per­son­al mu­si­cal jour­ney — it’s about ho­n­our­ing a man whose life em­bod­ied dis­ci­pline, hu­mil­i­ty, and an undy­ing pas­sion for pan.

Jit Sama­roo, af­fec­tion­ate­ly known sim­ply as “Jit,” passed away in 2016 af­ter decades of ex­tra­or­di­nary work that trans­formed the steel­pan world. De­fy­ing his fa­ther’s wish­es to stay away from pa­n­yards, Jit fol­lowed his call­ing.

“I made a gal­lant, non-in­ten­tion­al­ly-dis­re­spect­ful move by dis­obey­ing my dad,” he once re­marked, “but pan haunt­ed me. It was my em­ploy­er and took me places I could on­ly have dreamed of.”

Jit’s mu­si­cal sto­ry is now part of na­tion­al lore. He formed T&T’s first all-sib­ling band, the Sama­roo Kids, which lat­er be­came the Sama­roo Jets. Through mu­sic, he sup­port­ed his fam­i­ly af­ter his fa­ther’s pass­ing, el­e­vat­ing pan from pas­time to pro­fes­sion. His bril­liance lat­er caught the at­ten­tion of Amo­co (now bpTT), which in­vit­ed him to lead and up­lift the leg­endary bp Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra.

Over the years, Jit per­formed lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, earn­ing mul­ti­ple awards, in­clud­ing an hon­orary doc­tor­ate from The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies in 2003. Renowned for his pre­ci­sion, poise, and pro­fes­sion­al­ism, he be­came a na­tion­al role mod­el both with­in and be­yond the steel­band move­ment.

In trib­ute to this re­mark­able lega­cy, Am­rit has part­nered with The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), Rene­gades, Su­per­novas, Pome­gran­ate Stu­dios, and the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment to cre­ate a fes­ti­val that cel­e­brates Jit’s artistry through film, schol­ar­ship, and mu­sic.

“The oc­ca­sion is a trib­ute to one of T&T’s great­est mu­si­cal icons, Dr Jit Sama­roo,” the pro­duc­tion team said in a re­lease. “It promis­es to bring to­geth­er di­verse au­di­ences to com­mem­o­rate his un­matched con­tri­bu­tions to steel­pan mu­sic and cul­ture. His life will be cap­tured through film, ed­u­ca­tion, and per­for­mance.”

Fes­ti­val Sched­ule

Oc­to­ber 31 – Film Night

7 p.m. at Su­per­novas Pa­n­yard, Sur­rey Vil­lage, Lopinot.

Tick­ets: $50

The evening opens with The Life and Mu­sic of Jit Sama­roo by Pome­gran­ate Stu­dios Lim­it­ed, fea­tur­ing rare footage, in­ter­views, and re­flec­tions from his peers. The pre­miere will al­so in­clude two short doc­u­men­taries: From Sur­rey With Love and Su­per­novas’ Jour­ney to Iron Park 2025.

No­vem­ber 1 – Aca­d­e­m­ic Sem­i­nar

1–3 p.m. at the UWI Re­pub­lic Bank DC­FA Build­ing, Gor­don Street, St Au­gus­tine.

Ad­mis­sion: Free

This sem­i­nar of­fers aca­d­e­m­ic and cul­tur­al re­flec­tions on Jit’s im­pact on steel­pan, ed­u­ca­tion, and so­ci­ety. Mod­er­at­ed by Jes­sel Mur­ray, Head of UWI’s De­part­ment of Cre­ative and Fes­ti­val Arts, pan­elists in­clude Sa­tanand Shar­ma, Dr Jean­nine Re­my, Wes­ley Gib­bings, and Carl­ton Maltin.

No­vem­ber 2 – Grand Con­cert

6 p.m. at NA­PA, Port of Spain.

Tick­ets: $250

The grand fi­nale con­cert fea­tures Jit’s time­less arrange­ments per­formed by the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra, Su­per­novas, and head­lin­ers bp Rene­gades, Jit’s long­time mu­si­cal home un­til his re­tire­ment.

Tick­ets are avail­able on­line at is­landet­ick­ets.com and at the NA­PA Box Of­fice.