Shas­tri Boodan

Tas­sa As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T vice pres­i­dent Wen­dell Ever­s­ley says the art­form de­serves its recog­ni­tion.

Ever­s­ley was at the time ad­dress­ing the au­di­ence dur­ing the fi­nal of the Na­tion­al Tas­sara­ma Com­pe­ti­tion at the Fun Splash Wa­ter­park on Sat­ur­day night.

Ever­s­ley said lit­tle recog­ni­tion is paid to an art­form that was de­vel­oped lo­cal­ly us­ing lo­cal ma­te­ri­als.

“When I see how they treat tas­sa in this coun­try I cry, be­cause I grew up in a place called Fred­er­ick Set­tle­ment, Ca­roni and I know about the tas­sa mu­sic. I know about the pan mu­sic but when it comes to dis­crim­i­na­tion, the tas­sa is al­ways fac­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion,” Ever­s­ley said.

“I am call­ing on the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, how come you can recog­nise the steel­pan and you can­not recog­nise the tas­sa. How come when it’s time to give al­lo­ca­tions to the tas­sa, the tas­sa al­ways have to be beg­ging and beg­ging and beg­ging. We can­not be cel­e­brat­ing 60 years as an in­de­pen­dent coun­try, we can­not be putting $7.2 mil­lion (in­to In­de­pen­dence cel­e­bra­tions) and you hear­ing about steel­pan all over T&T in some sort of cel­e­bra­tions, but when it comes to the tas­sa the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture silent.”

Ever­s­ley’s call in the wake of re­cent calls for the steel­pan to be of­fi­cial pro­claimed as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment. The steel­pan was de­clared the na­tion­al in­stru­ment dur­ing the tenure of for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning in 1992 but this was nev­er of­fi­cial­ly pro­claimed in Par­lia­ment. How­ev­er, Gov­ern­ment re­cent­ly in­di­cat­ed it was look­ing at rec­om­men­da­tions for do­ing so in com­mem­o­ra­tion of the coun­try’s 60th an­niver­sary of in­de­pen­dence.

Ever­s­ley said it was time that the dis­crim­i­na­tion came to an end.

“I am call­ing on the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T to make tas­sa the sec­ond na­tion­al in­stru­ment of T&T and we should de­mand it be­cause all of them use the tas­sa.”

He not­ed that tas­sa is used through­out the year and es­pe­cial­ly by politi­cians.

“I am go­ing to fight for Dr Kei­th Row­ley to make tas­sa the sec­ond na­tion­al in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The com­pe­ti­tion saw 13 bands tak­ing part.

The Char­lie Boys Tas­sa Band, out of Clarke Road, Pe­nal, won the ti­tle for the sec­ond straight year with 2101.5 points. Char­lie Boys al­so got the awards for Best Bass and Best Fo­lay.

Speak­ing af­ter­wards, Char­lie Boys Tas­sa Band leader He­mant Nanan told Guardian Me­dia they were elat­ed to have tak­en re­gained the ti­tle and are even keen­er to se­cure a hat trick come 2023.

It’s a dream for drum­mers to win the com­pe­ti­tion two times in a row. We fol­lowed the rules and kept with the guide­lines,” Nanan said.

He said the band is al­ways im­prov­ing and works hard to­wards pro­mot­ing the art­form.

Pa­trons start­ed flock­ing to the free event af­ter 7 pm and the show got off to a good start un­der clear skies. The com­pe­ti­tion was fast paced and there was lit­tle or no de­lay when it came to per­for­mances.

Re­sults were an­nounced around mid­night.

Come 2023, the com­pe­ti­tion will move from the month of Au­gust and will be part of Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

Re­sults

First Place: Char­lie Boys Tas­sa Band

Sec­ond: Shoot­ing Stars Tas­sa Band

Third: FCB Drag­on Boys Tas­sa Band

Fourth: Tri-Star Tas­sa Band

Fifth: Fe­lic­i­ty Back Road Tas­sa Band