On the 60th an­niver­sary of Panora­ma, it’s a time for cel­e­bra­tion and re­flec­tion on the steel­pan, the play­ers and their bands, the arrangers, ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and those com­posers from the steel­band move­ment who have cre­at­ed mu­sic in this the great­est steel­band com­pe­ti­tion.

Just a clar­i­fy­ing note to com­fort for the his­tor­i­cal purists. In the ini­ti­at­ing year, 1963, the com­pe­ti­tion was called The Best Road­march Steel­band Com­pe­ti­tion---Panora­ma came in 1964.

The coun­try owes an un­quan­tifi­able and un­payable debt to the ear­ly pi­o­neers of the steel­pan as in­stru­ment in­ven­tors and those who added val­ue af­ter its cre­ation. Win­ston “Spree” Si­mon, Neville “Cap” Jules, El­lie Man­nette, An­tho­ny “Muff Man” Williams, Os­car Pile and the many oth­ers must be re­mem­bered for their con­tri­bu­tion in pe­ri­ods ig­no­rant of the po­ten­tial of the in­stru­ment and a colo­nial so­ci­ety which deemed the steel­bands­man an “out­cast.”

Spe­cial con­sid­er­a­tion must go to Ray Hol­man, Boogsie Sharpe, Alvin Daniel and oth­ers who com­posed and arranged spe­cial mu­sic for the steel­band. Out­stand­ing arrangers, “Muff Man” Williams, Clive Bradley, Jules, Earl Rod­ney, Ju­nior and Ed­win Pouchet and Lennox “Bob­by” Mo­hammed, took steel­band ren­di­tions to an­oth­er lev­el of mu­si­cal­i­ty. A re­flec­tion on Panora­ma can­not be com­plete with­out Lord Kitch­en­er, the Mighty Spar­row, Su­per Blue and oth­er bards who cre­at­ed the melodies for the arrangers, pan­men and pan­women to dis­tin­guish them­selves.

While recog­ni­tion is giv­en to the 100-plus steel­bands that have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the com­pe­ti­tion over the decades, All Stars, In­vaders, Rene­gades, Des­per­a­does and great orig­i­nat­ing bands such as Casablan­ca, Tokyo, Dix­ieland, Sil­ver Stars—the lat­ter two the “White Boys,” col­lege boys bands that cre­at­ed so­cial and eth­nic his­to­ry—Cav­a­liers, Star­lift and those that have fad­ed from the scene such as North Stars, which won the first two com­pe­ti­tions, must be re­mem­bered for their qual­i­ty of mu­sic and the com­mu­ni­ties they rep­re­sent­ed.

George God­dard as pres­i­dent of the steel­band move­ment in crit­i­cal pe­ri­ods of the life of the pan, notwith­stand­ing the con­tro­ver­sy he of­ten gen­er­at­ed or per­haps be­cause of it, is a stand­out.

Then Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams used his in­flu­ence to en­cour­age cor­po­rate spon­sor­ship of the steel­bands in that pe­ri­od when con­flict raged among bands. Many such spon­sors have stood with their bands, giv­ing sup­port in sig­nif­i­cant and pub­licly un­known ways, for decades.

Panora­ma has been of un­doubt­ed sig­nif­i­cance to the growth in the qual­i­ty of in­stru­ments, the arrange­ments and dis­ci­pline of steel­bands and their mem­bers. Notwith­stand­ing such val­ue, how­ev­er, the over­whelm­ing pull of the com­pe­ti­tion has been said to have over­pow­ered and con­strict­ed the bands from seek­ing out oth­er pos­si­bil­i­ties.

That may have some va­lid­i­ty; but it must be weighed in the bal­ance against the qual­i­ty of mu­sic cre­at­ed, the man­ner the com­pe­ti­tion has gen­er­at­ed en­er­gies amongst pan com­mu­ni­ties on “the Drag” and in the mad­den­ing thrill of a Panora­ma fi­nal when their sup­port­ers have gone wild with de­light.

The pi­o­neer­ing work now achieved, a grad­ual shift in fo­cus and en­er­gy and the per­spec­tives of es­pe­cial­ly the out­stand­ing bands, can lead to a spread­ing of their en­er­gies and ef­fort to de­light and con­quer the world.

Yes, the steel­pan and band have been spread, but there is so much more pi­o­neer­ing ter­ri­to­ry to be cov­ered and con­quered.