Steelbands Move From Lobby To Concert Hall

FROM TORONTO TO VANCOUVER THE SOUND OF STEEL ECHOES THROUGH THE AIR WITH A SCINTILLATING COTTONY softness, at different times of the year. Community steelbands engage in rigorous practice sessions as a new breed of young musicians rehearses their repertoires.

It could be classical compositions by deceased composers more modem and up-to-date jazz, rhythm and blues, calypso, soca, reggae or hip hop compositions. Performances by these orchestras may be heard at community festivals, convocations public outdoor performances, private parties in nightclubs, or on other occasions.

While one will encounter enthusiastic musicians caressing the instruments in Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary and elesewhere in Canada, the city which seems like the Canadian foundation of steelband activity is Toronto. There initiatives flourish like butterflies in a tropical field.

For instance, more than 30 Toronto elementary public and high schools from kindergarten upwards have their own bands, where hundreds of young Canadians are involved, during the school year, in the art of learning to play steel drums -- as pioneer Othello Molineaux would prefer to call the instrument Toronto's Vanier and Bathurst Heights are two high schools where students earn up to three credits for studying pan.

At the Separate School Board level, in addition to St. Kevin's there are other steelbands at St. Dorothy and St. John Vianney, in the west end of the city, and St. Paul's downtown.

At. St. Kevins, it has become an established tradition that steelband is a One-year project for the school's Grade 8 class. Every September for fourteen years Tony Racioppa has started with a brand new set of students. By the end of the school year in May and June he has traveled with concert programme. "We finish year having them play at their own graduation. They play and after that the band is disbanded," the satisfied music teacher says.

At the high school level Pan taught for credit like any other musical instrument. "In general the students who go through the program do well. Some still play in community bands," explains Elton Jones, a veteran panman and school teacher at Vanier.

The best known elementary school band is the Jesse Ketchum Pan Vibrations, where Heather Mclvor is a strong advocate for the musical form. Since its formation in 1994, members of Pan Vibrations have been involved in unique experiences such as touring Trinidad and Tobago, producing a video with assistance from the Ontario Arts Council recording a CD in 1999 and winning steelband competitions organized around the Caribana festival. It is the first children's band to be accepted in Toronto's Caribana parade.

That was a joyful experience for the children during the 1999 summer festival, which is viewed by millions of people around the world live on the streets and on television. "It has given our school extra notoriety. Everybody talks about our steelband. We have been featured in a national reading series - Nelson Reader - for Grade 4 and 5 students. We get calls and letters from people who read the story about the band from all over the country. A lot of children come to the school to learn to play pan in Grades 7 and 8," an obviously pleased Mclvor notes.

Jones began teaching pan in schools in 1980. At that time he was. employed by the North York Board of' Education. Steelband activities in City of Toronto Board of Education schools are believed to have begun in the mid- to late-1980s.

"The schools that they (pan) in naturally had the support of the administration; otherwise they wouldn't have been in. They saw some sort of need that was there and also a program that has merit; also in musical terms because the quality of that they produce was relatively good as was displayed at the Kiwanis Music Festival," Jones believes.

"School administration was quite happy, in most part, with the way that the programs were going and that is why it spread," he believes. The success of North York is seen as a major reason for Toronto Board introducing and expanding the program from one school to another.

One major musical event at which Toronto school steelband is showcased is the Board of Education's spring concert at Roy Thomson Hall. Three years ago pan shifted from the lobby to the concert hall stage.

The concert is considered by educators as an opportunity for children to perform. Music being a performing art, it is generally agreed that there is no point in studying it and never having a chance to express it. "It is an opportunity for us to be able to demonstrate the kinds of learning that go on through the department and the scope of the kinds of things that we do," says Marshall, District wide Music Coordinator with the Toronto District School Board.

So pan has been included with the traditional choirs, orchestras, string groups, Orif and recorders. The show presents between 800 and 1,000 kids demonstrating the scope of music programmes in the Toronto District School Board.

It's the scope of the programme and the enthusiasm of the programme, not only from the kids but from the teachers, that we want parents to appreciate and understand. I think they obviously know what music does for their kids. We want to share in that. It s a magical night, a magical night!" he continues.

Since steelband's inclusion in his programme Lindy Burgess has had two of his bands selected for the show. They emerged at the top following very tough auditions. In 1998 McMurrich Public School and last year the Queen Alexandra band were selected.

The event highlights the best in the city. So being selected as the best performing band is a tremendous accomplishment for Burgess and his students. "They are the ones that I am really excited for because it takes them to Roy Thomas, prestigious environment for someone at a tender age of maybe 10 or 11 to perform to a soldout audience. That's a big accomplishment and, for some, the only time they may get to play in an environment as classy as Roy Thomson."

Ken Jeffers, a renowned steelband supporter and bass player with Afropan (the city's oldest steelband) would like to see steeldrum or pan in every school. "Pan has progressed through the schools, where students are learning to read music. So the combination of learning to read music and playing pan have been an absolute asset. With music being a major part of the school curriculum most students in steelband programmes also play other musical instruments."

Among the leadership in Toronto's steelband community, there is recognition that pan is becoming the instrument of choice. There is growing competition among community bands as they recruit members, who learn their craft in schools. Some are playing in two bands.

"They would come around and learn Afropan's big tune and then they go up by Fantasy and learn a next tune. I say that is good, but unfortunately we have to have some discipline. You are either in the band because we want you to play or you are not, but that's a nice problem to fix," Jeffers says enthusiastically.

The Mississaugua Academy of Steelband Music founded by Elton "Smokey" Jones, which entered the Mississauga Santa Claus Parade in December 1995 is one of the emerging community bands. It was judged the best non-costumed group that year. Respect and a desire to share his musical, skills with Canadian youth in his neighbourhood keep this veteran bassman enthused, always smiling and pleasant, extending a warm handshake of greeting to everyone.

Having to set up shop in the basement of his home to start the Mississaugua Academy of Steelband Music on Good Friday 1995 did not take any agonizing for "Smokey" as his friends call him. With no available public space and no existing steelband program in Mississauga, John consulted with his family members, received their blessing and the Academy was born. Ten of his friends' children and his own two sons formed the nucleus. Some of the players came with a bit of musical knowledge from school, and that helped.

John began by teaching the young pan enthusiasts the basics, starting with practical exercises like how to hold their sticks properly. They also learn the notes on the instrument and the scales of music. These sessions include a comparative segment that helps players link the pan's role with traditional musical instruments.

The band, whose membership is now at 35, entered and won its first Bomb competition in 1995, organized by Pan Trinbago Canada as part of that year's Caribana festivities. It also created tremendous excitement among spectators of the Etobicoke Santa Claus Parade. It has been receiving steady calls since then from music lovers in Mississauga.

Teaching young Canadians something he learned as a child in East Port of Spain, Trinidad (despite many floggings from his parents), was a cherished dream that is now a reality. It has always been his ambition to teach pan to the kids because there isn't much for the youngsters to do outside of the classrooms in the Region of Peel where he lives. So his effort primarily centers around moulding a community band in Mississauga to teach all children interested in the art the proper way to play the steelband.

The seasoned pannist and instructor totally supports efforts to permanently institutionalize the pan through university and other educational institutions in North America. He recalls an unsuccessful attempt at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, some years ago, due to "a lack of respect".

However, John is quite pleased with current ongoing ventures that involve individuals like Pat McNeilly, Wayne Griffith, Winston "Pappy" Fredericks, John Perez, Layne Clarke, Elton Jones, Ivor Picou, Lindy Burgess, Lloyd McKell, Jan Jones, Ellie Mannette, Clifford Alexis, Les Slater, and others in Canada and the United States of America.

Jeffers dreams of seeing symphonies -- symphony of pan, symphony of instruments -- in every school district sponsored by the corporate sector.

These symphonies must be able to play a range of music with the best instruments that they can receive and they ought to be staffed with some of the best players. He is convinced that if children can begin having that kind of experience, every Canadian child would want to aspire to be in a symphony of pan. "To me that's where I really want to see it," he affirms.

That is not a singular dream. Tony Racioppa retired from the Separate School Board in 1999 after teaching pan at St. Kevin's Catholic School. In his future vision for music in schools, he visualizes more schools offering their students the opportunity to play in steelbands. He is even confident this will happen.

Another person with aspirations and hopes for steelband in schools is Heather Mclvor. To be in the audience experiencing her steelband and others performing as part of the Kiwanis Music Festival would bring joy to her heart. That would be a tremendous form of steelband recognition. She would also like to see school steelbands being offered opportunities to go to the music festival in Scotland where all different bands are allowed to compete. "If we continue this could be a possibility for more travel."

Paul Marshall, the Districtwide Co-ordinator for the Toronto District School Music Programme, thinks it's important that they open up kids' minds to the fact that they don't exist only in Toronto, that they are part of a world community.

"As part of that world community culture has been part of that community and music is a natural way of expressing that; that the musicians in all of the world's cultures are trying to say the same things about what music means to them and what their emotional response to the music is.

As educators approach this important mind-opening process they have to break down some of their stereotypical feelings around a music that they've grown up with and are comfortable with. "We can only tell kids to risk if we are willing to risk too in terms of opening up and hearing what music is. I think it's fair to say that for a lot of kids we are talking about a musical technique that they need to learn," he asserts.

The career music administrator knows that not all Toronto children have had this opportunity to say 'okay what does a roll look like on pan?' Neither have they been in a position to discover that they have to actually work their hands together to make the instrument do its magic and at the same time realize a sense of being coordinated.

Marshall, who went through university as a trumpet major, taught strings and can get around on most of the band instruments, confesses there's a real sense that to be a good pan player, it's athletic and students need to be able to deal with how their body works. In doing so they stretch their minds in all kinds of ways. It is tantamount to learning a new sense of literacy because the teaching that goes in terms of the pan is not necessarily looking at notes the way they are used to looking at them.

Personally Marshall concludes: "I am more than fascinated by all the music of the world that's there. I have to admit I haven't put a sitar in my hand yet but I have given pans a shot. Music is a part of my soul and I have it with me all the time. It's me."

Racioppa regards steelband as a very economical venture compared with other forms of musical activities. Most experienced educators agree that once a budget has some output for steelband the band is there forever. The only expense is periodical tuning.

"With the brass and woodwind programs repair bills are very expensive. Instrument damage is so much prevalent and replacement costs over the years..."

Steelbands are a very cost effective type of band as you don't have replacement and repair costs." While acknowledging this is a bonus for school board budget, Racioppa is also overjoyed by the excitement that type of band creates and the speed at which children can get results.

Mark Bell, music consultant observes accurately that "you need to have instruments in order to perform." He puts another spin on the budgetary debate. "In the vocal music program everybody has a voice and there is no upkeep, no tuning of it and it doesn't cost money. You might have to tune a piano but there isn't the amount of money for say setting up a programme like that (steelband) to buy instruments initially.

Might pan disappear as a credit course, as it presently exists? In other words, will pan survive the budget cuts by the Ontario government? Educators, parents and community band members hope it will.

Mark Bell, a consultant with the Toronto Board advises that the bigger question is "will music survive?" Indeed that is the mammoth question that staff members of the Board are pondering. They must define what the base music programme is going to be throughout the new "Mega-District". In coming up with a definition of its base music programme, it is agreed that some costs have yet to be defined.

The previous six school boards that have been amalgamated into one did things differently. Some schools had a music teacher who taught from junior kindergarten through Grade 8, or Grade 6 in the case of a junior elementary school. Because all the students went to that one teacher, it is argued they all received a quality music education.

In other schools there were no music teachers. A regular Grade 5 classroom teacher was expected to teach music along with the rest of the subjects like math, science, language, and so on. "So if you don't read or write music as the language of music it's like asking me to teach Latin or me to teach Italian. If I don't read, write it or speak it, there is no way I could teach it," Bell explains.

William Doyle-Marshall is a writer/broadcaster and critic who has immersed himself in monitoring the arts on the North American scene. His provocative columns, commentaries, features and reviews have been read around the world in a number of publications and on radio. In Canada he hosts "My Data Bag", a weekly Tuesday afternoon show on CHRY Radio 105.5FM. His columns have been published in the Ghanaian News, Pride News Magazine, Metro Word Magazine and the Jamaica Weekly Gleaner.

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