The Queen’s Park Savannah and environs are unusually quiet this weekend, as the cancelation of Carnival, and by extension Panorama 2021 generates a morbid silence over the city of Port of Spain and the twin-island Republic as a whole. Similar to the gut-wrenching pain felt by members of the Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra (TASSO) in March last year when their legendary founder, Neville Jules passed on into pan heaven, the absence of the national contest of steelbands this month has been devastating to the vast majority of industry stakeholders.

COVID-19 protocols have limited practices and cancelled performances for almost a full year now, but fortunately, in the hearts and minds of the thousands of players, arrangers, and steelpan enthusiasts around the world, the music still lives on.

“It’s good for people to know that some things remain consistent in this ever-changing world,” stated TASSO’s Executive Member, Staci-Ann Patrick. “Last Sunday for our annual Thanksgiving Mass was only the second time that the stage-side has played since the lockdown in March 2020. My heart cried when not even one note from a pan was heard last year as Neville ‘Cap’ Jules (who died on Carnival Wednesday 2020) was buried at the end of March!

“In spite of our deep longing to play, All-Stars members have been trying to manage our health by not gathering and thus, respecting the COVID-19 guidelines, but with the scent of Carnival blowing in on the evening breeze daily, it’s becoming harder to accept the sacrifices that we have had to make as a community. Day in and day out we walk the tightrope of lives vs livelihood. We understand the pain of losing some of our own to COVID-19, so we want to do everything we can to avoid that, but at the same time, we have to find ways to replace the passion, the creativity, the incomes, the dedication, and discipline, etc. that Cap instilled in us years ago, and which we usually display every season.”

Still, the band was not completely dormant in 2020, with various members representing the orchestra most recently at performances for the ‘Panology’ virtual event hosted as part of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA) festival held in October, a televised show on TTT in November entitled ‘Through the Eyes of Panorama’ paying tribute to their longstanding Panorama arranger, Leon ‘Smooth’ Edwards and the grand televised launch of the inaugural TT Female Basketball League by the National Basketball Federation in December.

Petal Jack, section leader and quads player reminisced:

“It felt good being behind my instrument again. Even though it was only for a few minutes, I was overjoyed. Connecting with my pan was euphoric!”

 

During the initial COVID-19 lockdown period, the band successfully commenced and completed major renovative works on their pan-yard. Successfully redesigning the space, crafting an all-new bar, gift center, and shopping facility, but with restrictions on gatherings still in effect, the band has been unable to launch this new initiative thus far.

Whilst many other steelbands and even All-Stars’ soloist Dane Gulston have staged or plan to stage smaller-scale live and virtual events, the TASSO family was hard-at-work on a different way to represent the national instrument in 2021 and beyond. Following his untimely passing in 2020, the TASSO Executive made an official request to the Port of Spain City Corporation to rename the junction of George and Duke Streets to the Neville Jules Junction in tribute to the legendary pan virtuoso, who gave so much to the steel pan fraternity.

“We are blessed to have had elders like Neville Jules believing in the dream of music on steel.” Said Gulston. “Were it not for him and others in the 1940s showing tremendous courage, creativity, and discipline, the instrument may not be the same and we definitely would not be the band we are today; that is why we are dedicated to remembering them and honouring their legacies in very tangible and visible ways.”

 

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