Eine Kleine Pan Music
Classics and Carols to Calypso 2003 - 10th Annual Winter Steelpan Festival
"OK, OK, not so loud...this isn't reggae, this isn't rock, this isn't soul: this is calypso..."
Salah Wilson, Montreal's energetic emissary of steelpan music, is in full swing now, moving from his students to a rhythm machine gizmo on a table where he fiddles with the backing beat for today's practice.
Bringing the warm-up cacophony around the room to a halt with a loud "Shhh!", he describes, tracing the air with his fingers, the outline of the next tune: "OK, the most important thing here is to keep the control..."
They are all squeezed into a small classroom at the Garvey Institute on Cote-Vertu boulevard. It is a few days before the annual Winter Steelpan Festival and, as this marks its 10th anniversary, there's a lot to prepare.
A young girl in the front row about three feet high plays one of the shining pans with gusto. Off to the side, a senior woman presides over a full oil drum-sized model in the bass section, delicately pounding out a line.
The range of steelpans is as diverse as the players, with an orchestral division of bass, tenor, alto, and soprano in the instruments. And while the sound of the steelpan - its blend of mellow and sharp - brings forth images of carnivals and Club Meds for many, you might not expect this instrument from Trinidad and Tobago to sound out a smooth and soulful Body & Soul, a sweetly corny Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and even Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
There's a lot going on beneath its festive exterior, and part of the reason we can hear the steelpan here live these days is down to Salah Wilson. From his start in Montreal playing in the first Caribbean carnival (before the Carifest) in 1974, to years spent entertaining people in the metro in the early '80s. ("If you heard someone playing the steelpan in the metro back then - it was me.") to the beginnings of the Salah & Family Steelpan Workshops in the Montreal black community, Wilson's mission, his calling if you like, has been to break the steelpan free from its perceived boundaries and approach all types of music.
In his years spent playing and teaching at high schools and at Concordia University, a stint at the Jazz Festival, and the recent founding of his Steelpan Music Academy in 1997, Wilson has seen the music grow both in scope and popularity.
"Steelpan today is quite different than when I first started," says Wilson. "It's really international. I turned on my TV one day and saw a steelpan there with a country and western group. A blond-haired guy with a cowboy hat came out and played some stuff that would blow you away."
The steelpan is the only new family of acoustic instruments to have been invented in the 20th century. And as popular as they have become, it is still isn't easy to get or maintain them. When they get out of tune from the constant beating and shifts in temperature, there's no easy adjustment for the pans, no tuning knob or screw. Until recently, Montreal pans required a trip back to Trinidad to be rehammered (it is now done in Toronto).
Wilson is passionate about the upcoming show. "It was necessary here to create an outlet," he says, for his many students. The concert on Sunday at Wagar auditorium is the winter counterpart to the downtown summer edition at Émilie-Gamelin park.
For the holiday festival, "Classics and Carols to Calypso 2003", Salah's family group and his Steelpan Workshop will be joined by a half-dozen other competing schools and groups with musicians coming in from Toronto, Vancouver, and of course the motherland, Trinidad. It will be a diverse evening with school and professional steelpan groups sharing a stage with Montreal reggae band Jab Jab, tap dancer Travis Knight, and a "Pan Shoot-Out" cutting contest among several soloists.
Meanwhile, the practice must continue. Back to the calypso number, where the polyrhythms build and Salah's movements around the pan soon become fists of fury as he solos with increasing intensity. Watching it all from the doorway is the great Montreal sax player Abdul Al-Khabyyr, still in recovery from a stroke. He picks up his alto and joins in. It's a show stopping number that ends with a flourish, and everyone there - the spectators, musicians, and journalists who line the room - bust out cheering.
Classics and Carols to Calypso 2003 - 10th Annual Winter Steelpan Festival
Sunday, December 7 at 3 p.m. (with door prizes and raffles)
Wagar Auditorium
5785 Parkhaven Ave., Côte St. Luc (corner Kildare, near the Cavendish Mall)
Admission
Adults $10 ($12 at the door), Seniors $7, Students $5
Info
514-696-7307
- Learn more about Salah Wilson and the history of Steelpan music in Montreal at Steelpan Plus -
[ all photos © Neil Brouillet, 2003 ]
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