BOSTON, MA – Steelpan instructors and educators wishing to boost learning of the art form now have a simplified means of achieving this goal. Ray Holman, Mark Loquan and eCaroh present a double set CD teaching tool designed to increase steel pan playing and literacy.
The project, the brainchild of Mr. Loquan, who has consistently supported music literacy for steelpan players, features six new compositions by steelpan innovator Ray Holman.
Entitled ‘Changing Time,’ the double CD set is being distributed by eCaroh.com, an Internet-based company established in July 1997. This latest offering falls in line with eCaroh’s social entrepreneurship of promoting steelpan artistry and musicianship to a higher level through live performances and recordings.
The CD is a “unique selection of works by Ray Holman [that] showcases his melodic genius,” says Dr. Jeannine Remy. “From an ethno-musicological point of view, this selection of music demonstrates the growth of Ray Holman from his younger Starlift years to his current eclectic cross-cultural jazz phase. From jazzy licks to complex rhythmic passages, the sweetness of Ray’s music intervenes throughout.”
The literacy element of the 2-CD set contains an enhanced data disc featuring the music scores of the six tracks. Music scores, or sheet music, denote various aspects of the written music that can be studied before being performed. It is vital to a steelpan literacy program.
The UWI Festival Steel Ensemble, one of the very few Trinidad and Tobago steelbands that play from music scores, performs the music on under the direction of Jessel Murray and Nervin Saunders.
The scores were transcribed by Dr. Remy and edited by Satanand Sharma, both of the UWI Centre for Creative and Festival Arts at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.
eCaroh’s web site, PanOnTheWeb.com, is a one-stop full service resource for the steelpan art form and an impressive single source for high quality HDCD Caribbean recordings.
Steelpan is the national musical instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan literature from Sanch Electronix of Trinidad & Tobago describes the steelpan as a definite pitch, acoustic percussion instrument consisting of a playing surface of circular cross section made of steel, which is stretched to a concave shape and attached to a hollow, cylindrical resonator called a skirt. The playing surface is divided into an optimum number of isolated convex sections called notes. The steelpan is usually played with hand-held, rubber-tipped, non-sonorous mallets called sticks.
Steelpan (formerly called steeldrum) artistry has evolved to a distinctive level of musical sophistication and worldwide recognition.
Panorama is the foremost pan-playing event and is a fixture in the major Carnival celebrations in the Caribbean and in metropolitan cities like Brooklyn, Miami, Notting Hill and Toronto.
