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The History of Carnival
To give you an idea of my connection to Carnival and what I
would prefer L.A. or any other place to experience, let me begin
with the fact that when I began playing mass, "Invaders" steel
band did not even yet exist; and when the band eventually came
on the scene, they were known, initially, as "Oval Boys". You
may therefore assume, and correctly so, that I grew up in Wood
brook. Music of the steel bands - in addition to other LIVE
music played by LIVE musicians on conventional instruments -
used to be the backbone, the catalytic driving force in our
Carnival. It was a creative, artistic pursuit; and pan was
synonymous with our Carnival.
To play mass used to mean, literally, to portray a character.
To tell a story. It was our own expressionistic, local
theatricality. Theatre of the street. Or as the late Trinidadian
auteur, Dr. Errol Gaston Hill, termed it: a "Mandate For A
National Theatre". Playing mass used to involve research. Who or
whatever you played, you made a point of learning, studying and
practicing for the portrayal of that entity. But most of all, it
required some amount of talent and imagination and a certain
desire to "entertain" the spectators.
But in the early 1970s a "cultural sell-out" of "The World's
Most Spectacular Festival" (as our Carnival used to officially
be called) began to prevail - for monetary gain - and the
integrity of our Carnival has since then been progressively and
shamefully compromised.
No longer do we face the challenge of fending off the threats
of "Midnight Robbers", or witnessing the hypnotic realism of a
family of "Bats", or enjoying - which has always been my
personal choice to play - the fanciful movements and dancing of
a "Fancy Sailor" band (Michael Jackson's source of his
"Moonwalk") depicting the various sections of a ship; or having
to avoid "Lucifer" and his
Entourage From Hell, to name just a
few . . . All of whom were to be found not just in a few
isolated places on Carnival day, but in almost every district in
the island.
These traditional portrayals are now shunted, for the most
part, and replaced by nondescript fluff and semi-nudity. Our
Carnival has fallen so low, in my humble, traditionalistic
opinion, that it no longer surpasses Brazil's but more resembles
it, having fallen almost to the level of Las Vegas "Schmaltz".
Traditional has become almost a dirty word. A word to be
ridiculed by a new generation of players showing no interest in
embracing the history of their culture. Instead, they have been
satisfied to emulate and imitate "outsiders", either ignoring or
not realizing the fact that it is their own "culture", the very
same, which has been taken, exploited, dumped down, recycled and
sold back to them. And they have bought it.
As for the music - and I use the term advisedly - first of all,
FASTER and LOUDER is not necessarily better. Especially with
that sort of (synthesized) music that doesn't "breathe"!! . . I
never thought I would see the day when pan would lose its place
in our Carnival and we would be subjected to the American Square
Dance fashion of "crowd control"- - When some guy, some person
of no consequence whatsoever, and most likely from another
island, would be telling me when to "Lay down on the ground' and
wine". Or, to "Hold on to the big truck." or to wave my hand in
the air! Such utter nonsense. This is by no means the Carnival
atmosphere that I have known and loved. Or as a journalist from
"The Trinidadian Guardian" succinctly summed it up a couple of
years ago, "Rhythmic rhetoric for dictation dancing."
About the author:
About The Author: Roger King is a successful author and
publisher of http://www.1st-in-diabetes.com/carnival.htm
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