Article A3 · Book 1 · Scrapbook page p.2
Coming to P-o-S for mas' to let the people know
CEDROS is the last place in the world one should go to hear "sweet pan" — last week the iron drowned out the tune when they tried to play Blakie's "Simple Calypso." Yet what the panmen and the masqueraders lack in experience they are certainly making up in enthusiasm.
For their debut in Port-of-Spain on Carnival Monday, Silver Harps, of Bonasse, are getting together with the Beachcombers, of Icacos to bring out "Neglected Cedros." At this time both bands are practising hard, when other steelbands have almost perfected their own arrangements. But they are practising day and night—which is harder than most of the others.
Traditionally they have played mas' in Point Fortin and on Tuesday they are playing "Mexicans" and "Indians" to compete for CDC prizes at the same venue. The Monday effort, however, is a different community-inspired undertaking, which seems to be getting as much support from fishermen and farmers as from actual mas' men themselves.
Of course, in Cedros like everywhere else there are detractors. The pretty bank clerk from Bonasse who works at Point Fortin said of the protest mas': "I have no time for that sort of thing" — in the right accent for a person who says that sort of thing. But extensive inquiries revealed that throughout the district she is a tiny minority.
Everyone everywhere is either playing in the band or supporting the mas' men. The estates are providing transportation and the businessmen are giving support of one kind or another. Even workers at WASA and the Works Department, like their counterparts everywhere, are finding time to help make costumes for the band.
While they are planning to come good with a band of more than 500 members there were no signs of the sophisticated organisation that has become a part of the big bands in Port-of-Spain. Co-ordinator and bandleader is Gaj Rampaul a teacher from Bonasse at the Icacos Government School. His assistants are Clitus Baptiste of Icacos and Courtenay Sankerali of Granville.
Though he remains behind the scenes Father Pascall's guiding hand is obvious. The organisers claim that his support has helped them to get members in Port-of-Spain who will be bringing out a section for themselves.
Bandleader Rampaul said the band will consist of seven sections portraying unemployment, health fishing, the oil industry, a republic, and relations with Venezuela. In
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[Continuation piece, headed "Cedros mas' coming to PoS — FROM PAGE 10"]
each section, the characters will highlight some of the problems being faced by Cedros residents.
This will be the first time that a protest mas' will be seen in Port-of-Spain. But down in the panyard at Icacos, Rampaul and Baptiste were not bothered about this.
"We have been thinking about this for a long time", Rampaul said, "and this is the one way we feel we can make a serious impact with our complaints."
Baptiste who is 24 and has three children, is more concerned with the unemployment problem. "Apart from 'making a tide' now and then, I have not done a stroke of work for three years."
Between them there is a close bond which signifies that all Cedros is united in this effort to play mas' in Port-of-Spain and prove to Trinidad that they deserve as much attention as anyone else.
[Photograph, scrapbook page 2: pan tuners working on steel drums in an open panyard. Caption:]
STRIKING A GOOD NOTE
Pan tuners at Icacos do their own thing in an open panyard under the coconut trees. Standing at left with stingy brim is captain of the Icacos Beachcombers Clitus Baptiste. At right is bandleader Gaj Rampaul who will lead the band "Neglected Cedros" into Port-of-Spain on Carnival Monday. None of the panmen is employed.