The Renegades Revolution.

It was at the start of the seventh year of famine that Duvone Stewart and the Renegades crossed the bridge.
When Joseph interpreted Pharoah’s dream (Genesis 41:30)  he saw that seven years of abundance would have been reversed with seven years of famine.
Then would seven years of famine be followed by seven years of plenty?
Indeed, it was in 2018, the seventh year since Duvone Stewart accepted the responsibility as an arranger for the Renegades Steel Orchestra, that he won a Panorama Championship.
If he nipped an extra year of drought, it did not make a difference because of the debilitating politics of  Pan Trinbago and the National Carnival Commission  (NCC) which deprived the legendary steelband, one of the oldest in the country, of its million dollars prize money until the end of the year. And the  honour  reserved for champions.
The victory did not turn into a national celebration either. Not even for the social work that kept a lid on turf wars  around the band until the Panorama was over.
One year later, having raised the bar for his generation of music arrangers, the 42-year-old is proving that he is truly in a league of his own now that he finally grasped the baton that was held out to him since 2012. And now that the Renegades, whose trademark is loyalty, laid to rest its late arranger, Dr Jit Samaroo,.
He's bubbling with excitement, too. And now embarks on the journey to create his "dynasty as a champion arranger".
But, he knows- and willingly accepts- that “it’s gonna be a very competitive stance going forward because a new crop of arrangers and musicians have embarked on a journey where they can become what they want to be, in their own sphere”.
While 2018 was more than a Year of Love it was, too, a year of evolution for a man who has paid the price through blood, sweat and tears  that flowed at 138 Charlotte Street in 2017, when they fell second to  Trinidad All Stars' which snatched the crown from Desperadoes  the band that re-introduced  popular  music as a choice  for steelbands, rather than songs dictated by  a few composers.
After evolution, there comes the revolution.
When he emerged as a storyteller in 2018, with his interpretation of Voice’s Year for Love it was powered by the hurt inflicted on the East Port of Spain community by gang warfare.
His interpretation was a statement.
 It’s no less in 2019 with Hookin Meh where  “the lyrical content  reflects the man/ woman reality, a fundamental thing in the community.”
 “I have a story to paint with it,” he said in an interview on January 5th.
 The trademark of Stewart’s leadership, which manifests itself in the music, is loyalty and community which has been the heartbeat of the Renegades institution.
Each night, during the 2019 Panorama season leading up to the preliminary round, like a good football coach, he drills his players by motivating them. Feeling them and knowing them helps to pull the best out of each one.
 Jit Samaroo, he confessed, taught him leadership by example.
"No fight. No cursing. No heavy deliberation on what is supposed to be done", Stewart said.
In between there, Duvone explains to the players, in explicit details, what he puts into the music they are playing, in order to get them to tell the story he is sharing.
Take it one step further. His 2019 arrangement is Interactive.
 Note the connection with the audience he creates by leaving room for his players to sing the two most popular lines of Hookin Meh. No doubt the Drag, the Grand Stand and the North Park will be singing at the top of their voices. (https://soundcloud.com/panorama_live_2018/sets/2019-panorama-large-prelim-in)
It's part of the theatre and drama with which he can easily capture 40 points for presentation in the Panorama competition.
It’s all in his mission statement: “I want to make the blind see and the deaf hear.”
How Stewart uses his access to the years of plenty will determine how the band fares in times of drought like the one that followed the end of the Jit  Samaroo era (1971 -2006).
Read on. You will understand, through his unedited words, how and why the scope of the Panorama is changing and how it can help to shape the revolution that can bring the steelband movement back to its moorings in the community, from which it originated.



Q :  What was your vision for change?

A:  I saw it happening all the time because the music was evolving.
 I still have lots of respect for all the work I have listened to in the past from Tony Williams to Leon Smooth Edwards and all the other Panorama winners.
We are all artists. Some artists paint a different picture that you have to take long to see if you analyze.
Some artists paint a picture that you can feel and see at one time.
 From the characteristics of the individuals mentioned before, they were doing homework and concentrating on bringing their A game but it was just a matter of time for someone to break the ice.
 I did it. It just opened a new dimension for the younger arrangers to come out and let their voices be heard. It’s gonna be a very competitive stance going forward into the future because a new crop of arrangers and musicians have embarked on a journey where they can become what they want to become, in their own sphere.
 I still continue to live my dream and will continue to pave the way for the younger ones and the ones who are there who never got the chance to feel how I felt at this point in time in being a champion arranger.

     
 Q: What are your thoughts ahead of the 2019  game?

  A: The 2019 Panorama is going to be another challenging one. Repeating as a champion arranger in a large category will be very difficult and the only way it can become easy is that we take whatever positives and go with it 100 per cent more.
 I know the arrangers in the large category. They ain’t taking what happened in 2018 lightly, with me still being available to work with BP Renegades. The band is on a high, confidence is on a high. Love and togetherness are high.
 As for me, I am just about to accept the fact that a dynasty of Duvone Stewart has begun, that I have to be focused, be very concentrative of. I have etched my name in a space where it cannot be erased anymore which has gravitated to me becoming a more powerful household name, locally, regionally and internationally among the fans that love steelpan music, and just me  the individual at a high level of excellence and performing to the best that I can at any given point in time.
 It’s about continuing to build a reputation and making a generation feel confident and comfortable knowing that there is somebody who is there to take up the mantle after the virtuosos that they have seen in the early era as Leon Smooth Edwards and  Len Boogsie Sharpe.
It is a cycle for them. Now they are seeing that somebody new has broken through the glass and come out with this powerful statement and Year for Love was just the fitting title to send me through the gates ,opening it for young arrangers, pannists, band leaders to come through the ranks to make them successful  as I am embarking on my dynasty as a champion arranger.


 Q: The songs that are available this year represent a radical shift from where your frame of mind was in Year for Love.  What determined your choice from what is available to you out there?

 A: The titles of songs that present themselves this year really don't have what happened in 2018. I know a new frame of mind is required.
 While Lord Kitchener, De Fosto just to name a few were taking time to compose and arrange songs for the instrument because there was a point in time when Renegades could have just closed our eyes and picked anything that Kitchener sang. The band was like Kitchener and Jit Samaroo. De Fosto was the same.
But one of the things that I have learned over the years is that transition has taken place and we have to accept the level of music we have at our disposal right now. Personally, it is not as great as we were accustomed to receiving in the early times, but we have to get with the time and accept change.
I am not saying that I am disappointed in the level of material that is out there. But I believe that the popularity in songs is what will set the trend for the bands going forward now.
The whole paradigm shift was, so luckily, seen by me after 2016 Panorama when Desperadoes came first with Different Me. That song was so out of the box for Desperadoes but it was one of the most popular songs at the point in time. In  2017 All Stars took the title Full Extreme (the Road March) from the Ultimate Rejects- although pan songs were coming out.
Year for Love was like  a divine intervention for me to receive this message from God, internally, that whatever happened with my friend Wayne Alleyne who was shot and killed on Dec 11th 2017, was in place for me to express myself musically.
 For 2019 its a different ball game.
 The DJ soca artiste singers have created a different scope for non-composing arrangers to go to the drawing board to accept whatever is there for them to play because when we go to the savannah, we go with what is popular.
There are some popular songs for 2019 and I just have to readapt the mindset of what I or any arranger wants to bring across.
 Players are also feters and they tend to call me and say what is hot in the fete. Is it popular to fit on the instrument properly to send that message across?
 Last year it was an appeal for love.
 This year Hookin Meh is a reality for the families that reside around the band. The lyrical content is like the man-woman reality.
 I have a story to paint with it. I am not leaving you.

A band that prays together stays together

  Q: Clearly, you bring strong leadership to the band. How would you describe your leadership style?

   A: If it’s one thing I learnt through my arranging career is that you cannot please everybody in one band. I never really had the opportunity to please everybody.
  Being humble among your band members and your executive team is the key in having a band together because me, personally,  when I go into every band, I go down to the level as a player.
 I was also a player. I get to see how players react towards situations. I never went into a panyard saying yeah I am the arranger, I am mighty high.   I want to get my message across on a level playing field with everybody in the band.
That stems from being a member of the Renegades in the era of the  80’s and 90’s when Dr Jit Samaroo was very humble in getting his words across to the members.
No fight.No cursing. No heavy deliberation on what is supposed to be done. Only a cross-section of information will come from the members to the arrangers and he will listen politely and take it into consideration.
That is the leadership style that I adopt and I transpose as  I grew into a more self-motivated individual. I have never had a problem dealing with the players or dealing with the management because I am a people person.
We are all human beings and we ain’t better than anybody else out here.
 I always try to send that signal to the bands that I work for.
It worked very well..but it was a task for the first three years with Renegades because the band did not accept that Jit Samaroo was dead and I had a problem getting my music across because they built a culture around him.   They eventually got to understand that the word transition and confidence is what can get them to regain confidence in becoming a champion band.
 That is what happened in 2014. In Renegades, the leadership that I presented filtered down to the players, the supporters, the community that I reside in with the band and it globally sends that message when the band performs music they see a unity, a passion, a leader guiding 120 Spartans into musical war.
For Pan Elders they see me as a rightful role model down in San Fernando.


Duvone Stewart is seeking a new record in the 2019 Panorama. All three bands that he arranges for were leading up to the semi-final round  Medium Champs, Pan Elders going for the 6th consecutive win under his baton, TT Defence Force which has grown from Single Pan into the small band category and Bp Renegades.

Arrangers are people too, but Panorama is a brutal beast.

It was my first ever night time assignment.  And my first foray into steelband journalism, if we can call it that.
Being the kind of boss that he was, the late Editor/Publisher Patrick Chookolingo called me into his office and asked whether I could make it while assuring me that he had assigned a photographer who would ensure that I got home safely.
The assignment: to interview all the conductors of the bands participating in the 1982 Steelband Music Festival-Pan is Beautiful Two- that was being staged at the Jean Pierre  Sporting Complex  (JPSC) in Port of Spain.
So said so done. It was just a few months into the life of the T&T Mirror newspaper of which I was a founding member and Choko (as he was fondly called) was all about getting the news that needed coverage.  He was more than motivated by the fact that the mainstream media ignored almost all things related to steelband where he saw excellence.
Enthusiastically, I went on the assignment and came back with stories from folks like Desmond Waithe and even the late Anthony Prospect who conducted  Iscott Casablanca which eventually won the Festival with a  still mind-blowing rendition of the 1812 Overture.

Prospect’s son, Sarge, worked with us as a proofreader, at the time. And there were more. Sadly, my recollection is not as vivid as it should be.
It was published as a spread (double page) with the headline “Conductors are people too.”  Under each photo of a conductor at the semi-final stage of the competition was a little human interest story, as much as my naivety could have harnessed from these iconic musicians.
Thus started the journey, 36 years ago.
Two years later when I moved into Port of Spain to live, it became clearer. My first Panorama in 1984 found me walking from my home and meeting strangers from Phase Two as they pushed racks up to the  Queen’s Park Savannah for the Panorama preliminaries. By the time I got there I had a few new friends whose names I did not know and a Phase 2 T-Shirt.  It was the year of Boogie Sharpe’s own composition  I Music which I followed enthusiastically, but always from a safe distance, until the band bombed out after a “slow count” from Boogsie on the final night.
Later that year my fate was sealed. On a full moon night, no less mystical it was, I made my first journey up the Hill to  Desperadoes with journalist Keith Shepherd who walked the ground and gave room for culture in any newspaper that he edited.
 The late Pat Bishop was called in to help prepare the band for the music festival of 1984 when they played Tchaikovsky’s March Slav.

Pat Bishop (Photo :The Lydians)

It was another moment in history because, after Merle Albino de Coteau, Pat was the first woman to musically command an army of steel band men.
In  between there, the memories , in no particular order, include a brave and fearless me walking up to the man reputed to be unapproachable, the late Rudolph Charles, who was in a wheelchair at the Savannah at the time after hurting his leg in an accident  on Independence Square in Port of Spain, to be interviewed for Radio 610AM, the State-owned radio station that recorded and also provided live coverage of all Panorama events ( and Music Festival). Charlo was amused, obviously, and so went to our broadcast team willingly. It was a kind of feat. The usual broadcasters were not anxious to approach him.
  And then not long afterwards attending his funeral at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and watching them place his coffin in the Chariot pan (his invention) for the journey to Caroni for cremation.
 Add to that the precious memory of being turned away, with a sweet smile, by the late Dr. Jit Samaroo, after the Renegades performed, because he just did not give interviews. I was forewarned but dared to go ahead.
  There were long nights for years after that when we trolled the Savannah for off-beat stories for the Mirror, or whether as part of the support team of the 610 broadcasters or jamming in the North Stand. And then pushing racks, or being squashed unto a rack, on Jourvert morning with whoever the Panorama winner was.
  Fast forward a decade. And a daughter arrives. And the scope of long nights changed. The reporting dried up. Taking her to the drag- and watching her reaction- for Panorama was the highlight. By that time the drive for excellence which I got in my introduction seemed to have disappeared.
And then, as a player,  she took me into the belly of the beast. There, for the first time, I  struggled, for weeks on end to keep my health and myself and my life together as I joined a small group of parents at the Silver Stars panyard where I got a bird’s eye view of Liam Teague working with the youngsters. None of it can be reported on. I was trusted to be there in my capacity as a parent, only.
 So the snippets of information I got from the iconic conductors in 1982- and how I wish I had more experience at the time to be able to chronicle more than what my naive questions delivered to me-  was nothing really.
  A whole new world opened up. Teague had not just the Trinidad players but a host of foreign students for whom he was their treasured teacher. He has a unique skill in pulling it all together, standing in front of them like a classroom- and then heading up to the rhythm rack from where he motivated them all. And the children loved him.
  In between, I would drift to other panyards to get a sense of what was happening.
  It is always evident that the person most under pressure in any steel band at Panorama time is the arranger.   He is jammed between a rock and a hard place.  Because everyone is a judge.
 Fast Forward, again, to 2019. The daughter is a sophomore at a US college and I am working hard again. There is no money in steel band journalism, really.
   But there are countless stories to be told.
  Once again, Teague is leading the charge at the Silver Stars. Up in Lopinot, Amrit Samaroo, also bubbling with sweet music, as well, is toiling to bust through the status quo.
 And even the veteran Robbie Greenidge, up to a week ago, had only a semblance of a band to work with until the players flocked to Birdsong and took their energy there. A man, like Teague, of international stature in steelpan and who is not given respect at home.
 They, along with Carlton Zanda  Alexander and  Leon Smooth Edwards and  Len Boogsie Sharpe and Arrdin Herbert are among the most hardworking people in the country at this time of the year, at least.
Each night, in Port of Spain alone, they command hundreds of people towards musical excellence. Many times, without structural support.

Liam Teague (left) and Robbie Greenidge

 In both Liam and Robbie’s case, they have, through experience, been refined into pure gold overseas.
  Here,  each year they are put through the alchemic process, again, as if they are less than gold and that we can make them into gold, again.  There is no known way to get gold from steel- and these men have accomplished that.
 I can say the same for young Andre White- who, in his final year at Berklee College arranged for three steelbands in London and the US.He arranged for Mangrove, the winners of the 2018 Panorama in the UK. I suspect he will be put through the process as well. Trinidadian arrangers go overseas and win Panorama after a short stint with a foreign-based band. Teague and Greenidge are automatically made to step down from excellence, in order to achieve our version of excellence.
I  have danced and been healed by Clive Bradley’s music. How did he die? The iconic arranger was thrown out like garbage.
Scores of smart young musicians - and the makers of instruments too-in Trinidad who want to move forward in steelpan can only head out of Trinidad for a fate that awaits them like  Liam and Robbie.
And that is because we have not created any avenue for the talent that we have. Panorama is the only avenue and these men are thrown into the sea of tribalism and tossed around. It must be a stressful experience for a professional.
Arrangers, dear folks, are people too. They are not made of steel. I write with experience, compassion and understanding.
 Duvone Stewart, currently leading in the 2019 Panorama race with his arrangement of Hooking Meh for Renegades is another story.
Next up: The Renegades Revolution.