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Wednesday, May 26, 2004

The Sound of Steel

This evening I went to the Davidson Middle School Steel Pan Concert. They were really good. The concert consisted of a beginning group, intermediate group and advanced group. The advanced group even played an original pan tune by Boogsie Sharpe (no relation but I used to get teased about that at Cal State when I played in the Steel Drum Orchestra). Other tunes they performed that were arranged for pan were La Bamba, In the Still of the Night, Oye Como Va and a couple by Dave Beery from Cal State Long Beach, Sir Duke and Low Rider. The pan groups have been at Davidson for 19 years and was founded and is still directed by Char Lusk. During the 19 years they have had famous pan arrangers from Trinidad write pieces specifically for the groups. Among them were Ray Holman and Boogsie Sharpe (there it is again). Boogsie had even played in a concert with the students. Char has also been in contact with Michael Carney, the director of the Steel Drum Orchestra at Cal State Long Beach, and his fellow pan players and arrangers Dave Beery and Chris Wablich. The students have a rare opportunity to play pan in a middle school and the concert in the gym was packed with supporters.

Posted by Eric at May 26, 2004 11:54 AM