PANS COME OUT TO PLAY
 - at the 2003 Washington DC Carnival

A gloriously sunny day was in the cards for Washington D.C.'s 11^th Annual  Caribbean Carnival on its new route beginning at 3rd Street and Madison Drive, then along Constitution Avenue, with Capitol Hill being the initial backdrop.  Festivities were scheduled to begin at 12 noon and spectators lined the route in anticipation long before then, as masqueraders and pan players gathered for a fun-filled afternoon.  Interestingly enough there were other events not connected with the carnival in the same vicinity, but passers-by of course stopped to take in the sunny sights and sounds of costumed mas players and pannists as both began to go through their paces.
 

Taking part in the revelry and providing steelband music on the road for the carnival were four steelbands:  Trinidad and Tobago Steelband of Washington D.C.; Trini Pan America Pan Groove; CASYM Steel Orchestra and Pan Masters.  As things got underway, the bands' supporters surrounded them from the beginning of the route as the players swung into the music.  All the bands rolled along the route except CASYM who literally 'stood tall' opting to remain aboard a trailer.  A couple of the bands delivered not only soca hits, but conventional 'standards' in calypso tempo as well, such as Trini Pan America Pan Groove with Roberta Flack's Feel Like Makin' Love.
 

Beside Brooklyn-based CASYM, other individual pan players who usually shared their talents with other New York bands, were also in evidence behind some of the pans of the other three steelbands.  Of note was pan legend Emmanuel "Corbeaux Jack" Riley, resident pan manufacturer and tuner for Moods Pan Groove in New York, who took a rare break from making and tuning pans, to instead make sweet music on Trini Pan America Pan Groove's  bass pans as he joined the pan side for a selection or two; definitely a sight for the record books, since Jack is so seldom seen playing these days.  Of course there were other people showing support while making sure they were having a fine time, like the New York based two-some from Utopia Pan Soul:  The Next Generation which had performed at the DC Carnival Pan Jam  just the previous week.
 

For 2003 Washington D.C.-based Pan Masters brought out and of course provided music for, a mas band called Psychedelic Sailors.  Pan music could be heard from blocks away, and young and old players and spectators alike were involved in providing the 'energy' to keep the bands moving through the streets, even  as they were being pulled by small trucks.
 

As the band masqueraders moved ahead on the route, the steelband brought up the rear, and with no one behind urging to clear the way, needless to say the pan lovers continued enjoying themselves to the max.

Click here for a taste of Pan In DC Carnival 2003

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