Written by Ted Goslin
For the third year in a row under arranger Andy Narell, Birdsong Steel Orchestra has been eliminated during the semi-final round of the Trinidad & Tobago National Panorama competition. The band finished just five points shy of the 10th place position with 254 points, trailing the Desperadoes who earned 259 points.
The elimination of the band highlights a controversial topic brought up after the 2013 semi-finals when the band was eliminated after Narell himself claimed that year’s piece, “The Last Word,” to be what he felt was perhaps his best work ever at the event. The following year, the band performed “We Kinda Music,” an arrangement of Narell’s iconic original piece, but was awarded last place.
The controversy is nothing new for Narell at Panorama, as his 1999 piece, “Coffee Street” was discussed by commentators as either being either the best thing to happen to Panorama, or “not a Panorama tune.” Narell provided his opinions on the subject in detail in his Pan Magazine Q&A from July 2014.
The band performed Pan Magic by Nyol Manswell, a change for the band of performing Narell’s own compositions for the last two years (We Kinda Music in 2014 and The Last Word in 2013).
