Ray Funk and Andrew Martin
Who would have thought that a Japanese steelband would be able to come to Trinidad, compete in an international Panorama - playing a non-Calypso - and still place in the top ten?
This is the story of Yoshihiro Harada and his Panorama Steel Orchestra (http://panorama-so.org/) from Tokyo, Japan.
Of the steelbands competing in the recent International Conference and Panorama, they travelled the farthest. The journey was not in vain as the band was one of only three foreign steelbands to place in the top ten and the only foreign steelband to feature a foreign composition, Harada’s own Dance of Phoenix. According Harada, the composition was inspired by the need to overcome obstacles, such as battling illness or the need for his steelband to constantly reinvent itself after losing key members and gaining new less experienced ones, reinventing themselves and rising again like a phoenix.
Panorama Steel Orchestra’s ranking in the Panorama was not reflective of their enthusiasm and the band conquered the hearts of many Trinidadians in the grandstand, the drag, and the many visitors to the Pandemonium panyard in Belmont where they rehearsed leading up to the competition.
Yoshihiro Harada grew up devoted to music and started playing guitar, piano, trombone and percussion. In addition to performing, Harada is also an accomplished composer, arranger, and producer. His first exposure to steelpan came from hearing street musicians play the instrument in New York in 1989. “At that time was the first time I see and hear pan. No pan in Japan. It is wonderful, its sound changed our real world, [for me it] raised to heaven.”
As it is for so many across the globe, the moment of first hearing of steelpan was transformative for Harada, yet it was several years before he ordered and received his first set of steelpans. Given the relative unknown status of steelpan in Japan, Harada was unsure where to purchase instruments which led him to special order a set of double-seconds from Germany. He was then able to purchase a lead from Patrick Arnold. With no pannists in Japan to turn to for help, Harada taught himself how to play the instruments and his devotion to learning steelpan was instant and intense. Harada decided to devote himself to the instrument, in the process becoming a soloist and forming an eclectic trio with an accordionist and a guitarist. The group was called Pan Cake and has since become a staple in the Japanese market, regularly performing concerts and recording several albums. As a soloist and jazz improviser on pan, Harada released a solo album Pan Alone and has also performed on numerous concerts and collaborated on albums with several other artists. There are a series of excellent appearances one can watch on YouTube of Harada performing solo, with Pan Cake, and the whole band.
In an effort to further study steelpan and to explore the instrument’s homeland and culture, Harada made his first trip to Trinidad in 1996. This first trip was very committed to learning steelpan and he stayed two and a half months, rarely leaving the Pamberi panyard. The experience was life-changing and Harada returned in 1997 and again in 1998 where he played with various steelbands including Starlift and Phase II for Carnival.
The transcendent experience of hearing and playing with steelbands in Trinidad during Panorama and Carnival inspired Harada to investigate the possibility of forming his own steelband in Japan. He wanted to share the experience and the joy of steelband with others yet, at the time, no such Trinidadian-style large steelband existed in Japan (or anywhere in Asia for that matter) and the logistics of creating a steelband of this magnitude were daunting. Regardless, he pressed on and finally, and after his third visit to Trinidad and two years of planning Harada’s vision became a reality and Panorama Steel Orchestra was formed in 1998.
Drilling the Panorama Steel Orchestra into a world-class steelband was a slow process and Harada, a musician by trade, was used to performing with professional musicians and the tribulation of working with novice pannists was not something for which he was accustomed. Working with Panorama Steel Orchestra, which is comprised mainly of amateur musicians, exposed Harada to the power and glory of a steelband. The Panorama Steel Orchestra rehearses twice weekly and is normally a band of around 30 performers. Their performance schedule is very active and the band performs at festivals and performance venues in Tokyo and throughout the Japanese islands.
Most of the music performed by the Panorama Steel Orchestra are new compositions written by Harada, which range in style from pop to Latin to Japanese traditional. The band’s unique sound is described as a “mix of encompassing softness and passionate intensity” and its style as “Japanese emotion that is expressed by full-blown improvisation.” Since 2004, the band has released four studio albums and featured various guest musicians and vocalists from the world of Japanese pop and jazz.
Beyond the travel logistics of travelling to T&T for the Intenational Panorama, the band faced many other challenges. First and foremost, the Panorama Steel Orchestra would have to double in size from 30 to 60 players. Harada wanted to fill the band with other Japanese pannists and put out a call to get players from across Japan to become part of the band. Many of Japan’s leading pannists responded, including several veterans of T&T Panorama. To further complicate matters, the Panorama Steel Orchestra does not have a panyard in Tokyo and with the addition of nearly 30 more players the band found securing adequate rehearsal space challenging. The new version of the Panorama Steel Orchestra started practicing as a whole in Tokyo earlier in the summer and had to rent commercial music studios and even use a Buddhist temple.
The Panorama Steel Orchestra was also joined by two American pannists for the International Conference and Panorama competition. Kristian Paradis and Joseph Whitney both traveled to Trinidad from Delaware to perform with the Panorama Steel Orchestra for the Panorama. Paradis and Panorama Steel Orchestra are old friends as the American first performed with the steelband nearly fifteen years ago while serving in the US military and stationed in Japan. Paradis now directs the steelband at the University of Delaware and is an active pannist and educator throughout the East Coast. Initially, Harada and Paradis planned on combining their respective steelbands for the competition. According to Paradis, Harada “contacted me and said let’s combine forces, but once we learned of the 60 player limit we decided to just have me and Joe come down.” Overall, Paradis was thrilled with the Panorama and working with Panorama Steel Orchestra, “the panyard staff [Pandemonium] has been very accommodating and the Japanese players have been very accommodating. It’s been great!”
Achieving their dream of bring the Panorama Steel Orchestra to Trinidad was further complicated by problems with securing funding. Aside from the support provided by Pan Trinbago, the Panorama Steel Orchestra was unable to get any funding support from the Japanese government and instead turned to crowd sourcing in order to raise the necessary funds and help from Pan Trinbago. With funds at a minimum, the band relied on Trinidadian instruments gracious provided by the Pandemonium Steel Orchestra. As is so often the case for foreign pannists travelling to Trinidad to play in Panorama, the borrowed instruments had different note patterns unfamiliar to some of the Japanese players. But in the end, the excitement of performing as a band and their pride in representing their country in Trinidad was paramount.
Ray Funk is a retired Alaskan judge who is passionately devoted to calypso, pan and mas. Dr Andrew Martin is an ethnomusicologist, percussionist, pannist, and Associate Professor of Music at Inver Hills College in St Paul, Minnesota.