Mp3 Len Boogsie Sharpe A Tribute To The Might

"Trinidad Steel Band" in 1948. That recording heralded an effort to put into the public domain, the new sound emanating from the urban yards, those laboratories of sweat and spit and fire, where the steelpan was created and evolved. In the intervening years until now, the steelpan and the steelpan sound have evolved to a rich timbre and wide sonic range that have taken a place on the sound library of World musics with commercial crossover appeal and demand. The technical evolution and skill of these early pioneers still amazes. To actually play tunes, and yearn to improve the sound and the instrument was heady pioneering stuff much like the work of Wright Brothers or Thomas Edison. As researcher Dr. Kim Johnson says, it is the audacity of the creole imagination! The importance of capturing that first sound must have also been significant. From a foreign sound engineers perspective, this early sound might have been as much as he could perceive the steelpan could do for a while or forever! In 2011, that magic of captured innovation is so important to us as a nation. Boogsie, with this CD, A Tribute To the Mighty Sparrow: Len Boogsie Sharpe on the PHI, is entering that domain of those pioneers by recording his tribute to the Mighty Sparrow on the PHI. This recording is the first commercial recording using this Caribbean-created technology of the Percussive Harmonic Instrument (PHI), an electronic descendant of the traditional instrument. One pan, many sounds; the complete range of the steelpan family is within reach with a single PHI. Compact. Convenient. Creative. With it, Boogsie is an ensemble. In our existence in the Caribbean, to be a first would need a recognition that comes from creating in a new medium, on a new instrument, for a new audience. Boogsie, whose infrequent recorded output as a solo artist exists in contrast to his numerous live arrangements, has now created a legacy project which can only add to the increasing catalogue of steelpan recordings dating all the way back to 1940. It also juxtaposes the creativity of artist and scientist in the Caribbean milieu and highlights how far we have come, and shows the possibilities that Trinidad-born Nobel Literature laureate VS Naipaul never recognized during his sojourn in the West Indies in 1960-61 that he had published in his definitive and seminal travel book, The Middle Passage: History is built around achievement and creation; and nothing was created in the West Indies. The steelpan was about 20 years old at the time of Naipauls indictment, evolved from its accidental birth and willed into communal acceptance. 50 years later, Trinidadian engineers have created an electronic instrument that merges the powerful facility of MIDI with a form inspired by the traditional steelpan. History will be vindicated! Sparrow, that great calypsonian whose canon is unsurpassed in terms of range of melodies, lyric topics, and superior performance both on