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Pan Masters In Concert June 20th, 21st 2003

Internationally acclaimed musicians and sons of the soil, Trinidadians Ron Reid, Orville Wright and David “Happy” Williams will be coming to Trinidad to launch their recently produced album Reid, Wright and be Happy. The occasion will be commemorated with two gala concert performances on Friday 20 and Saturday 21st June, 2003 at the Central Bank Auditorium. This occasion will make its mark in history as these masters come together.

Ron Reid began his musical journey at the tender age of nine. After high school in 1973 he joined a newly formed chorus, The New World Performers. His association around that period, with the QRC Jazz Club led to friendships and professional collaborations with Scofield Pilgrim, Wayne ‘Barney’ Bonaparte, Angus Nunes and Clive Zanda. Reid has also had long associations with Andre’s Tanker’s Contraband, Roy Cape’s All Stars and Clive Zanda’s Gayap Workshop. It was at Zanda’s house that he met drummer Michael Tobas who introduced Ron to the legendary Desperadoes captain, Rudolph Charles who gave Ron his first pair of double-second steelpans. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and Tufts University, Ron is now an Assistant Professor at Berklee, teaching arranging, ensemble and steelpan performance. He maintains an active career as a performer, which has included concerts with Randy Weston, Carmen Lundy and Chick Corea. He is founder and musical director of the Pan-jazz sextet, Sunsteel. The ensemble was featured in a successful three-night run at the Lincoln Centre in New York in October 2002.

Orville Wright was the first to arrange calypsos for the marching/military band to be played at the Independence Day Parade. Wright left Trinidad in 1970 to further his musical education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied arranging and composition and upon graduation in May 1974, began a teaching career that lasted until August 2002. He was one of the piano players/accompanists for Harry Belafonte’s US summer tour in 1973. He played keyboards in pit orchestras of national touring companies, The Wiz, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Cats. He also arranged for a number of US-based calypsonians most notably, King Wellington, and led his own quintet for a number of years in Boston. Wright led a team of faculty members who taught and performed at the Polish Jazz Camp near Warsaw, Poland in 1990, 1991, and 1992. He also travelled extensively teaching and playing in South Africa, Italy, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, and recorded an album in Japan as a member of the Berklee All Stars. From 1992 – 2002, Orville served as a consultant to Pan Trinbago. During that period, he reviewed and re-wrote all the criteria for steelband competitions. These have been adapted for most steelband competitions in North America. Orville has gained substantial international respect with regard to evaluating arrangements at steelband competitions.

David Williams The Jazzman and David “Happy” Williams, Calypso Writer/ Singer/ Performer, are one and the same, a musician fortunate enough to be able to explore the fullness of his art, from many sides- the inherited, the discovered and rediscovered. David was born in Trinidad. The island's rich musical heritage was made available to him in an invaluable way --- his father, John "Buddy" Williams, was a highly?regarded bassist who led his own calypso band. Although his father did not give him lessons, David watched closely and experimented with the bass on his own. Several years later he went on to study bass at the London College of Music. But it was in New York that great opportunities presented themselves. Williams has performed with some all-time greats like Gap and Chuck Mangione, Roberta Flack, Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Hugh Masekela, Jermaine Jackson, Liberace, Stan Getz, Kenny Barron, Monty Alexander and Cedar Walton. In 1976, David moved to LA and got caught up in the studio whirlwind, appearing on about 20 AVI releases with disco, funk, fusion and pop groups. The disco hit Le Spank garnered him another gold record during this period. Soul is Free, his first album as a leader, was released on AVI in 1979; one of David's compositions from it was used in the Eddie Murphy film Trading Places.

This album, Reid Wright and be Happy, will be launched under the Sanch Label. Simeon L. Sandiford, Managing Director, Sanch Electronix Limited, said that the collaboration on this project had been ongoing since 2001 when Ron Reid, Orville Wright, Shannon Dudley and himself were engaged in post-dinner discussion at his home. Somewhere along the line the conversation drifted back to a duet performed by Ron and Orville a few days prior at La Boucan Room of the Trinidad Hilton. They had received a standing ovation from a group of 100-odd international musicologists who had been attending a conference there.

“We should produce a Pan-jazz album of solos and duets featuring the steelpan and piano,” Sandiford challenged them. “Mr. Reid and Mr Wright!” “…But we will need a bassist to add body to the music” chimed Orville… “In that case, let us ask ‘Happy’ (Williams),” declared Ron. And they did … and a new album was born.

Tickets are priced at $225.00. For more information, you may call or visit Sanch Electronix Limited at #23 King Street St Joseph, Trinidad, West Indies, Tel: 868.663.1384; company ’s website: http://www.sanch.com.

May 07, 2003

Simeon L. Sandiford 23 King Street, St Joseph, Trinidad, West Indies Tel: 868.663.1384 Fax: 868.645.2205 Contact us here