988ffH:
Playing pan came easy for Annise ONE CAN ac- quire skills in many different ways. For young
steelpan musi-
cian/arranger An-
nise "Halfers"
Hadeed, it was by
design.
Hadeed, a musician
of prolific notability,
recently exemplified
his musical arranging
wizardry at the preli-
minaries of the South/
Central Zonal Panor-
ama competition,
when the band he ar-
ranged for — Kalomp
Kings — (which inci-
dentally never got past
the preliminaries of
the competition be-
fore) got through to
this year's South/Cen-
tral Zonal Finals.
Invaders-bred
It was the first time
in his career he worked
with a local steelband
for a Panorama com-
petition. But, the ta-
lented Invaders-bred
pannist has to his cre-
dit a wealth of know-
ledge. He has already
built himself a reputa-
tion in London as both
a prominent soloist
and arranger. Having
worked with London's
Red Stripe Ebony Steel
Orchestra, for which
he earned several sec-
ond and third places at
Notting Hill's Panor-
ama Competition.
For Hadeed, playing
pan came easy. He
was born and raised on
Park Street in Port-of-
Spain where Starland
Steel Orchestra was
'/ heard the sweet sound of steel att the time1
ANNISE HADEED
housed. "It was easy
for me to follow. I
heard the sweet sound
of steel all the time and
when it was time for
me to play I just fined in easily.'1
Hadeed's back-
ground should explain
why he is one or the
country's leading
steelband musicians.
As did several of the
land's prolific pan-
nists, Hadeed entered
the pan world first with
Invaders where he
played tenor pan in
1971. In 1972 he per-
formed in his first Pa-
norama competition.
Four years later he
moved over to Phase II
Pan Groove which was
formed in 1974.
Progressively mak-
ing his mark in the
musical world, he soon
began to work as a
freelance musician,
playing his tenor p; *n
at the request of no't-
able musicians like
Raf Robertson. Late?
that same year he left
for the United States to
get a taste of the the
music action. While
there he sat entry ex-
aminations to enter a
well-known university
and passed, but be-
cause of the unavaila-
bility of funds he
moved on to London.
Breakfast Band
While in London he
worked as a freelance
musician with the
Breakfast Band which
comprises members
from different Carib-
bean countries, and
mainly focuses on a
mixture of Caribbean
music with jazz. After returning to
Trinidad in 1987 he was
featured in several
concerts with some of
the country's top musi-
cians.
One of his most me-
morable appearances
was last year at the
prestigious Jazzance
Music Festival.
For Hadeed, work-
ing with a local steel-
band is a dream come
to life. And despite the
fact that he has a lot of
work to do with his
band from south, we
can surely look for-
ward to hearing the
name of Kalomo Kings
Steel Orchestra a lot
more in the future.
After the hectic Car-
nival season Hadeed
will be heading back to
London and from there
to Denmark to team up
with jazz pannist Rudy Smith, to carry on sev-
eral concerts.
He also has personal
plans which include
the recording of his
first album. The album
will feature some of his
own compositions/ar-
rangements.
Hadeed is another of
the country's talented
musicians and it is to
people like him we sa-
lute for spending many
little-remunerated
hours to help the cul-
ture of Trinidad and
Tobago reach its ulti-
mate.