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Pan Trinbago calls for candles to be lit in panyards

PAN ARRANGER extraordinaire Clive Bradley succumbed yesterday morning to the stroke that he suffered earlier this week.

In an immediate reaction, president of Pan Trinbago Patrick Arnold, who offered condolences to Bradley's family said, "I was informed that there was a leak of blood in his brain. We were still hoping for the best but that didn't happen." Arnold described Bradley as an icon in the world of pan who will surely be missed, especially by Desperadoes and the other steelbands he had helped over the years. "He was unbelievable and also bright. He even taught at the Valsayn Teachers' College at one time. He gave workshops, was a great guy.

"We will really miss him and I think pannists all over the world will too. To have a Panorama and not have Clive Bradley will be something else," Arnold lamented. Pan Trinbago has asked steelbands throughout the country to light candles in their panyards in memory of Bradley.

Bradley, one of the country's most celebrated pan arrangers, had the unique ability to communicate his scores with precision through a guitar, a recorder and his voice. Some of his many notable arrangements included "Sa Sa Yea," "Margie," "Bassman," "Fever," "Pan in Harmony," "Crawford" "Pan in the 21st Century," "Rebecca" and "The Jammer."

His winning arrangements for Desperadoes included "Pan in Harmony" in 1976, "Crawford" in 1977 and 1983's "Rebecca." Bradley drew acclaim for his Panorama arrangement of "Sailing" for Pandemonium Steel Orchestra when he had the players use their pan sticks without rubber to create the sound of falling rain.

In 1998, he arranged yet another National Panorama Steelband winner, working David Rudder's "High Mas" for Arima NuTones Steel Orchestra. In that piece Bradley used interpretations of two classics: "In a Monastery's Garden" and Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus."

But it was Bradley's association with Witco Desperadoes that will be long remembered. In an on-and-off-again relationship extending into 1968, Bradley and Despers had joined forces to capture six Panorama titles.

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