The Illustrated Story of Pan, Second Edition is the definitive story of Pan – the instrument, the music, the steelbands and their social, cultural and political history, from the earliest days to the present.Hundreds of photos and pioneers’ verbatim accounts never before published, stories of adventure and discovery, of love and danger, have been threaded along the author’s narrative to produce this monumental epic of musicians and scientists, street fighters and politicians, schoolteachers and their students, promoters and activists, but mostly ordinary people who achieved extraordinary things. It is the story of Trinidad All Stars and Renegades and Desperadoes and Phase II and Exodus and all the other big steelbands, but also the small bands, Boys Town, Boom Town and Stepyard, the extinct bands, the Tripoli, Bar 20 and Red Army, the “college boy” bands like Dixieland, Dixie Stars, Stromboli and Rogues Regiment, and of course the countless men and women, girls and boys, who created this marvel. About Kim JohnsonKim Johnson is a researcher, journalist and filmmaker. He has published several books on history and culture of Trinidad & Tobago, for which he was awarded the Anthony Sabga Award for Excellence in Arts & Letters in 2011. His books include The Fragrance of Gold: Trinidad in the Age of Discovery; Descendants of the Dragon; If Yuh Iron Good You Is King and The illustrated Story of Pan. Johnson’s films include the prize-winning PAN! Our Music Odyssey; Re-Percussions; and March of the Mokos.He is also an active blogger. Check his blog here : www.santimanitayblog.comWhat readers have said:“The book took me to places and times deeply embedded in my memory. It also carried me to a more complex understanding… It added another level of sophistication in our appreciation of the craft… The ancestors are jumping!”– Kamau, Odinga“There is something transcendent about this collection… what jumps out is the enormous scale of its component parts.”– Mark Lyndersay, Journalist“Very emotional almost spiritual experience thumbing through this book.”– Chris RasCas“A masterpiece. Deny yourself a copy and remain culturally malnourished and impoverished.”– Monty Guy“I keep re-reading it over and over, literally and figuratively, can’t put it down.”– André-Roger Dellevi“Stunning evidence of how an instrument, a movement, and a whole way of life developed.”– Stephen Stuempfle, Society for Ethnomusicology“A beautiful and important book.”– Andy Narell, international pan virtuoso“(It) will leave the reader in awe, wonder and deep reflection…vast in its scope and stunning in detail.”– Eugene Novotney, Director of Percussion Studies at Humboldt State University“A thing of spectacular beauty, the crown jewel in a Carnival music lover’s catalogue.”– Shivanee Ramlochan, poet and literary critic“A magnificent work… social and cultural history at its best.”– Bridget Brereton, historian, University of the West Indies
