Potts & Pans

On August 23, 2012 the District 155 Steelband took the stage for the first time ever! Only meeting one time a week for two hours at a time, made for a daunting challenge. To add to that, there were only six rehearsals scheduled before the concert giving a total of 12 hours of rehearsal time. Most of the members had never played the instrument before, and to cap it all off they could not bring the instruments home to practice! Sound like a recipe for disaster??

Even with all of those factors working against us, the D155 Steelband put on a fantastic performance last night at the Percussion Showcase at Prairie Ridge High School! Along with putting together a complete tune in 12 hours on instruments that were new to them, most of them also learned the piece by rote (by ear) and performed by memory!

All I can say about this group is WOW!! These guys worked their butts off in order to make this happen. They learned new instruments that are completely different from anything else they had ever played before, and they learned the music in a different way than they were used to. It was really a lot of fun working with this group and I am looking forward to future groups. Special thanks have to go out to Mr. Blakewell for allowing the group to take part in the Percussion Showcase and organizing the event and to Jim Potts for giving us rehearsal space and a truck for moving the pans. Also thank you to all the members of the band:

Sean Santella – Lead
Peter Tozzi – Lead
Ethan Perbohner – Seconds
Sean “Jortz” Mignagaray – Seconds
Eric Stoddard – Cello
Alex Kluver – Bass
Chris Juliano – Drums

Obviously, without the hard work that these guys did, the performance would have gone much differently. Thanks guys!! Here’s the youtube video of their performance - http://youtu.be/YsfexTpTTVs

Potts & Pans Steelband was voted #2 band in Milwaukee by Thumbtack.com! It’s great to see that people are starting to become more aware of us and we are thrilled to have been voted #2 by Thumbtack.com. Now to work on getting #1!!
Bands, Milwaukee, WI

The District 155 Steelband has officially started and has already had a couple of rehearsals. All the members of the group are new to pan but are learning very quickly. We have chosen to do a popular ska song, and they are all learning it by rote. This is a valuable skill for a musician, and is not taught in schools. I was so pleased when I asked the band about learning by rote and got an unanimous “yes!” I also explained to all the members that this is how many of the Trinidadian players learn to play as well. All the members are doing quite well with learning a new instrument and remembering their parts, even though we only meet once a week for 2 hours! Here is a picture that one of the members took of Alex Kluver (Bass) and Chris Juliano (Drums). Apparently, this is what they do while I’m working with other players on their parts
Matt

On March 11th, Potts & Pans performed with the First Congregational Church’s Vestry Choir Glenn McClure’s “St. Francis in the Americas: A Caribbean Mass” in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Glenn was flown out from New York to perform the piece with the two groups. Glenn played the bass steelpans with Potts & Pans while accompanying the Vestry Choir.

Along with the concert at 4:00pm, there were two sermons in the morning. During these sermons Matt Potts and Glenn McClure provided extra information to the church members about the steelpan and the composition. The two morning sermons only allowed about 5 minutes for Matt to introduce the children of the church to the instrument but served as a teaser for the concert that evening.

During the evening concert, Matt was allowed around 20 minutes to display the versatility of the instrument along with trying to provide an educational experience about the colorful history the instrument possesses. After this educational session, the main event took the stage. Glenn’s piece did an incredible job of showcasing the strengths of both the choir and steelpans and juxtaposing these strengths among stereotype challenging compositions pulling influences from across the Americas including, but not limited to, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Following the concert, the guests were invited to attend a potluck style dinner. The guests were given the opportunity to speak with the all the performers, including the panists, choir members, and Glenn. The guests bestowed overwhelming positive feedback on the entire concert. Many guests, including a born Trinidadian now living in Crystal Lake, approached Matt to compliment his educational session and playing. Many people said that they had no idea about the dark history of the instrument and also couldn’t believe the versatility of the instrument.

All and all, the entire day was exactly why Potts & Pans was created. The whole event really opened some of the minds of residents of Crystal Lake and showed some of the capabilities of the instrument. At the end of the night, Ann Tucker, the music director, and Glenn McClure complimented the group on their professionalism and musical abilities. This was a fantastic concert and has certainly opened some new doors for the steelpan within Crystal Lake and Potts & Pans as an ensemble.

Thank you David Brachmann, Christina Guerrero, Andy Soderstrom, and Mike Schwebke for being such great musicians to Ann Tucker and the First Congregational Church for selecting this piece of music and asking Potts & Pans to be a part of it and finally Glenn McClure for making this possible by writing the beautiful piece of music that you did along with coming out to Crystal Lake and playing bass pans with Potts & Pans.

Matt Potts was featured by the Woodstock Independent on February 29th, 2012. The article describes what Matt is currently doing with steelpans in the community, what his background is, and what his plans for Potts & Pans, Inc. NFP are. This is the first major article to be done on Matt Potts and Potts & Pans. For the full article click here.

Had the first ever district 155 steelband rehearsal today. Although there are not currently participating members from all the schools in d155, both Crystal Lake South High School and Prairie Ridge High School are represented in the ensemble. We had a great first rehearsal and the members show a lot of promise for really putting on a great performance for the d155 percussion showcase on April 23rd. This was the first time playing pan for all but two of the members (and those two only played once before), and I was thrilled to have the whole group playing a recognizable section of our tune by the end of the day!!!