In 1981, the Chronicle Atlantic Symphony Steel & Brass Orchestra and Troupe (CASSBO) went on their first tour of North America.

The tour was seen as an instrument of Cultural Diplomacy and provided an opportunity for those that attended the performances to better understand Guyana’s Cultural direction at that time.

The tour was organised and overseen on behalf of the Government by Wesley Kirton, at the time serving in the Foreign Ministry. He not only secured sponsorship for the tour but was integral to its eventual success, overseeing all the logistical and financial arrangements.

And last evening was particularly satisfying as other steel pan elders including Camo Williams and Franklin Bobby Vieira along with vocalist Compton Coody Hodges shared their experience and offered advice to the younger players. – Wesley Kirton

Notably, 49 members went on the Tour and 50 returned.

Along with the steel pan, the group also had a brass section, dance troupe and vocalists.

A highlight of the tour was a performance at the home of Legendary Boxer Muhammad Ali. At last evening’s commemoration, presentations of albums recorded during the 1981 tour were made to the USA Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch, Canadian High Commissioner Mark Berman and the Government of Guyana.

A Posthumous Award was presented to the family of the late Carl Blackman, former General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of the Guyana Chronicle who’s sponsorship of the band contributed significantly to its early sustainability.

Rudy Bishop, the band’s flamboyant and iconic leader and lone surviving founding member, is using this opportunity, after many years of living in the United States, to resuscitate the band, with a cadre of young steel pan enthusiasts, at the Camptown Band Room, its original home.

“When I was a kid, I could not go near the steel pan,” Bishop said. “The steel pan was banned, the white men who ran the country outlawed it. So there was a stigma on it, so parents did not want youth playing it. Only rogues and bad boys played pan. You could not be seen near a steel pan.”

Chronicle Atlantic Symphony Steel & Brass Orchestra & Troupe (CASSBO) formed in 1966, is considered one of the top steel orchestras in Guyana.

Watch Now: Chronicle Atlantic Steel and Brass Orchestra and Troupe’s From North America with Love – 40 YEARS LATER.

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