Pan fraternity bids farewell to musical giant Robbie Greenidge

Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

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The sound of steel­pan and mem­o­ries of a life de­vot­ed to mu­sic filled the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, as fam­i­ly, friends and mem­bers of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty gath­ered to bid farewell to in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed pan­nist, arranger and com­pos­er Robert “Rob­bie” Greenidge.

Greenidge died on June 8.

At his fu­ner­al, speak­ers paid trib­ute to a man whose ca­reer stretched from Suc­cess Vil­lage, Laven­tille, to some of the world’s most pres­ti­gious stages, re­peat­ed­ly de­scrib­ing Greenidge as hum­ble, gen­er­ous, dis­ci­plined and deeply com­mit­ted to pan.

For his fam­i­ly, how­ev­er, Greenidge was first a broth­er, son, un­cle and fa­ther.

His broth­er Hay­den Greenidge said de­spite all the ac­com­plish­ments be­ing re­count­ed, those clos­est to him knew Robert sim­ply as fam­i­ly.

He re­called Greenidge’s abil­i­ty to con­nect with young peo­ple in his com­mu­ni­ty, de­scrib­ing how he would see young men out­side play­ing foot­ball or talk­ing and sim­ply join them.

“He would sit down, talk, laugh with them,” he said.

Greenidge grew up in Suc­cess Vil­lage, Laven­tille, an area with a deep and his­toric con­nec­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s steel­band move­ment.

His ear­ly mu­si­cal in­flu­ence in­clud­ed his un­cle Carl, who helped guide him to­wards Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra.

Greenidge joined Des­per­a­does in 1964 and re­mained a mem­ber un­til his pass­ing, a re­la­tion­ship span­ning more than six decades.

Speak­ing on be­half of Des­per­a­does, Mi­ran­da Mar­tin de­scribed Greenidge as a “mu­si­cal ge­nius.”

Mar­tin said Greenidge’s con­tri­bu­tion in­clud­ed three of Des­per­a­does’ 12 Na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tles.

Mar­tin list­ed oth­er Greenidge com­po­si­tions per­formed by Des­per­a­does, in­clud­ing Our Street Par­ty, Pa­nis Mo­jam­bi, Pan­parang, Blast Off and Deci­bel.

Those works, she said, helped keep the or­ches­tra among the lead­ing steel­bands in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Greenidge’s tal­ents ex­tend­ed be­yond ar­rang­ing and com­pos­ing. He was renowned as a soloist with a tech­nique that fel­low mu­si­cians de­scribed with ad­mi­ra­tion and some­times dis­be­lief. His hands moved ef­fort­less­ly across the in­stru­ment, earn­ing him the nick­name “Rob­bieSug­ar­hand” Greenidge.

Pan Trin­ba­go PRO Kwe­si Moore, speak­ing on be­half of the or­gan­i­sa­tion, said Greenidge was one of the great­est steel­pan mu­si­cians the coun­try had pro­duced.

But Moore, who is al­so a mem­ber of Des­per­a­does, said his own mem­o­ries of Greenidge went be­yond the his­to­ry books.

“I con­sid­er him to be a hum­ble gi­ant in the truest sense of the words,” Moore said.

Greenidge’s in­flu­ence was not con­fined to Des­per­a­does or Panora­ma.

As an arranger, he al­so worked with Pan Knights, Star­lift and Buc­cooneers. As a per­former, he shared stages and col­lab­o­rat­ed with some of the lead­ing mu­si­cians in T&T and the wider world.

His con­tri­bu­tion to mu­sic and cul­ture was recog­nised with the award of the Cha­co­nia Medal. He al­so helped demon­strate to the in­ter­na­tion­al mu­sic in­dus­try that T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment could stand along­side the world’s most es­tab­lished mu­si­cal tra­di­tions.

He was a pi­o­neer, cul­tur­al am­bas­sador, teacher and cre­ative force whose fin­ger­prints were firm­ly em­bed­ded in the his­to­ry of steel­pan and the na­tion’s mu­sic.

The fu­ner­al at the Sa­van­nah car­ried par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance be­cause it ful­filled Greenidge’s fi­nal wish to have his ser­vice there.