Renegades A Panorama Saga – Tribute to Jit Samaroo

Review

This album celebrates one of the most successful partnerships in pan history. Jit Samaroo is a towering arranger in the steelband world — musically towering, that is, since his slight, unassuming figure says little about his talents. Samaroo comes from an Indian family in Lopinot, outside Port of Spain, and was recruited to arrange for the legendary Renegades steel orchestra in 1970, soon after the Amoco Trinidad Oil Company became the band’s sponsor. It was a brave choice — Jit was only 19, and was plunged in at the deep end with one of the country’s oldest and toughest groups. But it paid off. There was a long apprenticeship during which both sides stuck to each other with admirable loyalty. But by 1980, Renegades were clearly a formidable threat in the fierce competition of the annual Panorama competition, and they won their first title there in 1982 with Jit’s arrangement of Pan Explosion — he has always favoured tunes by Kitchener. Since then, Renegades have won the championship six times more under Jit’s direction. Jit himself is a virtuoso player himself, leader of a small family-based ensemble (the Samaroo Jets), and no mean composer either, in demand especially for competition test pieces. This tribute album features Renegades playing some of his most memorable arrangements: Winston DeVines’s Somebody, plus six Kitchener tunes — Pan Earthquake, Mystery Band, The Bees’ Melody, Iron Man, The Pan In Me, and Pan In A Minor. No pan fan will want to miss this one. [Caribbean Beat]