Len "Boogsie' Sharpe - Pan Virtuoso and Boss Arranger of The Steelpan Orchestra
The following are exerpts from Caribbean Beat article re interview with Pat Bishop
“… Lennox Sharpe, also known as "Boogsie", plays this steel drum or steel pan better than most of the instruments’ other practitioners. He also invents music for it for himself as a solo performer, as well as for bands. In the manner of the jazz musician, he improvises with virtuosic skill upon popular melodies but he also produces original music, even to specific themes ...... ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ….. It is said that Boogsie learned to play his first pan at the age of four, and while he was still a little boy he became an established member of the now-defunct Crossfire and Symphonettes steelbands. As a youngster, he also played with Invaders. Then he went to Starlift, the steelband for which Ray Holman was taking the revolutionary step of composing music specifically for the instrument……
.….Boogsie was quick to continue what Holman had started, and by 1972 he had established Phase II Pan Groove, the band which he continues to lead……
…….But nobody had < to teach> Boogsie anything. Instead, he was listening to the noises of the street and participating in jazz sessions on his steel pan with other musicians. By 1985, Andy Narell, the American jazz-pan musician, described Phase II, Boogsie’s band, as being "at the cutting edge of steel band music…
Narell is one of scores of musicians, pan prodigies avant-garde musicians influenced by “Boogsie”
….. Despite Boogsie Sharpe’s own personal respect for calypso and its singers, his band, Phase II, has almost always played an original Sharpe composition at Panorama. On the other hand, the old calypso tradition has held, as a consequence of which, Boogsie belongs to a small and not very influential group of pan player/arrangers who pursue the path of experiment and innovation…
.…. For all that Boogsie is a popular personality, his music remains a mystery, even to his fans and to those who play it. But there is no question about his (capabilities as an arranger, nor his) virtuosity as a soloist. His improvisational skills are as good as any and better than many……
”–Source : Caribbean Beat Magazine article intrview with Pat Bishop .
Today his Panorama music continues to be the most innovative. Boogsie led Phase ll to its fifth Panorama-Competition win in 2008
Find out more about Len"Boogsie' Sharpe : Website 1 : http://www.Boogsie.com
End