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Jason Griffith: Voyage of the Sailor Mas

Fancy Sailor
Fancy Sailor

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Where these Japanese people coming from?

TriniView.com Reporters
April 15, 2005


I don't know if you know this, the link road around the circle road there, that is named after Ken and myself. I always tell people what God put you down here to do and what is for you, nobody can take away from you. You think I expected my name to be by Queen's Park East there, never expected that. Ken Morris lived on the circular road and that open place you see where there is a lot of rubbish, I use to pass through there in the canal and go by Ken. When Ken died, you see like how I do this interview with you all, all the media was here. He was elder than me, but we grew up together. His son had a section with me for years. So we had copper in the band.

This is what I tell you, it was a big change. The other bands who were competing in those days, Sailor bands, they had no chance. The other bands stayed with the old things and then Cito had stopped. He was the biggest challenge. So we had to compete with the historical bands, not in our category, for band of the year. I could remember a year when we placed third and some people from Minshall's band wanted to know how a sailor band could beat them. But one of the boys always keep a videotape, so he carried the tape home and showed it to them. They wanted to know which part these Japanese people coming from. So they were satisfied after that because they thought it was an ordinary sailor band. We had our days man!

I stopped bringing out a band in 1998. These boys, they are playing you know, they are doing certain things. They change up one or two little things with the headpieces, but they have not satisfied me as yet. The mas is a headpiece. Don't put something six feet in the air on your back and decorate that and play with a cap, you must have a headpiece.

The people who are judging, they don't know what they are looking for. These judges should be on a panel where one could go and chat with them, or they could write out something and you know what they looking for, but like these people don't know what they looking for. Anyway, they must feel this is the improvement in the craft and I might feel it ain't so. Sometimes I might go back in the album and see certain pictures and I don't see the modern bands have reached there yet. They should be doing something because they have been dealing with the band since 1995.

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