As a student Holman played the tenor pan with a jazz ensemble at Queen’s Royal College. His neighbour Sydney Hill on Hunter Street, Woodbrook had a fine collection of music and the young Holman listened with keen interest whenever Hill played his records. “ That music helped me. I used to listen to the variety of music on radio too,” he said.

After making it to the big league of steel-band arrangers, Holman’s services were in demand. He worked with bands like Kintups, Pandemonium, Antillian All Stars, Exodus, Tokyo, Humming Bird Pan Groove, Phase II Pan Grove, Deltones, Invaders and Starlift and brought musical variety to the repertoire of theses bands.

In 1963 he came to Starlift and won Panorama titles for that band in 1969 with “The Bull” and again in 1971 with “Queen of the Band”.

A retired Spanish teacher at Fatima College, he spends six months in Seattle, USA teaching and playing pan music and the other six months he is at home.

“Every university in the United States with a steel-band programme knows the name Ray Holman”, said Eugene Novotney, professor of music at California State University.

“Ray is recognized as a steel-band music composer. In the US they want to play music written by panmen for pan. They’re not interested in Kitchener and others,” added Novotney, who is in Trinidad at present to play pan with Phase II for Panaorama.

“In the history of pan, Ray Holman comes on top as the first guy to write music,” said Jit Samaroo, a steel-band arranger with nine Panorama victories. “Ray is very melodious. He always produced great music for Panorama competitions,” added Samaroo.

At home Holman heads a small musical band comprising a tenor pan, double seconds, a cuatro, a bass and percussion instruments. They play calypso, jazz and Latin numbers.

Holman has not arranged any Panorama tune this year. “I think Panorama music from the mid-nineties onwards is inferior, with a few exceptions, of course. Yes, definitely! It’s like rehashing old arrangements. You ca hear the difference,” he said.

“Jit Samaroo’s ‘Iron band’ and ‘Music in we Blood” by Boogsie Sharpe are definitely two of the bet pieces for Panorama this year,” added Holman.

In a few months time Holman will be heading to Ohio, USA to score music for a play on the history and development of the steel band in the United States and Trinidad.

“It will be something like a love story,” he said. [BACK]