Muhammad Abu Bakr Speaks on Mas'

Two piece and beads Mas'

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People throw away Mas'

Staff Article
Interview Recorded: April 24, 2005
Posted: April 30, 2005

We have a natural talent here, but if we do not develop it, we will lose it. When you talk about culture, you talk about Mas'. A lot of fellahs out there are coming in your Mas' camp to build Mas', but they do not know anything about building Mas'. When you see these fellahs come out there and start to build Mas', we are shocked, and they go on to be famous Mas' men. Anybody could make two piece and beads Mas'.

The year when 'Poison' played 'Flowers', I was excited, so I went to see 'Flowers'. But, I didn't see any flowers; I saw only one section that had flowers. I remembered that band, and this is not good for the kids. If you are playing butterflies, everybody knows what a butterfly looks like, so if you say you playing butterfly and you put some women in black and silver, and some in gold and white, not even a wing, how could you say that is a butterfly? Look at Minshall when he did 'Butterfly'. It was crazy with everybody in the garden and it looked so real, I admired him. When he brought out 'Jungle Fever', I did some work with him. I find his Mas' is so creative, but the people still do not understand it. Most people throw away his Mas' and stay in this body suit. If you really watch what he could do. For example he will take a box and he will create a stage with it or he will make a costume with it, and when you see it coming down, you will see exactly what he wants by your movements. Yet these people throw that away and go for the little black two-piece.

Coming back to Poison, I do not know if it is a myth or a cult, but like everybody just wants to go with them just to say they played Mas' with Poison. For Carnival, do you know how long they stayed in the Savannah? You have to control the bands. Look at Panorama, there was a time when you couldn't go with one hundred and one players it was one hundred players. Now I think it is either one hundred and fifteen or one hundred and twenty. Let's say Desperadoes has two hundred players, what happens to the other bands? What they have done is make it one hundred and twenty and if you have one hundred and twenty one, the band gets disqualified, and that is because Pan Trinbago is an organization and so is NCBA. You must have rules, and this is what you need to get these people functioning. Another thing is a sponsor; they are hard to get for a band. I could agree with the sponsors, because for them, it is what I could do for you or what you could do for me.

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