What you learn about the mind of composers and arrangers is sometimes evident in the moods they introduce in their music. Their structure, intonation, pitch, modulation and harmony often profile their personality.
This is certainly true for Annise Hadeed, an under-celebrated performer, composer and arranger who holds his corner quietly, and whose music seems to encompass his sum total. Often layered, always lyrical, his interpretation of compositions draws his psychographic chart precisely.
As an individual, he is accessible and doesn’t hide what is vulnerable. His face is full of emotion in every expression, much like how he renders his music. He is also easy and open in conversation, even with strangers.
Annise’s Woodbrook upbringing shows in his urbanity and cool (the Bebop kind), and even in his nickname, Haffers. Years in Europe have added more layers of worldliness and a sophistication that extends beyond his music. He is witty, articulate and appears to feel comfortable anywhere.
But this is mostly about the music so we can start with In My House (Starlift 1999). Annise’s introduction is riveting and tension-filled. It’s also lucid and straightforward, outlining a clear melodic structure. He uses notes selectively to blend into an emotional teaser to lift expectations. The build up to the melody is circular, but you savor how well he voices the mood that holds your attention.
Annise embed in this composition all the narratives we find in pan season and Carnival. He delivers a perfect score for such festivities and their attendant emotions; lifting you to ecstasy; dropping you into somber corners. His grasp of In My House is so confident you marvel at the imagination that lets him put certain notes together. Where does he find such devilish phrasing?
It isn’t John Coltrane you hear, if you want to compare improvisational styles. It’s jazz great Lester Young, mellow and elegant. Annise doesn’t stay mellow for long, however, bringing dissonance that tells you there is pain in the house, too.
He snatches silence in places where a pause surprises, then eases into a tense call and response. He follows with the mid-range pans – cellos, four pans and guitar pans – that blend into a groove fit for an appreciative last lap. He explores all corners of the key and tugs at its chords mischievously at times, lovingly at others.
He lets the mid-range engage frontline pans for a few bars before validating their presence with a short solo. They switch effortlessly from harmony to melody while the frontline assume support. Then they resume their place in a tune Annise fills with complexity, controlled excitement and the drama pan lovers relish.
What you are hearing always is his love for music and pan. Annise set eyes on a career in music while still at Queen’s Royal College. He knew from playing with a jazz group at the school this would be his life. Earlier, at 11, he had played percussion in Panorama and pan on the road with Invaders. Later, he would join Phase II.
He left Trinidad for New York in 1979, and, like all prodigal sons, collected global experiences. He has lived and worked in London, and gigged at dozens of jazz clubs and festivals in Europe and the Caribbean. But he still found time to arrange for steel bands. “I have had some magical moments in my life with music,” says Annise. “It’s all good.”
Annise is remarkably consistent in his approach to arranging, and his music has the coherence of a Ray Holman. With Picture on my Wall, 2000, also for Starlift, he moves around the melody with such adeptness and skill that when you arrive at any point it seems ordained. Picture on my Wall is stylistically traditional at times, avoiding risks and cautious in execution. But Annise redeems himself with clever phrasing, and the sweetness he milks from many parts of the melody. His use of the mid-range pans is superb here, too, as is his efficient use of call and response.
In more recent arrangements, Ten Commandments of Pan, 2008, and Pan Redemption, 2009, both winning Panorama for Ebony Steelband in the UK, we hear his experience at work. The tunes display a more robust skills set and an arranger on top of his game.
He lifts Ten Commandments of Pan to a lively tempo, giving it Red Bull levels of vigor. It is an intelligent interpretation kept simple and uncluttered. As usual, at a crucial moment he lets the mid-range pans rock. Watching the band rehearse or perform in the competition you feel the energy he gave the players.
A year later, he finds the ideal composition for his style in Pan Redemption. This arrangement shows a mature musician in control of technique at all times. His jazz improvisational skills add richness and his modulation brings deep moods. He maintains the melody’s integrity and mines its nuggets for a rendition of exceptional skill. The groove he finds in all the music he arranges comes naturally here, too.
Annise is also innovative with the music he performs as a double seconds panist. In 2006, he played a haunting, chord-filled rendition of David Rudder’s classic Trini to De Bone in a Birmingham nightclub. Annise finds the tune far less optimistic than others. His treatment feels introspective, and he extracts new meaning from this national favorite.
At that same gig, he played Toots Thielsman’s jazz standard Bluesette with asolo that is beautifully lyrical. It hints he is more in love with playing than arranging. He also seems to enjoy composing if we judge by the quality of his 1990 hit, Ramajay.
Apart from Starlift and Ebony, Annise has arranged for Phase II, Kalamo Kings, Skiffle Bunch, Solo Harmonites and Merry Tones. He believes his best work was Showtime for Harmonites (1992) of which he sadly has no recording.
His discography goes back nearly 30 years and includes: Dolphin Ride (1982) by The Breakfast Band a London group; New World Musique with the West Indies Jazz Band in1992, led by Luther Francois; DJOA, a 1996 work in Paris from a French group that included Claude Sommier from Martinique; Pan Jazz Improvisations (1998); Felix Roach and Friends; Take a Taste (1998), his own album; a 1999 recording in Zurich, Morning Sunrise, with Russ Henderson; and Pan-Jazz Conversations, GAYAP Workshop (2003).