Andy Narell has been teaching, performing, composing, arranging and recording steel pan music for over 35 years. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest Pan players of all time and has helped push the possibilities of the instrument over the decades since his debut. He has worked with artists such as Chucho Valdes, Bela Fleck, Marcus Miller, Maraca y Otro Vision, Willie Colon, Bebo Valdes, Flora Purim and Airto, Tito Puente, Orquestra Aragon, David Rudder, and Black Stalin, among others. As a bandleader and soloist he has played hundreds of concerts and jazz festivals throught the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, the Caribbean, South America, and Africa.
In 1999 Andy became the first foreigner to compose for Trinidad’s Panorama steel band competition, guiding the 100 player Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra to the finals of both the 1999 and 2000 Panoramas. In light of his most recent Panorama experience, and his continual presence in the global Pan community as a composer and educator, PM sat down with Andy to discuss his life and times.
What made you want to become a musician?
When I was about 13 or 14 my parents bought me an FM radio and I discovered a station called WLIB, broadcasting jazz full time from Harlem. They had DJs like Billy Taylor, who was himself a great jazz pianist and probably the most knowledgeable jazz musicologist alive. I fell in love with the music, and with the individuality of the people behind it. I wanted to be like Miles J. Afterwards I was a pre-med student in college, but that didn’t last long. While I was in school I made up my mind to become a composer and recording/performing artist, finished with a music degree and when I left school, my real education began. I’m still studying.
When and how did you first fall in love with Steelpan?
I was seven years old. My dad was doing social work with street gangs on the lower east side of Manhattan and hit on steel band music as a community center program activity. He didn’t realize until later that the same type of kids he was working with had created the Pan. I guess the love really started when I switched from a four note Bass Pan to a Tenor Pan, where I found I could play all the tunes by ear without searching for the notes. But I fall in love with Pan all the time. It’s an ongoing affair.
Who are your biggest influences on Pan and your biggest musical influences in general?
I feel I’ve been equally influenced by all the good music I’ve been exposed to from all over the world. I could make a list here, but it would just go on and on. Pan soloists that I have admired include the earliest pioneering improvisers like Theo Stevens, Cobo Jack, Block and Belgrave Bonaparte, Herman Rock Johnson, continuing on to Earl Rodney, “Boogsie” Sharpe, and Robert Greenidge. I’ve learned a lot by listening to the arrangements of Tony Williams, Ray Holman, Clive Bradley, Beverly Griffith, Earl Rodney, “Boogsie” Sharpe, Robert Greenidge, and Jit Samaroo, among others. Finally there is Ellie Mannette, whose vision and dedication to perfecting the Pan has set a standard for nearly 70 years, and who is responsible for the sound of the instruments I play.
What is your biggest goal with your compositions for Steelpan?
As far as I’m concerned, the bar was set so high by my idols – Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, and composers like Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, and Bach, that I can spend the rest of my life just trying to reach that level, never getting there, but it would be a life well spent. I’m just trying to become a better composer, to make music that people enjoy. The biggest goal I suppose would be to compose music that would inspire people the way I’ve been inspired by the great music I love, but that may be a stretch. For now, I try to challenge myself and break new ground with each new composition, hopefully add something to the world of music that wasn’t there before.
What is your goal in arranging for Panorama?
I see Panorama as an opportunity to work at steel band music on a high level, to compose for 100 players and perform it in the biggest steel band festival in the world. I’m trying to stay true to myself and compose the best and most original music I can for steel band, which isn’t easy, considering the pressure to conform, the judging, etc.
There was recent controversy over your 2014 piece, “We Kinda Music,” receiving a last place score, which kept Birdsong out of the finals. Some critics of your style claim it doesn’t conform to the traditional Panorama sound and your writing style isn’t representative of the culture of T&T. Considering this, do you think perhaps this event is the wrong place to showcase your recent compositions? Why or why not?
We came in last place in the big band category at the semi final. In my opinion, the judges ignored a very good performance at an acceptable Panorama tempo because they apparently didn’t like the direction I was taking the music, but there’s no way I can really know what was going on in their minds. I listened to the recording of the performance and I saw the score sheets. One of the five judges had us in second place, by the way.
To those that say that I have removed the cultural connection to Trinidad and Tobago from my music, I would just have to respectfully disagree. I would further point out that Panorama began as a festival featuring and rewarding innovation back in the 60’s. The first arrangers to win Panorama were Tony Williams, Bobby Mohammed, Beverly Griffith, Earl Rodney, and Ray Holman – all innovators who were revolutionizing steel band music at that time. Beverly Griffith put a jazz solo into Obeah Wedding in 1966, the crowd loved it, and the Desperadoes won. The first Panorama arranger to get hit with the accusation of removing the cultural connection to Trinidad from his music was probably Ray Holman, when he decided in 1972 to arrange his own tune instead of a calypso. He has stayed true to his own musical voice for more than 40 years and has been treated badly by the judges over and over. “Boogsie” Sharpe suffered a decade of rejection by the judges for being too innovative.
The whole time I was working with Skiffle Bunch in 1999 for “Coffee Street” I was told ten times a day what I needed to do to turn it into a Panorama tune. To this day, people come to me and tell me they love that tune but don’t think it was Panorama music. If you watch a tape of the TV broadcast of the 1999 Panorama finals you’ll hear a 15 minute discussion during the changeover; the commentators were arguing about whether that tune was either inappropriate or the best thing that could happen to Panorama. The main difference between then and now is that we made it to the finals, the public got to see it on TV, videotapes, and listen to the CD.
To me it’s not a question of the music being culturally disconnected or inappropriate for Panorama. The whole idea of ‘conforming,’ which has been taken to the extreme of arrangers putting the same clichés and runs into their tunes year after year, knowing that the judges like those things and will reward them – that whole way of thinking is impossible for me. If I wanted to do that I would be writing music for TV shows and commercials, making some real money. You asked me earlier who my influences were and I mentioned the names of some of my musical idols. How do you think those people would have responded to this question? Conforming, trying to sound like everybody else, is totally antithetical to what I’m trying to be as a musician, composer, and human being.
At every Panorama, I’ve tried to bring music that was appropriate to the occasion, music that people would enjoy, and that would give my band a chance to play in the finals. People on the track were listening and really enjoying “We Kinda Music” and I’ve had feedback from all over the world, people saying they loved it and couldn’t understand how that performance could land in last place.
You recently performed with the Cal State University Long Beach Steel Drum Orchestra. What did you think of that experience? What is your opinion of steel band in schools in the U.S.? What value can a steel band bring at the university level?
Steel bands in US schools are growing at a fantastic rate, and the level of playing is higher all the time. A lot of this is due to the emergence of steel band directors who played themselves when they were in school, have gone to Trinidad, have gotten to work with the best arrangers and players who come in as guest artists. When I first started teaching at universities in the early ‘80’s, virtually all the steel bands were being run by classical percussionists who had no experience playing or arranging for pan. That first generation broke the ice and got it going, but it’s the next generation of teachers who are now taking it to another level.
I teach at a lot of universities, and there are a lot of good programs now. There are also some high school programs that are playing at a college level and are quite a shock to see. It’s amazing what you can do when you have kids an hour a day, five days a week, for four years. Cal State Long Beach is one of the good college programs; Dave Gerhart did a great job with the band, and I enjoyed playing with them, as well as with the Massive Band they put together with local programs.
I think the benefits of steel band music at the university level are pretty obvious. It’s challenging, fun, and the kids get exposed to a world of music that they wouldn’t otherwise learn about. It broadens their musical skills, challenging them to learn how to play different styles of music.
Steel band music is also unique in how it brings people of all different kinds of backgrounds together to play in a large ensemble. And the most obvious benefit, the one that is often overlooked, is that it’s job training. There are more and more steel bands in the schools and there is a need for teachers. Experience playing in a university steel band program just might get you a job.
Recently, the Virginia Beach Panorama took place with a variety of high school and community steel bands taking part. The headliner of the event was Victor Provost. Are you familiar with him? If so, what is your opinion of his musical style and what he brings to the instrument? Who do you see as the future of the instrument and why?
I love Victor Provost. Great person, great player. He’s worked really hard at developing a bebop approach to playing pan. His album of jazz standards is groundbreaking and definitely worth checking out.
I see the future of Pan being guided by young Pan players and arranger/composers who are going to school, studying music seriously, looking at what has been accomplished in the larger musical world, not just Pan playing and steel band music. That invisible wall between the Panman and the musician is coming down and the next generation is getting their act together, going to school, learning harmony and scale theory, world rhythms, etc.
Where do you see Pan headed in the next 10 years and what role do you see yourself playing as it plays out?
A couple of years ago I played a gig in Brooklyn that featured young Pan soloists who were mostly in school at Berklee College of Music in Boston – Andre White, Kareem Thompson, Iman Pascal, and Earl Brooks Jr. They were all good, all kids coming from the Trini community, and none of them were playing the standard Tenor Pan clichés, all those fast runs that don’t say anything. I was really encouraged about where we’re going. There are some really talented arrangers coming along – Vanessa Headley and Andre White stand out for me, among others.
The problem is that it’s more and more difficult to start a career in music and make a living at it. Meanwhile, Pan is growing all over the world. They’re getting serious in Japan. Some of those young players are coming to Trinidad and they’re playing front line with the best bands. Some of the best original steel band recordings have come out of Calypsociation in Paris. There are high school kids in the USA who are playing the most difficult steel band charts by myself, Ray Holman, Boogsie, etc. Meanwhile, Ellie Mannette made a huge breakthrough and trained a group of young tuners who can carry on the work at the level he’s reached. Some of them will hopefully start teaching in the first university program where you can major in pan building and tuning.
I turned 60 this year, have been playing Pan for 53 years now. For me it’s a race against time. I’m trying to become a better soloist, and to produce some good music. I’m putting out a new album of steel band music this summer. I played all the Pans and it features Mike Stern, Etienne Charles, Relator, Thomas Dyani, Gregory Louis, and Inor Sotolongo. It will be available at my website, www.andynarell.net.
I’m also working on a series of solo recordings that I hope to put out soon. I’m working on a book, ‘Harmonic Improvisation for Pan Players.’ It basically explains what I’m practicing and why.
I’m teaching year round, at universities and high schools in the USA, at Birdsong in Trinidad, Calypsociation in Paris, Switzerland, South Africa, and I teach the kids in Laborie, Saint Lucia, where I spend a couple of months a year.
We’ve had a large contingent of foreign players at Birdsong the last two years and are working towards having a program where students will receive college credit for coming to Trinidad to play Panorama with Birdsong, take master classes, etc. It might even be in place for 2015. I did a project last year with Trinidadian conductor Kwame Ryan – my quintet and a symphony orchestra, with orchestra arrangements by my son Isaac. I’m hoping that project will have wings, and of course I’m still doing the University of Calypso with Relator. I have quintets all over the world that know my music so I can travel alone and still have my own band wherever I go, and I get to sit in and play with a range of people from all over the world.
I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, which these days means there’s always something new and interesting on my calendar. I hope I can stay healthy and keep growing and make some good music these next 10 years and beyond.
