No single person is credited with inventing the steelpan.
Rather, there are several pioneers who have been instrumental in the creation and development of Trinidad and Tobago’s national vehicle since it was conceived in the 1930s.
This article focuses on the efforts of five steelpan pioneers, but the list of contributors to the art form is much longer and includes many other names, including Clive Bradley, Rudolph Charles, Dane Galston, Ray Holman, Bertie Marshall, Lennox “Bobby” Mohammed, Ken “Professor” Fillmore, Len “Boosie” Sharp, and Duvonne Stewart.
As we celebrate World Steelpan Day on August 11, we pay tribute to the efforts of those who have dedicated much of their lives to the development of our beloved national instrument.
Winston “Spree” Simon
“Steelband man, you do well to bang on the pan. But you must understand, my friends. Have you ever noticed who invented the pan? Pay tribute to this man with me. Here is how he began his first melody. On that blessed day in 1939. The genius remembers, He held on to an old drum and banged on it with disdain. It was just a flying house song. And so the steelband was born…” These lyrics, sung by the late Lord Kitchener in his 1975 calypso “Tribute to Winston Spree Simon,” capture the generous contributions of this pioneering pan player. Born in Rose Hill, East Dry River, in 1930, Winston “Spree” Simon is credited with developing the ping pong instrument known today as the tenor pan. Many pan enthusiasts accept that he was the first person to play a recognizable tune on the steelpan, but he himself never claimed the title in his 46 years of life.Simon allowed the pan to have melodies and produce different pitches and sounds by creating convex dome-like sections on its surface. After the war banned carnival celebrations, he debuted his 14-note tenor pan at the first carnival after the end of World War II in 1946. He performed Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” the hymn “God Save the King,” and Kitchener’s “Lie Hook Lee,” which won the 1946 Road March that same year, before an audience that included then-Governor Sir Bede Clifford and Lady Clifford, activist Audrey Jeffers, and calypsonian Lord Kitchener. Simon, like many of the pioneering pan players of the time, traveled to many countries, including Nigeria and Ghana, to introduce the steel pan to wider audiences and teach others how to play it. In 1974, he was awarded the Public Service Medal (Gold) for his contributions to the development of the instrument. Simon died of a stroke on April 18, 1976.
Elliot Manette
Elliot “Ellie” Manette’s contribution to the steelpan is immortalized by his decision to sink the top of a drum into a concave shape, creating the steelpan we know today. For this, he is revered by many as the “father of modern pan”. He is also known for inventing the rubber pan stick, which softens the sound played on the instrument. Manette first appeared on the steelpan scene in 1937 while still a student. Intrigued by the mystical nature of the instrument, he was keen to evolve the sound of the steelpan from a more rhythmic sound to a solid melody. Manette credits fellow pioneer Winston “Spree” Simon as the first person to play distinctive melodies on the pan, although his method of achieving this was quite different. Whereas Simon had shaped a kettle drum into a convex shape to form melodies, Manette reversed this process in the 1940s. By sinking the surface of the drum, there was more space to place the notes and better distinction between different pitches. By 1939, Manette formed a band called the Oval Boys Steel Band, which would later become the Invaders Steel Orchestra. In 1951, Manette traveled to Britain with the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra, where he was named to the list of leading panists who introduced the instrument to audiences around the world at the Festival of Britain. Manette’s outstanding skills as a panist led to an invitation from the United States Navy to form the United States Navy Steel Band in 1963. He toured the United States for many years thereafter, teaching and forming steel bands throughout the country. In 1999, U.S. President Clinton awarded him the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor in the traditional arts. Nationally, Manette received numerous prestigious awards, including the Hummingbird Silver Medal in 1969 and an honorary doctorate from the UWI in 2000. In 2001, Ellie Manette Park was named in his honor. Manette died on August 29, 2018, in West Virginia at the age of 91.
Anthony Muffin Williams
When the Panorama competition was first held in 1963, it was master arranger Anthony Williams who led the North Stars Steel Band to victory with their rendition of the Mighty Sparrows classic “Dang Is the Man.” He did the same for his band in 1964, when the North Stars won their second consecutive Panorama title with their rendition of Lord Kitchener’s “Mama This Is Mas,” and also won the Road March title that year. Born in 1931, Anthony Williams first encountered the steel pan during World War II (1939-1945). At the time, he played on a biscuit tin and performed “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as his first test piece. While Elliot Manette is revered as the father of modern pan, Williams is highly regarded by pan enthusiasts as the father of the modern steel orchestra.Upon his return, Williams reconnected with the North Stars when the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra visited the UK to play steelpan, and by 1955, they began making stands, and later wheels, for the steelpan. Prior to that, the instrument was hung around the neck by the strings. During the 1956 Jovere celebrations, the North Stars took to the streets to perform their steelpan wheels and played Puerto Rican mambo. Williams is also said to have invented the spiderweb steelpan, designed in fourths and fifths, after extensive research to find ways to improve the instrument’s sound quality. This model is now accepted as the standard instrument. Anthony “Muffman” Williams has received many honors for his contributions to the steelpan, including the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the Order of Chaconia (Gold), the country’s highest award. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the UWI. Anthony Williams passed away on December 21, 2021 after a long battle with COVID-19.
Zit Samaroo
Born in 1950 in the village of Sally in the Lopinot Valley, cultural icon Jit Samaroo actually began his musical career in Parang, a specialty of his hometown. He fell in love with the steelpan at the age of 14, when he joined the Lever Brothers Kamboulay Steelband on the recommendation of a family friend. The band’s musical director at the time, Landig White, noticed Samaroo’s incredible talent and entrusted the young Jit with arranging. Using the discarded pans from the band, Samaroo brought the instrument home and taught his younger siblings, later forming “The Samaroos Kids.” The family band debuted in 1967, thrilling audiences at a concert at the University of the West Indies. Samaroo is best known in the steelpan world as the arranger for the Renegades Steel Orchestra. Nine of the band’s 12 Panorama titles were won during his time with Samaroo. Renegade is also the only band to have won the coveted steel pan title three consecutive years, from 1995 to 1997, both times under Samaroo’s direction. Jit Samaroo received the Hummingbird Lifetime Achievement Award (Silver) in 1987 and the Chaconia Award (Silver) in 1995. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin for his contributions to music and culture. Jit Samaroo passed away on January 7, 2016, at the age of 65, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Patricia “Pat” Bishop
Patricia Allison “Pat” Bishop, known as the “First Lady of Pan,” is a musical director, artist, educator, and one of the first women to arrange steelband in Trinidad and Tobago. Bishop served as director of the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra in the 1980s and accompanied the band on eight major tours throughout the United States. Most notably, the band performed at Carnegie Hall with Liza Minnelli and the New York Pops Orchestra in 1987. They also performed at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Rockefeller Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Throughout her career, she collaborated with such renowned pannists as Ray Holman, Ken Fillmore, Jit Samaroo, and Len “Boogsy” Sharp. In addition to the Desperadoes, she also provided musical arrangements for bands such as Birdsong, Pandemonium, and Phase II. Bishop was a leading advocate for teaching pan in schools. The pan tradition required instruction that included proper knowledge of history, technique and theory to ensure it was properly passed on to the next generation. In 1987, Bishop took over the direction of the Lydians Choir and formed a steelpan orchestra known as the Lydian Steel to accompany the choir. The orchestra included traditional instruments such as steelpans, tassa drums and African drums. Bishop is also highly regarded as an artist, and some of her works are in the permanent collection of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. Pat Bishop has received many accolades, including the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national award at the time, in 1995 for her significant contributions to Trinidad and Tobago’s culture. In 1986, she was awarded the Hummingbird Gold Medal and later an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies. After her death, the Music Literacy Trust, which she helped found in 2004, developed the Pat Bishop Scholarship Program to support the advancement of the education of music students and arrangers. At the first carnival after her death, Phase II Pan Groove, led by Len “Boosie” Sharp, paid tribute to Bishop with a presentation written by Gregory “GB” Ballantine at Panorama in 2012, entitled “The Archbishop of Pan.” In 2013, Pat Bishop was designated a National Icon at an awards ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago’s independence.
