BRAND NEW MAPPO LEAD, CASE AND STAND FOR SALE

Brand new Mappo 'C" Lead with case, adjustable/collapsible tripod chrome stand, mallets and instruction book; all for just $1250 total. Call Harry Best 510 222 1123, to check it out personally. Super deal!

PAN TUNER RESIDENT IN BAY AREA

Pan players in the Bay Area will be delighted to know that we now have a highly skilled pan tuner resident in the Bay Area. His name is Joe Kelly, a former apprentice with Panyard, Inc. Joe has been in the Bay Area for about a year, and has set up shop in South Francisco. He works with California Percussion and has g big plans which include opening a shop/store in downtown SF. For your tuning needs, Joe can be reached at 415 672 3846

Steeljam does Calypso Twist

Steel Jam
performs at the Grand Opening of
Calypso Twist
(a brand new store filled with bright, colorful, and whimsical home accessories, gifts, furniture, and original art)

Fri., Aug. 18, 5-8 PM* and Sat., Aug. 19, 12-3 PM*

1357 N. Main St., Walnut Creek, CA 94596, www.calypsotwist.com.

Come on by, do some shopping, and have a listen!

(*Performance times changed since a previous postcard mailing

ANDY NARELL AND SAKESHO AT PEARL'S SF

Andy Narell makes his annual trek back home to the Bay Area, this time with his dynamic jazz quartet Sakesho. They will perform live at Jazz at Pearls, 256 Columbus Ave. (Pacific), San Francisco. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, August 18-20. Shows at 8pm and 10pm. Don't miss this one!!!!

Phil Hawkins at Agenda Lounge

Here's another opportunity to hear Phil
and the group "live". We'll be playing cuts
from the cd and unveiling some brand new
tunes.

This performance features:
Phil Hawkins - steelpans, percussion
Nelson Braxton - bass
Dave Flores - drums
Michelle Hawkins - flute, vocals
This Saturday

7:30-9:45pm
FREE w/DINNER

Agenda Lounge
399 S. 1st Street
San Jose, CA 95113
club info: 408.380.3042
www.agendalounge.com

Come out, have a drink, hear some music
and get your own copy of the new cd "H2O"
(downloads available online at: www.itunes.com)

Thanks for the support!
Phil

cds available at:
www.pnotemusic.com

STEELJAM AT THE ZOO

STEEL JAM performs:

--Friday, June 2, 5:30-8:00 PM, at “ZooFest for Kids” at the San Francisco Zoo.

Parents, children, grandparents, and friends are invited to attend the Zoo’s most popular annual family fundraiser. Have your face painted, witness wild animal feedings, enjoy a wide array of delicious treats and, of course, listen to Steel Jam tunes --all while supporting the Zoo.

For directions and/or questions regarding ticket prices, email tjiskav@sfzoo.org.

Hope you can join Steel Jam for a fun evening at the Zoo!

ANDY NARELL: CORRECTING CRAIG COPETAS

An open letter to Craig Copetas by Andy Narellposted May 18, 2006

Dear Recipient - The following is a letter I wrote to Craig Copetas in response to his article in the Bloomberg News. Please feel free to pass this on or publish it.
All the best
Andy Narell

Dear Craig:
I finally saw a copy of your Bloomberg News article last week ('Shell Disowns Oil Drums as Panmen Gather for Soccer World Cup'). I have to say that I was appalled when I read it, and not only because you attributed a quote to me that was so inaccurate that I can only suppose that you made it up.

As Terry Joseph of the Trinidad Express accurately summed up in his letter to you, the entire article is misleading, and "appoints to Shell Oil an outrageously exaggerated role in the creation of the steelpan." I wonder why. I think my 'quote' is a perfect of illustration of the point I'd like to make.

Here goes - "According to American jazz musician Andy Narrell(sic), Shell oil-barrel pans made between 1946 and 1967 are as renowned and desirable as the Cremonese violins of Antonio Stradivari, Nicolo Amati and Giuseppe Guarneri. Even the barrels made today are in high demand among pan players."

Wow. In fact what transpired was, you asked me if there was any particular oil company's drums that made the best steelpans, and I explained very clearly that to my knowledge there was no connection between any oil company's drums and the quality of a steelpan, that the critical factor is the skill of the tuner, that tuners search out certain qualities in the barrels and that they come from a variety of sources, and that to my knowledge none of the oil companies have ever taken an interest in developing a barrel that would be better suited to making steelpans.

I also remember telling you that if you were trying to establish a link between the oil companies and the creation of the steelpan that you were barking up the wrong tree. I suspect that your research bore that out, which is why you had to go to such extremes trying to establish a connection between Shell barrels and good pans, like attributing this outrageous quote to me. Or by interviewing people like William Rosales, who supervises the manufacture of barrels at Shell.

Obviously he has spent zero time trying to develop a better barrel for the making of steelpans, as evidenced by the quote "Let me state for the record that our used drums are disposed of properly and that Shell health and safety regulations prevent the use of empty drums for anything but Shell oil products." And yet you closed your article with another quote from this guy - "I know we make the best musical oil drums in the world."

By the way, who but an ignoramus on the subject of steelpans would refer to these instruments as 'musical oil drums'? How about this one, Craig? "A few miles up the road in Port of Spain, beneath the shade of the big breadfruit tree at 147 Tragarete Road, a Shell executive in 1946 made history's first steel drum from an empty barrel of tractor lubricant bearing the company's distinctive clamshell insignia."

A Shell executive invented the steelpan? Did I hear you right? Pray tell, what was the name of this Shell executive? Later in the piece you bolster this lie with another fiction: "Sixty years ago, Shell bankrolled the invention of the modern pan drum." This of course is backed up by nothing, but as you say, "Shell executives in Trinidad suspect the company's documentation for both (the pan and its inventor - Ellie Mannette) was lost when the government nationalized the oil industry in 1974," so anything's possible if we follow your line of research.

Just to clear my own conscience again, I'd like to remind you that I told you that Shell, like many other companies, signed on to sponsoring a steelband (The Invaders) in the 1950's, and had no direct involvement with the invention of the instrument. But that was just me talking after all. You obviously have more reliable sources.

How about the story of 'the barracuda'? According to you, 'Mannette named the world's first 55-gallon Shell drum "the barracuda." It was last seen in August 1946, stuck in the high branches of the breadfruit tree. "The big kids beat me up and stole barracuda because it made a better sound than their drums,'' Mannette says. "They threw it up in that tree and I wasn't going up there for it.'' Now it happens that I have also heard Ellie tell the story of 'the barracuda'.

In fact I recorded him telling it and it was subsequently transcribed by Peter Blood and published in the Trinidad Express. So I find it really offensive that you would distort the point of the story, saying first of all that he named the 'world's first 55-gallon Shell drum "the barracuda".' Was it the first 55-gallon Shell oil barrel (I hardly think so), or are you again trying to bolster your story by implying that the first pan was made from a Shell oil drum?

This is another of your baseless imaginings, but I suppose if a Shell Oil executive invented the pan as you say, it stands to reason. Or is your point that this pan was of superior quality because it was made from a Shell barrel? You're wreaking such havoc on the actual events I can't be sure what your point is. Besides the fact that you're misquoting Ellie to suit your version of the story, you missed the whole point of his anecdote.

In the early years of the steelbands (before Shell and all those other wonderful companies got involved as sponsors), the bands were like gangs. They were extremely competitive and there was quite of bit of fighting between them. So Ellie had made a pan that sounded so beautiful he called it 'the barracuda' and a rival band attacked his band, stole it and put it up in a tree in their neighborhood and dared him to come and get it if he wanted it.

It's a great little story, revealing so much of what it was like to be a panman in those days, but somehow in your hands it becomes another anecdote about Shell barrels. I could go on and on, but I suspect you get my point by now. I also suspect that you think that you can get away with this kind of shoddy 'journalism,' pick up your check and move on to the next subject, that nobody reading your piece cares that much about steel drums anyway.

It's an article for a business magazine after all. Well I've got news for you. You hurt a lot of people with this crap you wrote, and it got reprinted in a lot of newspapers. Ellie Mannette has dedicated more than 60 years of his life to the development of this instrument. I myself have been playing pan for 45 years and my entire working life has been devoted to playing, composing for, and teaching this instrument.

Your libelous and misleading piece has done us both harm, not to mention the legions of others not quoted in your piece who have equally devoted their lives to this artform. There was a beautiful and fascinating story there for you to research, and had you been on a genuine quest for that story you could have written about how Ellie, Spree Simon, Bertie Marshall, Neville Jules, Tony Williams and the others created the instruments that make up the steelband, about how the greatest acoustic musical invention of the 20th century was born in Trinidad, created from oil barrels by a bunch of young guys who had nothing more to work with than hammers and imagination.

Instead you decided to write a piece about Shell Oil, and you ran roughshod over the real story. I'm sorry I spoke with you and got implicated in this folly. I do want you to know that I intend to circulate this letter as widely as possible.

If nothing else, the interested folk in the pan community will know that I responded to your outrageous lies. Sincerely, Andy NarellP.S.: For those of you who want to read the piece to which I refer in this letter, the link is:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=culture&sid=aLgt3I23Kbck

STEEL JAM AT OAKLAND ZOO

Steel Jam performs at the Oakland Zoo Spring Health Fair 2006
“Active Lives, Healthy Bodies”
Sat., Apr. 29, 10-2 PM

Tour the Zoo and enjoy a variety of health-related activities:
·Health screenings
·Live music (Steel Jam from 10-2 PM)
·Brief talks from physician ambassadors
·Demonstrations on healthy cooking from Chef Leslie James
·Games and crafts for children
·Educational stations set up around the Zoo
· Botanical walking tours

Join us for this fun and healthy day at the Zoo! For more information, call
510-632-9525 or visit the Zoo’s website at http://www.oaklandzoo.org/.

CSM PANHANDLERS HOUSE WARMING

Hello pan enthusiast!

May we present, the CSM Panhandlers!
We're still working on changing our domain name so that our emailaddress will reflect it, but the big news is that the Panhandlers have a shiny new home!

We've pulled up stakes and officially made the trek across the bay to our new digs at the College of San Mateo. Like new brides, we've filed the name-changepaperwork at the county courthouse, gotten new driver's licenses, are still trying to get used to writing our new signatures on our checks..

So, in order to thank CSM for their generous hospitality, to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors, and last but certainlynot least, to express our gratitude to our long-time supporters, we invite one and all to a 100% FREE concert at our new beautiful home auditorium a week from this Sunday.

This ticket price (again, $0) should offset the cost of hopping in the biggest, gas-guzzlingest car you can find, and loading it up with everyone you know for a lovely Sunday afternoon filled with free music. And roti (unfortunately not free, but still delicious) from Ma's Caribbean Restaurant!

We're excited to have as our guests Bay Area sax legend and great friend of the band Danny Bittker, and the 1st-8th grade steel drum band from the Nueva School in Hillsborough.*

Sunday, April 23, 2:00 PM* FREE!* College of San Mateo Theater (Bldg. 3)* 1700 West Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo

Hope to see you there!- Panhandlers

CSM PANHANDLERS AT CARNAVAL 2006 KING/QUEEN SHOW

The CSM Panhandlers will be performing a jump up set at this exciting competition to select the Carnaval San Francisco 2006 King and Queen. The King and Queen will reign over the 28th Annual Carnaval Parade and Festival, to be held on Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 27 to May 28, 2006.

The event takes place at Sweet's Ballroom, Oakland1933 Broadway, Oakland, and starts at 8pm.

TOM MILLER AT OXFORD

Caribbean swings into Oxford

OXFORD — Musicians know, “Sometimes you find your instrument, and sometimes your instrument finds you.”

When Tom Miller was an undergraduate percussion major at the University of Akron, he’d barely heard of a steel drum when the school began one of the first such programs in the Midwest.

Now he’s “one of the most significant composers of steel band music today,” according to Chris Tanner, director of the Miami University Steel Band.
Today and Saturday, Miller will join the M.U. ensemble for its spring concert series and a celebration of the band’s new compact disc, “Simple Pleasures.”

“I did not plan to devote my career to the steel drum when I graduated,” Miller said. “But after I graduated, I thought it was a good time to explore the music scene on the West Coast.”
He moved to Los Angeles, and in addition to working with symphonies and playing the drum kit for bands, Miller fell into a circle of Caribbean musicians.

“I thought it was just another tool to be marketable in a big city,” he said.
But because of his education, he soon found himself doing a lot of session work for television and film.

“There were some amazing Caribbean players,” he said, “but they all played by rote and in the sessions, they needed someone who could read music.”
The pans started taking up so much of his time that he got more serious about it, eventually making several trips to Trinidad to learn from the musicians there, to give him some street credibility.

“It kind of snuck up on me, but I finally decided to pursue the steel drums as my career,” he said.
Among the things he learned from the Trinidad trips was not only to play by ear, but also to pick up on the unique rhythms of genuine Caribbean playing.

“There’s a different feel, a different swing,” he said. “Some of the intricacies of that I wasn’t getting here because I wasn’t immersed in the Caribbean culture.”
During his three-day residency at Miami, he will impart some of those street smarts to the band there, what he calls “one of the premiere ensembles in the U.S.”

Tanner said that the band will play selections from “Simple Pleasures,” the band’s third compact disc and the first one to exclusively feature original music, including two Miller compositions and three Tanner compositions.

“For the first time, we recorded right here on campus,” Tanner said. “The technology has come so far that we don’t have to go to a recording studio. We recorded it in our practice room and saved ourselves a lot of money.”

Concerts will take place in Hall Auditorium, Oxford Campus, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Admission is $7, $5 for Miami students, and all seats are reserved. Tickets for the event are available at the MU Box Office, (513) 529-3200.

PHIL HAWKINS RELEASES NEW CD H2O! PHABULOUS!

My wife once said to me indignantly: “Can’t you play something else? It’s Andy, Andy, Andy…” Well she’ll be happy to know there is something else now: “It’s Phil, Phil, Phil…Hawkins, that is.”

Phil just dropped his new CD entitled H2O and already it’s lighting up memories of the early glory days of Andy Narell’s evolution in the San Francisco Bay Area. Andy’s absence from the Bay has been felt, but his disciples are blossoming and the panjazz is alive again in the Bay.

H2O is a mostly instrumental album that showcases Hawkins’ incredible talents as a composer and steel pan player. His extensive background as a jazz drummer is reflected in the interactive nature of the music. Hawkins’ arrangements seamlessly merge his passion for improvisation with a genuine respect for traditional Caribbean, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban grooves.

Andy’s influence on Phil’s music is evident but that’s only as the originator of that style I like to call the ‘BayPan’ sound that is present in the music of Bay Area pannists such as Pan Ramajay’s Tom Miller, and Derek Smith.


But, enough about Andy. What Phil has done in H2O is brought his own sweetness and originality to that genre. Phil is prolific, and his music is exquisite. Here’s what the music critics are saying about Phil and H2O:

“[Phil Hawkins’] music is incredible; it's imaginative, deep, fun, well arranged, and a fascinating blend of musical cultures. And . . . his band burns!”
Greg Murai - Faculty, The Jazz School, Berkeley, CA

"A cool mixture of caribbean, jazz and latin music in which Hawkins' steelpans star."
Rhonda Holman - The Eagle

"Hawkins' soloing is fabulous and worthy of note."
Lisa Rogers - Percussive Notes Magazine

In addition to his talents as a pan player, Phil is also a composer, publisher and educator. Originally from Topeka, Kansas, he earned a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music at Whichita State University.

He currently teaches World Music and MIDI and Digital Audio courses at Mission College in Santa Clara, CA. Phil's publishing company P. Note sells his compositions for steel band and several books on rhythm and pan.

Phil is currently working on putting together a full pan program for the South Bay.

Get H2O now!

Available at these sites: http://www.pnotemusic.com/, www.kakesa.com, www.panramajay.com

New Mappo 'C' Lead Chromed For Sale

Brand new, built and tuned by Desmond 'Mappo' Richardson, one of the most gifted builders and tuners of steel drums from Trinidad & Tobago.

The sound is awesome! Comes with FREE case, mallets and an instructional booklet for beginners.

This price tag is generous for the quality of this pan.

This is a standard, professional instrument tuned in A440. It is 23 inches in diameter with a 7-inch skirt length and beautiful chrome finish.

If you'd like to see it and check it out, call 510 222 1123.

HARRY BEST & SHABANG! IN RIO VISTA

Harry Best and Shabang1 entertain residents and guests at the Trilogy Development in Rio Vista, Saturday Feb. 25. Check our calendar at SHABANG.US for upcoming public performances.

STEEL JAM IN HILLSBOROUGH

Steel Jam performs this Sat., Feb. 25 & Sun., Feb. 26…

--1:30-4:30 PM, Open House at 225 Roblar Avenue, Hillsborough
Steel Jam entertains potential home buyers as they view this beautiful property!

MARY BURNLEY LEAVING FOR OREGON

Not sure which is more newsworthy but here goes: Mary Burnley, pannist and bassist with the Soca Sisters is leaving the Bay Area for Oregon, and she has a lovely set of Panyard cello pans (three-pan configuration) with cases, covers, stands, mallets, and stand bag for sale.

She is open to any reasonable offer. She can be reached at 510 684 8999 or by email: socasisters@comcast.net.

Mary has been a part of the local pan scene for almost 20 years. We will miss you Mary!
Hope the 'Sisters' find another fine woman to complete the trio.

Orinda Pan Progress

L-R: Debbie henson, Sandy Lendall, Yvonne Lefort, Mike Bernhardt and Dick Davis at the Winter Pan class in Orinda's Community Center. The class is taught by Harry Best.

Walnut Creek Pan class in session

Diablo Demons get Hot working on 'Evil Ways' in a winter class session at Walnut Creek's Civic Arts Center Shadelands campus. Class runs every Wednesday, 7:30-8:30pm. Class is taught by Harry Best. Beginners welcome.

Pan, Coconuts Make New Year Right

We had a great gig down in Noyo Harbor at the Wharf . The power was out and the owner thought he would have to cancell, but being a steel band has it's advantages, like not needing electricity,, also dinners went off without a hitch because the kitchen runs on propane, they rented a generator for some lights in the kitchen and bar area,, and the coconuts rocked the house untill 1;00 am by candle light.

The place was packed, i dont think it could have been better if we'd had power, maybe the vocals suffered a little without microphones, but i don't think any one noticed. We hit the 12;00 down beat with Auld lang syne and half way through switched to a faster salsa version,, followed up by Shake Sonora, what a great way to end 2005 and start 2006.

Cheers and happy new year every body,,,,,,,,Hang Pan

Kevin and Coconuts.

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