Bellstars in action

Bellstars New Pete Engelhart creation

Bellstars

Configured by Harry Best

Designed and created by Pete Englehart

2012©

• Fully Chromatic – C#
• Wholetone inverted images on each side
• Geometrical symmetry
• Played with hands or rubber tipped mallets
•  

Pete Engelhart

Pete Engelhart began crafting metal percussion instruments after spending time in Brazil in the 1950's. He combined his life long love of jazz, knowledge of Latin rhythms and sounds, and his ability as an artist to produce complicated resonant tuned bells.
Pete has now been handcrafting metal percussion for nearly 43 years. He has designed a large variety of highly creative instruments that are now used worldwide by many professional musicians.
This current line of 9 instruments has been designed to fill the basic needs of the working drummer / percussionist. It represents the essential toolkit for the modern drummer. The metal instruments are all hand made with care by Pete Engelhart. The bells are made of heavy gauge metal and are individually tuned.

Harry Best

Harry Best is a professional steelpan player and innovator and enjoys exploring the correspondences between music and geometry especially as it relates to the steelpan.

This configuration was inspired by the Ellie Manette standard pattern for the double second steelpans. The right side of the Bellstars is an exact image of the right side of the Manette double seconds. Harry simply created an inverted symmetry on the left side.

Guppy lead for sale

 

Former Bay Area panman Fitzroy Balfour, now residing in Seattle has a Guppy Brown lead for sale. Built in 1996, the pan was recently tuned by Ancil Joseph in Arizona. Fitzroy is asking $700 for the pan. He can be reached at 425 -773 -6488.

Mr. FixIt readies pan float for T&T Steel at SF Carnaval

 

Carlyle, Mr. Fixit! the hardest working man in the Bay Area built the float in the eastbay, towed it to SF at 5am, made all the secure adjustments then joined the rhythm section for a hot jam down the road.

Dexter Bruce of Shabang solos on Samba de Orfeo

Pan on the road in SF Carnaval

 

Sharon Baird and LaMantia on the Trinidad and Tobago Our Boys Steel Orchestra float in the San Francisco Carnival Memorial Day weekend.

Pan rep at Black History Celebration

 
PanWoman Sharon Baird and Harry Best share a moment with Rev. Richard A. Roberts of the San Francisco Community Fellowship at a Black History celebration in Daly City.

New Steelpan Program to Launch in East Bay

I am recruiting 15 people for a new Caribbean Steelpan Music Program to be launched late summer or early fall in the East Bay. Please contact me if you are interested or pass the word to those who might be. I can be reached by email, harrybest@shabang.us, or by calling 510 222 1123. All are welcome, beginners to advanced. Beat Pan! Harry Best 510 222 1123

Stanford's Cardinal Calypso in Blue Panic

Stanford's Cardinal Calypso in 'blue' (we won't tell CAL)playing Adam Genecov's Beat Panic at a May 11 spring concert in Toyon Hall.

Third Annual Pan Ramajay Summer Steel Drum Festival

Come and join us July 8-13, 2012 for more great pan music.  There is still time to register! 2010 Festival faculty members (L-R): Ray Holman, Michael Spiro, Jim Munzenrider.   There is still time to register for the Third Annual Pan Ramajay Summer Steel Drum Festival in Denver, CO.  The 2012 festival will again feature Trinidadian pan master, Ray Holman, along with Tom Miller, Alan Lightner, and Jim Munzenrider, of "Pan Ramajay", "Pan Jumbie's", Don Prorak and Rick Henson of "Rocky Mountain Steel Bands". The registration deadline is June 15, 2012, and fast approaching so don't hesitate.  Please join us July 8-13 for another week of great pan music. More info can be found at ramajaypanfest.com.   Please join us July 8-13, 2012 at University of Denver Lamont School of Music Denver CO 80208 Get more information by visiting our site www.ramajaypanfest.com Pan Ramajay's, Alan Lightner and Tom Miller.     Festival participants perform in the finale concert.     Faculty member, Don Prorak with Ray Holman.

CONTACT US POB 101922 Denver CO 80250

Vintage Pans for sale

 

 

A friend of mine has two oldies but goldies for sale:
1 - Painted C lead tenor, circle of fifths, built by Patrick Arnold. Comes with stand and fiber case; all for the bargain price of $375. Actually sounds pretty good.
1 - Set of Ellie Mannette built, painted double seconds. Comes with stand and fiber cases for $950.

Both set of pans were probably built in the 80s and look a little crude compared to today's pans, but they both have a surprisingly sweet ring probably due to the quality of steel that was available back then. Call me if you're interested. They won't be around very long.
Harry
510 222 1123

Steel Jams in May

	Steel Jam @ CSL Kitchen Tour,   Beringer & Marsh Manor Center   May 18-28 Public Performances
	At Pebble Beach Wedding Reception:     Recent Bookings:   Wedding Reception at  the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Beringer Vineyards. Steel Drum History Lecture and Concert at Laguna Honda Hospital.   Marsh Manor Center.   Private graduation party.   Rock Wall Wine Co. Open House & Luau. Upcoming:     "Heritage Night" celebration at a Bay Area elementary school,  May 16. Performance for the CA Retired Teachers Association, May 21. Interactive steel drum facilitation for Legal Aid of Marin event, June 1. Oakland Zoo's "Walk in the Wild" Annual Fundraiser, June 23.	At Intuitive Surgical, Inc. "TGIF" party:	At ISES Eventworld Conference at AT&T Park.
		Our public performances in May include: Fri., May 18, 10-2 PM, 32nd Annual Hillsborough "Kitchen Tour." This self-guided tour of five unique homes showcases newly-remodeled kitchens that feature historic and contemporary designs. (Steel Jam performs at 659 Brewer Dr.) $40 advanced tickets/ $50 at the door.  (This Community Service League fundraiser benefits San Mateo County's Mental Health Assoc. & YFES Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center.)  Buy tickets (or more info) HERE. Sat., May 19 & Mon., May 28, (Memorial Day), 12-5 PM, Beringer Vineyards in St. Helena. Steel Jam returns to perform its wine-sipping, toe-tapping music on Beringer's beautiful grounds. (This regal estate holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating winery in the Napa Valley.) Usual tasting fees apply. Click HERE for Beringer's website. Thursday, May 24, 6-8 PM at the Marsh Manor Center as part of their "Live Music on the Patio!" series. (Florence St. @ Marsh Rd., Redwood City.)  Click HERE for more info.   Hope you can come on out to have a listen or do some dancing! The summer party season is just around the corner and Steel Jam can help solve your entertainment needs. A small graduation party, a company picnic for hundreds, or a conference for thousands--Steel Jam makes the entertainment a success! We also offer fun, hands-on, interactive sessions for team building, parties, fairs, festivals, etc. Email me for details and rates. Bring on the summer! Mary Spalding Link to Steel Jam's website Watch video here of a 1-min. clip at a Google picnic performance.
	Cell:  (415) 823-4601 Email Link: mary@steeljam.com

Harmonics Revival

 
Former members of the Harmonics Steelband had a rare get together at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey last night. L-R: Fogi Glasgow on 3-Cellos, Paul Sangg on DSeconds, Harry Best on LTenor, and Peter Best on DSeconds.

Spiceman Pan at the Vallejo Farmers' Market

 
Paul Snagg's setup at the Vallejo Farmers' Market on this beautiful day!

Wild Kingdom Pan sticks from Kakesa.com

Pan paws

Red Love Ladybugs

Ants in your pans

Pan Gold at Richmond - Shimada Sister City Festival

 
Panman Phil Hawkins plays with Ray Obiedo at a concert last Saturday at the Richmond Auditorium for the  Festival of Gold: Richmond-Shimada Japan sister city celebration.

Asheba rings out a tune with the little Pan darlings

 
Asheba entertaining the kids at Whole Foods in Oakland April 22.

Glorious Day for Pan at the Farmers' Market

 
Sun cam out early today heralding a glorious day for pan playing around the Bay. Most appreciated at this Farmers' Market in El Cerrito where Harry Best was doing his thing.

Cardinal Calypso Goes Blue for Spring Show

Just wanted to notify you guys about our spring show if you want to/have time to come down and watch. It's May 11th from 7-8:30pm at Toyon Hall on campus: we'd be excited to have you and you guys. If there are other people in the area that you think would be interested feel free to invite them. Below is a blurb I made for people who have had us play for them this year so feel free to forward the info and the flyer to whomever.

Gracias!

Akwasi

We wanted to present you with an opportunity to come see us perform in our biggest show of the year from 7:00 to 8:30pm on Friday, May 11th! This year, the show is called Blue Pan Group (steeldrums are actually called steelPANS... and we like puns) and will feature most of our new repertoire from this year (including an original piece), Blue Man Group themed skits for comic relief, and random blue and non-blue antics. Also, if you're a fan of decorations, costumes, and random giveaways... you might enjoy the show. This is our chance to present all of our work - in a more informal way - to the Stanford community and all else who want to come and listen.

It will be held in Toyon Hall (in the dorm lounge), 455 Arguello Way, Stanford, CA 94305: see map

There is limited parking in the back (at the end of Buckeye Ln) and on nearby streets (Serra and Escondido). Parking is also free on the the weekends (weekends start at 4pm on Friday). It will be free for anyone with a Stanford ID and only $5 for those without. RSVP is not necessary, but please notify us if you are planning on bringing a large group of people; Toyon has space for about 200 people and we want to make sure people can be comfortable.

Please forward the attached flyer below to people in your dorm, department, school, colleague groups, friend groups, and/or emailing lists that you think would be interested: it's a show for everyone so invite anyone you want! It should be known that if the show were a movie, it might be rated PG-13: only in terms of language - there may be a couple clips of limited curse words. 

Feel free to check out clips of our last spring show, Discalypso, on our site and/or Facebook page and/or Youtube channel. 

Facebook event.

If you can't make it to the show, there are a plethora of campus events at which you may catch us playing one of our sets. You can be updated about them on our site as well (click on the gig to see details and check if it is open to the public): http//:cardinalcalypso.stanford.edu

Hope to see you there!

Akwasi Abrefah - Emma Sagan - Adam Genecov

Co-Presidents - Cardinal Calypso

Pan Pan! by Harry Best