Photography by Coles Hairston

For months, I thought of ways in which I could produce something unique, but not complex. SteelJazz is a fusion of the Steel Drum and Jazz music. I am not the first musician to combine the Steel drum (Pan) with Jazz, but my love and ability to play Jazz on the Piano and the Steel Pan could possibly help evolve the combination in the next millennia. I was born and raised in Trinidad until I was 18. At an early age, I was exposed to a variety of music from the Caribbean, South America, and the USA. My uncle sponsored Hoytonian (A Pan around the neck Steel Orchestra), and my dad played the Piano. I recalled the first time I heard my Dad on the piano. The day after the piano was delivered; I sat there in amazement listening to him play. I discovered soon after that I could pick out the melody on the Piano from simply hearing the tune once or twice. At the age of ten, I had never heard the word "Jazz," but I certainly had an ear for the music. A month later, my younger brother and I were enrolled in private Piano class. The following year, I was selected to play at my music school's yearly Christmas concert.

I attended Presentation College (high school), and lead the Presentation Steel Orchestra (1976 - 1981) under the guidance of the legendary arranger Lennox "Bobby" Mohammed. Calypso and Soca took precedence over other forms of music at the time. No one wanted to hear Classical or Waltz, and consequently, I dropped out of Piano class. I remembered the day my music instructor discovered that I was playing my lessons from memory. She changed the music score, and I discovered how to improvise. I always had a deep-rooted interest in Jazz. Listening to my Dad's old records, I could hear the Jazz changes, but I couldn't understand the 11-V-1 chord progression as I understood the Caribbean music (1-IV-V-IV changes). In time, I discovered Caribbean musicians were able to play straight-ahead Jazz, easier than Jazz players were able to play Caribbean music. One of the reasons is, Jazz musicians were not able to hear the clave' (clah-vay). The clave' is the five beat syncopation that is the foundation for Afro-Cuban tempo.