The Future of the Steelpan?

Elspeth Brierley

The steelpan came out of the stress and pressure of a downtrodden people. Stress, as we know can produce the finest diamonds. So the steel pan, the only instrument invented in the 20th Century was birthed in  the hills of Laventille, in a little British colonial island of Trinidad. This has never been disputed. It has been one of the many gifts that this nation has given to the world. However in this birthing and during the sixty year parenting process, this son of the soil seems to be leaving home. The question now is, can we retain any part of it or is this too doomed to become part of the Diaspora living and prospering in foreign lands?

In 2002, we were rudely made aware of how easily we can lose what we so glibly took for granted. For in April of that year the US Government granted the Whitmyre/Price patent to two Americans for supposedly being the first to make a steelpan using a hydrofoam press. It has been claimed that Dr. Clement Imbert, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies and Eugene McDavid had already discovered this process in the 70’s, but lacked the financial resources to undertake the expensive and lengthy process for applying for a patent. The patent is now being challenged, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Technological developments have continued apace, but not at home. Phil Solomon, originally from Guyana, now living in Pittsburgh calls himself a steelpan technologist. His claim to fame is patenting a Grooveless ™steelpan which supposedly offers a clear, purer sound. Not to be outdone there is Eckhard C. Schultz a self taught steelpan tuner from Germany who has invented two different types of steel drums. In 1980, he designed the “Kid Drum”, what is really a mini steel pan, to be closely followed by the “Big-Mama”, an instrument that has the same range as the traditional double tenor, however the 32 notes are put into one pan instead of two. He now successfully exports his steel drums to Austria, Switzerland, Japan and the USA.

Than last but not least there is Panyard Inc., owned and operated by Ron Kerns and Shelly Irvine from Akron, Ohio. This small company has used the most up to date technology to produce state of the art pans. They have now totally abandoned the use of the traditional industrial containers and are therefore no longer constrained to the limited surface of the 55 gallon drum. They use Solid Hoop™ barrel construction which provides for increased volume and eliminates the possibility of buzzes. Every note is grooveless and totally independent of its neighbors. They have also invented the Low Frequency Modifier™ which negates interference inside the bass barrel.

With these advances springing from all corners of the world must we now face the unpleasant fact that our invention is ours no more? If so, this should cause us to think very hard about ourselves as a nation. Is it a lack of resources or are we focused on a different goal? Should we grasp steelpan to us and say "is we own", or should we feel honored that the instrument that we created has found an appreciative audience allover the globe? How do we keep ourselves involved in the advances? Pan Trinbago has a lot of thinking to do.