Pan veteran Martin Albino: Alive and making music

After decades of making and teaching music, 79-year-old Martin Albino shows no signs of slowing down. He is currently promoting his fourth album and still teaches pan to students, young and old, in Montreal, Canada.

However, unfortunate rumours of his death almost derailed his plans and prematurely cut short his decorated legacy in the music industry of TT.

A rumour that Albino had died began making the rounds on social media recently after an acquaintance mistook news of someone else’s death, and said it was Albino who had died.

“Someone called up a friend of mine and told him that I was dead,” he said.

The mistake was made because of the similarity in the names of the two men. The dead man was Victor St Martin, who also lived in Montreal. Albino had a good laugh at the mix-up during his interview with Newsday, but said at the time he was furious.

“He has my number; he knows all my friends. Call if you think something like that is true. You know what he did? He put it on social media.”

Albino said his nephew, who he hadn’t heard from in years, called him in a panic when he saw the information circulating and advised his uncle to take legal action.

Albino said the person eventually called him to apologise upon realising his mistake, but Albino was not amused. “Verify before you put things on social media. If my sister (Merle Albino-de Couteau) had seen that, she could have had a heart attack.”

The band plays on

Albino said the situation is behind him now, and he is moving forward with his music. He recently released his fourth album, Martin Albino: Nostalgia, which is reminiscent of his own history in the music industry.

The album is dedicated to former All Stars arranger, and Albino’s mentor, Neville Jules, who died two years ago.

“On the cover I have Minuet in G, because that was the first song I played with Neville Jules with All Stars in 1958.”

The album is a mix of Albino’s musical influences over the years, including pan and calypso, and a few French ballads, which he included because he has amassed a few francophone followers over the years from performing at a French club in Montreal.

Albino also dedicated the album to his three-year-old granddaughter Nora, recreating Lord Kitchener’s hit calypso by the same name in honour of her.

“She is a beautiful young lady. I love her very much and she has brought tremendous joy to my life.”

A history of music

Albino began his musical career in Trinidad on the Aunty Kay programme at the age of 12. Hosted by Kathleen Davis, it showcased young talent on radio every Sunday at 2 pm.

“A lot of great musicians in TT started in the Aunty Kay programme. It was the Scouting for Talent for kids,” he joked.

His father wrote calypsoes for him and his siblings to perform.

“Many people don’t know this, but that is where the Junior Calypso Monarch started. I was Junior Calypso Monarch for four consecutive years.”

Albino continued his career in music by playing in bands as a teenager while still at school.

“I lived in Laventille, close to a bandleader named Johnny Gomez, who had a fantastic band in those days.”

He said in the Johnny Gomez Band he was exposed to other great musicians like composer, arranger, and trumpeter Errol Ince. It was also during this time a friend introduced him to All Stars.

“I was greatly influenced by Neville Jules, who was then the captain, leader and arranger. I learned a lot from him. He was a great innovator.”

Albino recalled Jules invented the Steelband Bomb Competition, popular in the 1950s and 60s. The “Bomb” is a non-calypso tune arranged and performed to a calypso tempo.

“One band is not supposed to know what the other band is playing. You had to practise with your fingers so no one would hear what you were playing.”

Pannists would then “drop a bomb” on J’Ouvert morning after these secret rehearsals,

“J’Ouvert morning was a big surprise,” said Albino with enthusiasm. “You would just hear this music on the road and it’s an incredible experience. The most incredible experience I’ve had in my life.”

Albino began teaching music at Diego Martin Boys’ RC in 1968, and also arranged and composed for the Chase Manhattan Savoys steelband. He took the band to the steelband school competition finals for four consecutive years and gained the attention of international investors, who would hire him to teach pan for a summer in New York in 1968, after riots devastated the city the previous year. Albino was sponsored to teach pan to children in Brooklyn, Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York to keep them out of trouble.

He would eventually move to Montreal in 1969 to play music. He began teaching pan, starting with a few students and borrowed pans.

“I kept improving and developing until I got some friends to make pans for me. I was able to expand, and right now the Savoys is back to normal.”

For the love of Carnival

Albino said in 2018, while he was in TT to judge Panorama, he realised it had been 60 years since he played Minuet in G with his All Stars comrades, and arranged a reunion.

“I called anybody who was in All Stars in those years. I got about 20 of them and we had a fantastic reunion.” He said the old band got together again in 2019 and 2020 at the All Stars panyard in Port of Spain.

Albino has been judging the Panorama competition for the past 15 years. He joked that missing Carnival last year left him in despair.

“I had a tabanca,” he said, adding that he left TT in 2020 just before the onset of the pandemic in March, but missed many of his regular shows in Canada because of cancellations.

“I usually do the St Patrick parade in March in the cold, wintertime. I also do the Canada parade, and the Case of the Caribbean. Everything was cancelled last year.”