Allan Joseph - addicted to the steel pan

By Emerline Gordon

“I love my pan music. To me, this is the sweetest music in the whole world. I will not give up playing this instrument for nothing.”

This is the sentiment expressed by Allan “Tonic’ Joseph, a founding member of the NLCB Buccooneers Steel Orchestra in Buccoo

Joseph started playing the steel pan since he was 13 years old, that is 53 years ago. His passion for music started at age six when he was taught by father to play the cuatro. As he grew older, he was introduced to the steel pan and since then, he has never stopped playing it.

“There was something special about the rhythm and the melody of this steel pan instrument that got me hooked and to this day I am still addicted to it. I remember when I was 13 years of age, my friends and I used to run away from home after school and go to the pan tent in Buccoo, which was not too far away from our home, to play on the steel pans,” he said in an interview.

“When no one was looking, we would crawl in and play the pans easy, easy, so that nobody will hear us. We will play to our heart’s delight until late in the afternoon and then we will go home.

“This went on for some time until one day as we were about to enter the pan tent, we saw one of our neighbours, an elderly gentleman, staring at us. We became very scared and started to run, because we thought that by him seeing us we would have gotten into big trouble. But then he called out to us, “Aye! Come back here! Don’t run! Now is the time for allyuh to start to learn to play the pan.”

“On hearing this, we felt very happy, so we returned to the pan tent and continued playing. After returning home that afternoon, we told our parents about the incident and they willingly allowed us to go and practice on the pans on afternoons after school,” Joseph said.

Joseph said in those early days, he and his friends did not have a clue about playing the pan, neither did they have anybody to teach them, but that did not stop them from playing, even though it meant having to teach themselves.

“As young boys attending the Montgomery Government Primary school, we did not know anything about how to read music or how to play the pan, neither did we have anyone to teach us - we played by ear. All we knew was that we liked the sound of the pan and we would play based on what we know,” he said.

Sometime later, two gentlemen by the name of Roy Skeete and Errol Nixon (both now deceased), after seeing the boys’ enthusiasm for playing the pan, came and taught them how to read the notes as play them. Joseph played on the double seconds pan and his friends played on the bass.

“I have a special respect and love for the steelpan because it is our thing. But as Trinbagonians, I do not think that we give the steel pan the respect that it deserves especially since we are the ones who invented it ourselves. And this sometimes really pains my heart,” he said.

The Buccooneers Steel Orchestra on Chance Street in Buccoo was launched in June of 1967 by Joseph and several of his friends. It was an unsponsored self-supporting band until 2005 when it received its first sponsorship from the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB), who remains its sponsor to this day. The band continued to grow and improve itself through its continuous participation in the weekly Sunday School, and the Easter Buccoo Goat Race. The band has also competed in several National Panorama competitions as well as steel band Music Festivals including the 1980 festival, held in Trinidad. The band placed sixth in that event and was awarded the prize of a trip to North America by the then Prime Minister, the late Dr Eric Williams.

The band’s first pan arranger was Vernon Dennis. In 2008, the band hired a new arranger by the name of Seion Gomez from Trinidad, who led them to the National Panorama finals every year since his arrival to now. The band placed second in 2011 and 2012 and in 2013 they the Medium Band category.

Joseph also composes and sings his own calypsoes. His singing talent allowed him the opportunity to perform at several hotels in Tobago as well as he participated in the local talent show “Scouting for Talent.” where he sang while playing the pan.

Now a retired THA Works Division employee, Joseph continues to play with Buccooners and trains young people to play the pan.

“I believe as older heads, it is our responsibility to teach the pan music to the younger ones. I strongly believe that our knowledge and skills about the pan instrument, is not for us to keep to ourselves and die with it, but to impart that knowledge to others,” he said.

And while many of the older pannists play by ear, the goal for Buccooneers is to provide a pan theatre with a music and a study room where the young players can learn to not just play the pan but also be able to read music.