Pan pioneer Mannette in US hospital

Internationally celebrated panman Elliot “Ellie” Mannette is at a West Virginia hospital in the ICU ward, being treated for kidney failure.

On the Mannette Instruments Facebook page, a postfrom his family said: “We would like to take this time to let everyone know that Dr Ellie Mannette is currently in the hospital. His health is slowly declining. Please keep him in your prayers. He is being surrounded by all of his students as well as his family.”

Mannetten 91, who is responsible for many innovations in pan, developed a love of percussive instruments at a young age and at just 11, became a member of Alexander's Ragtime Band in 1938.

Back then bands used various everyday items from trash cans to buckets to make music.

From about 1939 to 1941, he performed with his own band, the Oval Boys, including other early members Francis Wickham, and Stanley Hunte. The Oval Boys practised at the Queen's Park Oval before moving to 147 Tragarete Road, opposite the Oval, and in Mannette's backyard, where he changed its name to Invaders on VJ Day in 1945.

In 1951 Mannette was part of TASPO (Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra) that travelled to Great Britain to present the new musical instrument at the Festival of Britain. Mannette was a tuner for the orchestra.

In 1948, he was offered a scholarship to study music in London, which he turned down in order to be able to make more pans.

He led Invaders from the late1940s until 1967, when he migrated to the US, leaving his younger brother Vernon “Birdie” Mannette to take over the leadership of the band.

Mannette was invited to New York City to build instruments for an inner-city youth programme, after which he began working with several steelbands all over the US mainly in colleges and universities, as well as in private institutions.

In 1991 Mannette went to Morgantown, West Virginia for a guest semester at the WV University to teach students to build and play pan, and soon launched the University Tuning Project, which evolved into Mannette Musical Instruments. Morgantown eventually became home to Manette.

Mannette developed the Ellie Mannette Festival of Steel to celebrate the art form by facilitating the exchange of information and ideas through master classes, lectures, and group performances, bringing together the foremost pan artists in the world with a diverse group of players and enthusiasts, and to expose the community to new works of music and provide an opportunity for composers to showcase these works.

Among the countless awards Mannette has been given over the years are the NEO National Heritage Fellowship Award and the Hummingbird Medal.

In 2003, he was admitted to the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society of the US, and was recognised by the Smithsonian Institute in July 2012. Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2003, he was admitted to the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society of the United States, and has been recognised by the Smithsonian Institute in July 2012.