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Bertie Marshall Speaks on the Steelpan
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Changing the tone of Pan
Staff Article
Interview Recorded: March 13, 2005
Posted: March 18, 2005
When I start to change the tone of pan, a lot of tuners who were there then fall out. They didn't like that. But is a funny thing with people, before they buy a pan and try to learn they criticise. I could remember a time I went by 'All Stars' to tune some pans, and a fellah named Bully, shouted, "like he want to get rich, he charging so much for ah pan!" But they were accustomed to the ole time pan, where you could make eight in a day, but I couldn't do that. I was young, but I was still getting tired, fuss it had pong. Remember while I was attempting to tune, I was learning too, and because it is a new thing I introduced it wasn't just easy to put in the same harmonic I talking about. It was more hammering at that time. Remember even the man who was assisting me in 'sinking' the pan, 'carry de pan down', didn't understand, so he was not bringing it close to what I want. Sometimes when he finish sink the pan, I still had to come and 'hammer'. Sometimes he felt he was not doing it good and would be mad with me, because I had to come back with the hammer, and hammer it too, because he did not understand either. Even the people around me didn't understand. I used to tune pan in the open on a workbench. Pan didn't even chrome in those days, that is to show you how long I am talking about. That was in the late sixties, early seventies. That time I was living in Laventille where Highlanders was at Old St. Joseph Road and Erica Street.
Highlanders started and got the name when we used to play in Chaguaramas. The chief down there tell me to call the band "The Armed Forces Band" and it will cover everybody because the sailors fighting with the Marines, the Marines fighting with the Air-Forced people, so he told me name it "The Armed Forces" and it will cover everybody. When I decided to bring a band outside, remember, I have no 'mas' crowd because I was in a kind of hidden band as the "Armed Forces" was on the base in Chaguaramas. The owner of Highlanders, which was Kimloy Wong at the time, come and tell me, "let we join up". I joined up with them for their mas Crowd because as I said I didn't have any mas crowd. So when I did that, the first year we didn't get into no fights.
In the second or third year, I said I want to change the band directly to Highlanders. All my beaters, "Armed Forces", fellahs vex and say, " nah man, how yuh go bring that." I was trying to avoid them saying that is a 'badjohn' band I bring. They would think it was a 'badjohn' band because it was called "Armed Forces". Well, Kimloy, agreed with me too. He said, "man yuh could use the name Highlanders, no big t'ing." So he kind of encouraged me to use the name, so I use the name and most of his members didn't think nothing.
I used to practice down in Mango Rose trace too. The band originally wasn't from there, it was from Erica Street Laventille. They used to bring an Indian Mas, and after, I say, "nah, leh we bring sailors an' t'ing." That time I use to get a good crowd.
In 1965 it had ah big fight by the hospital and in 1968, I remember that was the year I break beat with "Every valley be exalted - from the "Messiah". When I bring it, the fellahs tell me 'dat is ah godly tune, Boogie how we cyar go in town with dat'. I say, "what, who say so?" And that was for the 'Bomb'. I have an Indian partner who give me a recording that somebody leave on the counter. He say, "Bertie play that an' try an' see if yuh like any tunes on it." Ah had dem old thirty-three an' ah third record', when I carry it over and I try it, I said I like this tune, which is "Every Valley" and I started learning it. In those days I young and my brain quick, so I was hearing everything. I realize it was in 'E', a key we don't normally play. It didn't have a popular key with the steel bands, so I start to learn them one at a time. At the time it had Sa Gomes Music store down on Independence Square, so I sent a man to get a book of 'The Messiah' for me, I will never forget that, and from that book now, I could get the true thing. You see, I didn't want to go into town with only one piece of the tune I wanted the full thing. So from that, ah fellah in de band could't read music and he started to take it. We come an' we win. When they called us to play in the church we played that godly tune.
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