Bertie Marshall Speaks on the Steelpan
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I looking for quality
Trinbagopan.com Staff Article
Interview Recorded: March 13, 2005
Posted: March 18, 2005
What I intend to experiment on, I am sure I could get NASTA to make up plenty drums, so that a band could purchase the drums for bass. Specific instruments for the bass pans because that is what they want. Richard Mc David and I went to Sweden and even do stainless steel and we did a brass pan to see what I would get. When I came back here, I let my tuner tune it. My assistant finish sink it and put the notes on it. When we were tuning it I found the brass was coming out all right, but the brass was coming out soft, the metal was causing that, but the pan sounding sweet.
Let me give you a next joke again about tuning, from my own experience. I tuning up some pans, so I put them up, and I tested them, I find the both of them sounding good, but one was sounding rowdy. A fellah come, and when he check the pans out, he say, "ah want dis one eh Bertie, dis good for Panorama." Now, this is the one that sounded rowdy and to me it was noisy. But he wanted the noisy one, the one that sounding nice, no noise, and in my opinion he did not want the balanced one. I am not saying balanced because I did it, but because I could hear, and I listened to the instruments critically. When you tuning, it makes no sense trying to fool people, I never like that, I was looking for quality. The man pick that pan yes, the rowdy one, he said that pan was good for Panorama. He picked that pan because of the noise level. He wanted that one, he did not what the mellow one.
They should expose youths to 'nice' music and let dem get that training. I realize that musicians on the whole, when they come around pan, they always particularly setting up their face, (when I was young I did this too), because the quality, the tone, I know something was wrong. I listen more critically. No other tuner captures the same tonal quality I capture because he don't know what he is doing, sorry to say. Remember I experiment, and that does not mean I can't go wrong. If I am hearing and tuning something, I don't get tired. That is why I feel if I started back to tune a pan before I get back my strength, I could be endangering myself. Problems could arise because I don't study food, because I have to tune the pan, and if I lying down to sleep, I am planning when I get up in the morning because I have my tuning room right there. Sometimes in the night I will get up and go there and watch the note.
Another thing is, I could observe. I tell people that it is an important thing. You observe your 'G' sounding nice, beautiful, but when you check the pan it is not balancing. So what you have to observe, is the 'G' sharp. For instance, from the 'G' to your 'G' sharp to your 'A'. You are watching it, why you are getting this nice tone on the 'G'. You have to follow through, that is all. Observing is a great thing. Pompi Vincent was a fellah who was around me, right now he is teaching people. He was down by Starlift. The government should be treating him better, by giving him what he wants. I could of shown Ellie Mannette something, I could have taught him a thing or two. There is a fellah name 'Mapo' and his friends, they are making pans without all the pneumatic hammering. They could just pound nice and they take their hammer and get a good finish.
I ended up on the Base, because I have to live. The money was small but it was still sure. Long time yuh use to buy cloth to make shirt, so it wasn't much of a problem. Just like how you make pants, you buy the cloth and go by the tailor, well it is the same way. The Americans were still at the Base in those days. They had an enlisting men's club and we would play for them, and at Macqueripe where the 'big shots' are. I use to see men up there and they would point out others to me and say, "that is Mr. Slim Meyers, Mr. Fernandez, Jerry Gomez and others", but I didn't know them then, I remember good that they were there. We made up a drum set business. In those days steelband now start to use cymbals. We bought a Hi Hat and a Crash Cymbal at Sa Gomes Music Store. Drum sets had now start to come in. We couldn't afford a whole drum set, a drum set was expensive in those days. All of us had well tuned pans. So when we made the money we decide to invest in that.
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