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Trinidad
- One of the
pan tuning greats Lincoln 'Delgado' Noel has recently passed,
but the art of tuning the steelpan instrument is alive and
the torch is passionately carried by some of the other greats
of his generation, including Bertram 'Birch' Kelman, Wallace
Austin and Bertie Marshall, to mention just a few.
And then there are those of the 'next' generation - such
as Andy 'Mad Max' Neils. 'Max' as he is also known,
is one of the most sought-after pan-tuners in the world,
regularly declining job offers to tune entire orchestras
and even individual pan instruments, both at home in Trinidad
and Tobago, and abroad. The likes of Desperadoes,
Exodus, Invaders, Skiffle Bunch and CASYM (New York) steel
orchestras, and many more in the US Virgin Islands, Jamaica,
Aruba and Antigua - all bear the mark (and sounds) of his
expert skills.
 But
like many steelpan tuners, there is much more to Andy Neils
than the present phase of his involvement with this unique
instrument. As he worked at tuning a pan at his Barataria-based
workshop,
When Steel
Talks (WST)
got an in depth sense of the life
of Neils, before he became the master craftsman he is today.
At age seventeen in 1981, as a soon-to-graduate student
of South East Secondary School in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad,
a young Neils had spent a short while with Blue Diamonds
steel orchestra, before joining his school's steelband a
mere two weeks before the annual national junior panorama
competition. A sign of things to come was one week
later, when, after he got the tune down on the tenor pan,
he was asked to change instruments and learn the panorama
selection all over again on the double tenor instead because
players were needed in that section. With an
even more challenging voice of the instrument, Neils now
picked up and 'aced' the tune on the double tenor in that
one week before the competition. The arranger for
South East panorama that year was Trevor 'Inch High'
Ballantyne.
The tuner says he was 'hooked' on pan since then,
and his love for the instrument led him, not to Trinidad
All Stars, just up the road from South East, but to Renegades.
While he was still at South East, Neils had a visit from
Renegades personnel who asked him to join their stageside.
The present-day pan tuner would spend about fifteen years
with the regular panorama orchestra and as a member of its
prestigious and world-traveled stageside. It was here,
according to Neils, that legendary Renegades arranger Dr.
Jit Samaroo, stood looking at him playing a particular bit
of music one day. Samaroo then shook his head at his
skill combined with speed on the pan, and dubbed him 'Mad
Max.' To this day, Neils says, many people who knew
him as a player, do not know who Andy Neils is, but are
fully familiar with the pan player 'Max.'
 The
present-day pan tuner said although he was a good player
who could execute practically anything on pan (robotic,
as he puts it), he considered that he could have been better,
because at that time, he could play when someone 'showed
him', and play [the music] well, but he was not music literate
then; this would change later on. Nonetheless, Neils
said, he knew beyond any doubt that he wanted to make pan
his life, and he decided to make his career through the
national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. He took
a look around and saw that the people who had made a business
related to the steelpan were not pan players (only a few
of the truly exceptional ones did, according to Neils),
but the arrangers and pan tuners.
Initially, in addition to his pan performances, Neils
set his sights on tuning as his career move. His first
formal taste of pan tuning was during a six-week course
run by Pan Development Unlimited at Belmont Junior Secondary
School in Port-of-Spain. Desmond Waithes taught
the music theory segment there, and would go on to play
a pivotal role in Neils' initiation into arranging on the
national scene.
There were several parallel paths in the life of
Andy Neils at any given point. In addition to his
six-week course, he later became part of a year-long pilot
program put together by Pan Trinbago, which was supposed
to focus on pan tuning. While Neils says that the
course placed more emphasis on pan manufacturing and related
support mechanisms rather than tuning, it was his interaction
here with the late Clive Bradley which made him believe
that he could seriously make a go at arranging for steelpan;
this - in addition to tuning the instrument. Bradley
had initially been contracted by Pan Trinbago as instructor
for the music appreciation section of the pan tuning package,
and while another instructor completed that phase of the
program, Neils credits his experience with Bradley for giving
him the confidence to explore the world of arranging.
Another component of that one-year program was a two week-long
apprenticeship at Trinidad and Tobago Instruments Limited
(TTIL) that would serve as a point of contact for Neils
within the company soon enough.
After his boost of confidence in the area of arranging,
Neils contacted Desmond Waithes at the Belmont Intermediate
School. The latter headed the music program there
and at that point, encouraged his arranging pursuits, and
agreed with his idea to have the school participate in the
junior national panorama with Neils as its arranger.
Still a pan player with Renegades at this point,
when Neils approached management for the use of the band's
instruments, they agreed to allow the youngsters of Belmont
Intermediate to use their pans to enter the junior national
panorama. This was before Renegades had its own youth
initiative (Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra) in place.
Before moving on Neils would take the Belmont Intermediate
School steel orchestra to panorama for two years with this
concession in place. Thereafter, his arranging arena
became the traditional bands, starting off with Rhythm
Rockers from Arima. Neils elaborated
"Before I was actually recognized as a tuner, I did a lot
of arranging for the traditional or 'pan round de neck'
bands." He worked with several other traditional bands,
including Nutones, and Marsicans, both from
Arima, arranging for the latter Who Let The Dogs Out.
While turning out arrangements for the bands,
Neils continued to perfect his tuning skills. In fact
when he was later affiliated with Hilarks in Belmont
he wore two hats, those of arranger, and tuner.
His exposure to pan-tuning marked the beginning of
his music literacy experience. It instilled in him
a desire to experiment and accomplish more on the instrument
while playing, so he left Renegades and made his way to
Lincoln Enterprises where there was a steel orchestra.
Here pannists were encouraged to 'ramajay' or adlib during
playing; the steel orchestra itself entered a competition
at the time called 'Pan Ramajay.'
The year 1996 was a turning point for Andy Neils,
when he was employed at TTIL, the company where he had been
apprenticed for two weeks during his year-long program shortly
before. Here is where he received his true education,
gaining most of his experience and pan tuning skills.
To hear Neils tell it - when he started at TTIL, he "...couldn't
tune at all. I used to try a l'il thing, but I couldn't
tune at all." This was after completing the one-year
program, which he felt was far more productive in pan making,
rather than pan tuning. In all, he would spend just
over one year - from the time he began through 1998 - with
the company. He initially joined TTIL and was assigned
the task to prepare - but not tune - the small 'souvenir'
sized pans which were about twelve inches in diameter. He
was not yet part of the crew that worked in the upper rooms
of TTIL, and who were considered the 'real' craftsmen, tuning
the 'real'/conventional-sized instruments.
But Andy Neils knew he was capable of and destined
for, far more than working on souvenir-sized steelpans.
Toiling determinedly and quietly behind the scenes, Neils
described how later on in his stint at the company, he would
take his lunch hour, and other spare time, and tune pans
that TTIL had cast aside as defects. It was after
tuning one such pan, a tenor, that his skills were finally
given attention by the then-head of TTIL - Mr. Cooper.
A tuner was now needed in the 'upper rooms' at TTIL, and
with his speed and skills, Neils made the cut and was given
the job. However, he was still relegated to working
mainly on the small pans.
 The
late master tuner Lincoln Noel had been brought on board
by TTIL in an advisory and teaching capacity, and it was
there that Neils encountered him. In fact, Neils unhesitatingly
credits Noel with the great strides he has made in pan tuning
to this day; "it's a blessing he passed through there [TTIL]!"
He told
WST
that Noel popped his
head in one day, and asked him to tune a side of a triple
guitar. Noel ignored Neils telling him that he was
only supposed to work on tuning small pans. "If anybody
asks you anything, tell them I told you to
do it" Noel told the then-up-and-coming pan tuner.
This late master craftsman had recognized the skills and
passion for pan tuning in Neils, and believed he had an
'ear' for pan. Neils said the triple guitar he tuned
was 'fairly alright' and that afterward TTIL started to
give him some conventional-sized instruments to tune such
as double tenors and double seconds. Not too long
after, TTIL made the company's middle pan instruments his
portfolio. Once double guitars, triple guitars, and
cellos were manufactured by the company, it was Neils' responsibility
to tune them, with front line pans coming his way occasionally
when there was a back up. Even though he mastered
the middle range pans, Neils still desired to excel in all
voices, including tenors and background pans; but TTIL wanted
him to concentrate on the range they had officially designated
for him. "They told me I was a middle man, and that
I couldn't tune tenors and other pans" said Neils.
Despite this, in his spare time, the tuner worked on, and
honed his skills by tuning, any and all voices of pans around
TTIL - including the tenors and background pans. Other
tuners were responsible for other voices of instruments.
Lincoln Noel also asked Neils to blend a tenor for
him, which the latter eagerly and professionally did.
Believing the tenor to have been worked on by Noel, the
TTIL people proudly showed it off, and even called Neils
himself in to illustrate - 'Andy, listen to how a tenor
pan [is] suppose[d] to sound.' Smiling to himself,
Neils said he maintained his cool and continued behind the
scenes, all the while racking up more experience.
He developed a fine working relationship with Noel.
He says that he himself had to learn much of his craft on
his own through careful practice, and, observing Noel at
work, and seeing him pay the same kind of attention to the
details which had become a hallmark for Neils, was amazing
to him. It made him smile on the inside, he remembers,
knowing for sure that he was on the right track. Neils
worked on a lot of double seconds pans with Noel.
He would do the main task, and Noel would fine tune the
instruments. Among the invaluable advice he imparted
to Neils dealt with working in octaves, and how to balance
his pans.
Reminiscing about some of his other experiences,
Neils chuckled as he spoke about the hours spent tuning
the pans that Gabriel 'Doyle' Robley was given responsibility
for. The latter was charged with tuning the
company's frontline pans. Neils said that on his own
time - very early in the morning, during lunch and after
hours - he would lock himself away in Robley's room, where
TTIL had placed pans to be tuned. On occasion he would
find Neils coming out of his workroom, and would tell Neils
"Is alright, you go ahead, fix up." What was happening,
of course was tremendous growth in Neils' tuning prowess
- he was gaining immense experience while doing the bulk
of the tuning work that was Robley's task - in his spare
time - while Gabriel 'Doyle' Robley himself did not mind
at all, getting paid for what was mainly Neils' work.
Looking back now at that situation as it existed then, and
presently at a high point in his career where demand for
his skills exceeds the hours in any given day - Neils considers
all those experiences at TTIL an apt trade off for his expertise
today.
Lincoln Noel had further anointed Neils when he took
the young tuner up to Desperadoes to tune their guitar pans.
The word got around after that Neils had worked with Desperadoes,
and people began contacting him while he was still at TTIL.
Neils was soon asked to accompany Nutones Steel Orchestra
to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia as their tuner, which he did.
Sometime after, the Trinidad &Tobago Defence Force Steel
Orchestra approached him to work on their instruments for
a World Steelband Festival performance. It would turn
out to be Andy Neils' first (and not by any means, his last)
'win' as a steelpan tuner, as the Defence Force went on
to tie for championship honors with Exodus Steel Orchestra.
It was around this time the pan tuner parted company with
TTIL, and forged a path on his own.
 In
the ten or so years since Andy Neils first surrendered to
his passion for pan tuning, this next-generation pan tuner
says he does not miss the actual playing of the instrument;
instead he has a desire to pass on his own talents, perhaps
teaching or apprenticing select individuals who have the
requisite drive, commitment and desire for perfection, in
much the same way he has, coming up through the ranks.
For 2006 Neils has had two people who apprenticed with him
for a couple hours on a daily basis, but says since he returned
from this year's commitment of New York tuning for panorama
champs CASYM Steel Orchestra, that schedule has not been
resumed. Factors which deter Neils from including
tutoring as a regular part of his schedule are the necessary
time commitment, and the reality that the remuneration in
this area is not comparable with the pan tuning craft itself.
Still, when asked by
WST
where he saw himself
in four to five years in the future, Neils admitted that
he would love to have opened his own pan tuning school by
that time.
Neils has been the resident tuner handling Invaders
Steel Orchestra's frontline instruments for some time while
Bertrand 'Birch' Kelman does the background pans; and upon
the death of tuner Leo Coker, did the same range of pans
for Exodus for three years - 2003 through the 2006 panorama
season. He also tuned instruments for Skiffle Bunch
for the 2006 Pan in the 21st Century competition.
Desperadoes also took advantage of his services once again
for that same competition, and the band's Assistant Manager
Anthony McQuilkin told
WST
that they are very pleased
with Neils' work, and the Laventille-based powerhouse looks
forward to maintaining their professional relationship.
Neils said that although he has tuned entire orchestras,
it is much work, and so generally sticks to a certain range
of pans. On other occasions he has taken along another
tuner for the task, as was the case with Skiffle Bunch earlier
on this year for Pan in the 21st Century. His true
preference, however, is to produce individual instruments
of all voices of steelpan, and for smaller ensembles.
But be that as it may, Neils does not really have much choice
in the matter at present. For word travels fast -
and orchestras are always on the lookout for him.
 Of
his 'champion-ships,' the tuner also has a recent 'win'
under his belt. He has tuned for 2006 Panorama champions
CASYM Steel Orchestra. In fact, with his chock-full
schedule, Neils has been requested to produce brand new
instruments for the entire one-hundred player New York steel
orchestra, and is currently fulfilling that order.
He has already supplied them with sixteen brand new tenors
which lent to their winning performance on September 3,
this year. When
WST
visited Neils, the racks
of pans in his workshop, some newly burnt
(above), some
tuned and chromed, were part of CASYM's order. There
are still middle pans and all the orchestra's background
pans to follow. From the beginning of the process,
Neils can oversee the massive project. The instruments
are manufactured within eyeshot of his workshop, and are
in turn tuned by him. If things remain on track, it
will be just a matter of time before CASYM will be boasting
a spanking new orchestra produced and tuned in its entirety
by Andy Neils.
Amidst his trips abroad throughout the year to produce
and maintain the beautiful sounds of different steel orchestras,
and with other commitments, Neils maintains his reputation
as a world-renowned and talented pan tuner, and nurtures
a love for his craft and a respect for the instrument, coming
from his many years as a pan player. He is very vocal
in his gratitude and appreciation for the late great pan
tuner Lincoln Noel, whose confidence in the younger tuner
has paid off handsomely, not only for Andy Neils himself,
but for those fortunate enough to avail themselves of his
talents.
www.panmaxstudios.com
Basement
Press Corp
©2006 When Steel Talks - All Rights
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