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An April
Spring Saturday in Brooklyn New York heralded the first-time visit of
Emmanuel ‘Jack’ Riley - steel pan soloist extraordinaire and, master pan
craftsman and renowned pan tuner - to the
When Steel Talks
studios for an exclusive and candid interview. In his own
words, the soon-to-be Lincoln Center honoree gave insight from his
beginning love affair with music, to his present day activities.
As an
integral member of the steelband culture and movement, Jack Riley wears at
least three hats. He creates the pan instrument - hammering
and shaping by hand discarded 55-gallon steel drums then turns to
the next phase - tuning the pans and finally turning out a fully
handcrafted musical instrument. Jack is a great
improvisational steelpan player and renowned soloist. Having
received accolades as a creator of and performer on the steelpan, he has
the unique distinction of one who can truly be hailed as the “Master” of
the Steelpan instrument.
Emmanuel
‘Jack’ Riley told
how in the 1940s as a child of only three years he went into a store and
was fascinated by a musical instrument. He grew up surrounded by
music and delighted in listening to his father’s comprehensive record collection, which was to have tremendous impact in his
musical style and finesse. He found himself drawn hypnotically to the
steelpan so much so that this family moved him around to keep him away
from the bands, only to find there was one practically around the corner
wherever they sent him!
In
those days the instrument had just four or five notes when Jack and friends
joined their first steelband -
Hell’s-A-Poppin’ Port
Royale.
Mere
teenagers, they soon tried to join Invaders, but were thought too young
and so formed their own band -
Green Eyes,
which eventually became
Sombrero.
Beginning as a repairer of the pans when the police found them and
punched holes through the drums in an effort to destroy the instruments,
Jack Riley
eventually became more rounded and extended his tasks to ‘tuning’ pans,
bringing them back into musical shape. He and friend Mike Schneider
started tuning for other bands, the first being Renegades. They
eventually did join Invaders as teenagers, where he met Ellie Mannette who
showed him how to refine his tuning skills.
Jack remembers how an
Invaders’ pan player by the name of
Sterling
first came
up with the concept of playing two pans together (forerunner of today’s “Second Pans” or
“Double Seconds”), and brought his two pans which he wanted to
play to Ellie, who went away and came back with a more refined concept of
his idea -and the rest is history. He himself started out as a
Tenor player and recounted one of his most memorable moments, though young
and very shy, as playing a solo, back in the day when the orchestra played
seated with the pans secured about the neck. Jack had to stand to
render his solo. Later his pan instruments of choice became the
Double Seconds.
He
tuned for Invaders Steelband and eventually did the same for Desperadoes
(he credits their leader the legendary Rudolph Charles
aka the “Hammer” -
for teaching him even more about the art of pan tuning). He also
traveled with Desperadoes to Africa in the early 1960s. He was also
part of the National Steelband of Trinidad and Tobago and toured with them
to such places as North America, Europe and the 1967 World Expo in Canada,
as both player and resident pan tuner.
Eventually
his love for tuning pans won out, especially when he surmised he had
reached his peak as a great pan soloist renowned for his dedication and
dexterity. Pan tuning is a laborious process because of the initial
sinking of the steel drums, and while he himself is accustomed to the work, he
acknowledges that it would be encouraging and less daunting for would-be pan
tuning apprentices, if there was a mechanical process for sinking
pans. It would also have to be economical and basically accomplish that first phase
with outcomes similar to those from the methods employed by Ellie Mannette
with his own line of
pans.
These
days, occasionally Jack can
be caught playing a Six-Bass at different events, while enjoying his work as a pan tuner,
primarily for New York’s Moods
Pan Groove.
Mr. Riley was honored in New York at Lincoln Center on June 20th, 2004 at the Acoustic Revolution Pan Jazz concert for pioneering the art of improvisational jazz playing and contributions to the steelpan art-form....
Catch the full
VIDEO
interview with Emmanuel “Jack” Riley at When Steel Talks... click here
