Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

69 new musical instrument at the Festival of Britain. Since 1967, Mannette has been building up scores of steel bands all over the United States, mainly in colleges and universities, but also for private institutions. Mannette is credited with several innovations which have been important in the evolution of the steelpan. • 1969 Humming Bird Medal Silver • 2000 Honorary Doctorate in Letters from UWI • 2000 Chaconia Medal Silver • 2001 Park in St. James, Port-of-Spain renamed in his honor • 2003 Admitted to the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society of the United States. BERTRAM ‘BERTIE’ MARSHALL (1936-2012) H e grew up in and around Laventille and as a young teen started fiddling with the tuning and re-tuning of steelpans using his harmonica. By 18 he became preoccupied with what he thought were inferior tones. His career spanning over five decades has earned him the status of the “tuner’s tuner” having contributed to the standardisation of the steelpan. He invented many new techniques and sounds and as the main tuner for the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, he used the strobe tuner to tune their pans. Their clean clear sound took them to ten Trinidad Carnival large band Panorama championship titles, more than any other steelband so far. He also led the Metronomics Steel Orchestra, then the Armed Forces Steel Orchestra, and then the legendary Laventille Highlanders with whom he made history partnering with Fr. John Sewell of the Holy Trinity Cathedral to accompany the church choir playing classics and carols. He introduced the first amplified pans on the road for Carnival in the mid-1960s. His knowledge of electronics led him to experiment with amplification, resulting with the ‘Bertphone’ in 1971. The Desperadoes have taken his incredible sound to the great concert halls as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Britain’s Royal Albert Hall, and the Apollo and to performances with such notable artists as Luciano Pavarotti and London’s Royal