Andy Narell | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | New York City, United States | March 18, 1954
Genres | Jazz, Latin jazz |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger, music educator |
Instrument(s) | Steel pans |
Years active | 1973–present |
Labels | Inner City, Hip Pocket, Windham Hill, Heads Up |
Website | andynarell |
Andy Narell (born March 18, 1954) is an American jazz steel pannist, composer and producer. [1]
Narell took up the steelpan at a young age in Queens, New York. His father, who was a social worker, had started a program of steelpan playing for at-risk youth at the Jewish philanthropic Education Alliance in Lower East Side Manhattan using two sets of pans made by Rupert Sterling, a native of Antigua. Beginning in 1962, Andy, his brother Jeff, and three others boys played on a third set of Sterling-made pans in the basement of the Narell house in the Whitestone neighborhood of Queens, calling themselves the Steel Bandits. The band was a novelty steelpan act that played concerts and appeared on television shows, including I've Got a Secret in 1963.
The band played Carnegie Hall and at the National Music Festival of Trinidad. Murray Narell invited Ellie Mannette in 1964 to expand steelpan activities in New York City and convinced him to come in 1967. Mannette taught the Narell boys more technique, and they played on improved pans tuned by Mannette. [2]
Narell studied music at the University of California, Berkeley and played piano with the University of California Jazz Ensembles under the direction of David W. Tucker. He graduated in 1973.
He started the record label Hip Pocket and released his first solo album, Hidden Treasures, in 1979. With an interest in Caribbean music, Latin jazz, and rhythm and blues, he joined the Caribbean Jazz Project in 1995 with Dave Samuels and Paquito D'Rivera. [3]
He has performed with Montreux, Sakésho, Calypsociation, and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. He composed and arranged music for Trinidad's national steelband competition, Panorama. [4] Narell performed in South Africa in 1999 in front of a crowd of 80,000 people. [4]
In 1999 Narrell became the first foreigner to compose for Panorama steel band competition in Trinidad, guiding the 100-player Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra to the finals of both the 1999 and 2000 Panoramas. [5] After a 12 year hiatus, Narell returned to Panorama in 2013 and the subsequent three years to arrange for Birdsong. His arrangements have continued to introduce musical ideas that have not been done before in Panorama, such as the 6/8 time in a section of "We Kinda Music" in 2014. [6] Some critics have dismissed his music as jazz or avant-garde rather than Panorama. [7]
With Sakésho
The steelpan is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists.
Lennox "Boogsie" Sharpe is a successful and popular composer and arranger of steelpan music.
Darol Robert Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet.
Jit Sukha Samaroo was a Trinidadian composer and steelpan musician.
Montreux was an American fusion band, specializing in the blend of jazz and bluegrass, with jam elements. The band was active from approximately 1982 until 1990, and recorded on Windham Hill Records. The name of the band came from the jazz festival in Switzerland of the same name, at which an early version of the band was formed under a different name.
Elliott Anthony "Ellie" Mannette was a Trinidadian musical instrument maker and steel pan musician, also known as the "father of the modern steel drum".
Steven Miller is an American record producer and executive. He is best known for his association with Windham Hill Records, where his ambient sound helped create notable instrumental recordings such as Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries, Mark Isham’s Vapor Drawings and George Winston’s December.
Raymond Anthony Holman is a musician, composer, pannist and performer from Trinidad and Tobago.
Thomas William Schuman is an American jazz pianist, smooth jazz keyboardist and was the longtime co-leader, composer and arranger. of 13 Grammy nominated contemporary jazz group, Spyro Gyra. He has been the keyboardist for Spyro Gyra since he was 16 years old. He has performed on all of Spyro Gyra's albums to date and has written or co-written over sixty Spyro Gyra compositions since the album Catching the Sun. At the end of 2022, Schuman announced his resignation from Spyro Gyra, effective March 2023, in order to move to Europe.
Bertram Lloyd Marshall ORTT, known as Bertie Marshall, was a pioneer, musician and music instrument maker of the steelpan.
Winston "Spree" Simon was a Trinidadian inventor, pioneer and musician of the steelpan.
Panorama is an annual music competition of steelbands from Trinidad and Tobago, taking place since 1963. It is usually held around Carnival time.
Sterling Betancourt MBE, FRSA is a Trinidad-born pioneer, arranger and musician on the steelpan, a major figure in pioneering the Pan in Europe and the UK (1951).
Russell Audley Ferdinand "Russ" Henderson was a jazz musician on the piano and the steelpan. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, he settled in England in the 1950s. He is most widely recognised as one of the founding figures of the Notting Hill Carnival in London, United Kingdom.
Anthony Williams, ORTT, CM, also known as "Muffman", was an inventor, pioneer and musician of the steel pan.
The Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, also called Despers, are a steelband from Laventille in Trinidad, formed in 1945.
Rudolph Charles was a musician and instrument maker of the steelpan, but most notably, he was a pioneer and leader of the steelband movement in Trinidad and Tobago. Also known as Charlo, The Hammer and Trail, among other names, he led Desperadoes Steel Orchestra to 10 various victories from 1965 to 1985, including six Panoramas, two Classical Music Festivals, one Best Bomb and one Best Playing Steel Orchestra.
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
Selwyn Baptiste was a Trinidad and Tobago-born pioneer of the introduction of the steel drum into Britain, forming the country's second steel band in 1967, and early organizer of London's Notting Hill Carnival. An educator as well as a pannist, a percussionist and drummer, he is credited with bringing about the teaching of steelpan playing throughout the UK.
Melodians Steel Orchestra UK is a band formed in Harrow in October 1987 by Terrance "Terry" Noel MBE, composed of orchestra members using the steelpan instrument. They have since achieved considerable success in their musical and community endeavours, being well-recognised by various UK Governmental organisations, the Diplomatic Service and NGOs such as PRS for Music. The band has since assumed a status of national importance to modern British culture and has become symbolic of the importance of the relationship between the UK and the Commonwealth, particularly Trinidad and Tobago.