Ellie Mannette: Father of the Modern Steel Drum 

RIP Ellie!! Your students are so proud. It is amongst one of my highest honors to learn from him.

Ellie has left us to go to that big Marimba band in the sky. R.I.P. Ellle

The music in the back of the video was composed by Ray Holman. The piece is entitled Suzie. It was written for a steelpan workshop I had the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the early 1990s.

This man represented the true spirit of human collaboration and collectiveness, God bless Trinidad and everyone involved in bringing the steel drums to be. I wish that everyone that has benefit from this knowledge that was passed with so much love; do the same as Mr Ellie did for this to truly evolve as he wished.

Love it, thanks Ellie for your creation! am learning to play pan in Melbourne at the age of 68 and love it, coming from Trinidad where I listened to steel pan for years especially Guinness Cavaliers, I have had the yearning as a young girl to play pan and now all these years later I can say Yes am playing double guitars ! Pan Music does something to my soul!

So proud to him as a member of the WVU family.

I'm thankful for his perseverance! I first was introduced to the hypnotic sounds of steel pan in the late 80's early 90's. I fell in love with the sound of that instrument. A few years later I was on a plane from Virginia to Port of Spain Trinidad... There's nothing like hearing steel pan being played live on Trini soil... that was life changing, so again I say thanks for your perseverance. You reached Virginia/Hampton Roads! 💖

My Great Uncle Ellie :)

Well said !

Very nice, thanks for the history

Ellie Mannette being a very intelligent person and as a young inventor, band leader, player and innovator made good use of the opportunities that passed his way to become who he is today! And what I mean is that in the Port of Spain area and even in the South of the Island of Trinidad there were similar things happening all at the same time, and so these young people were getting ideas and information from each other and word was spreading in those days, young men and who knows even young women were experimenting with first convex and then concave pan instruments. I’m not trying to discredit Ellie Mannette, I’m telling you that the history is not only his alone but that of quite few more people than you may realize. But I will also say that Ellie was the greatest inventor, designer and contributor besides Anthony Williams to steel band and that they knew each other and both paid respects to each other’s achievements. My source of information, obviously is not my own personally, I wasn’t there, it’s from Pan men from the same era who grew up playing pan at the same time in and around Port of Spain, Woodbrook and St. James, but have never and will ever be credited for what they knew, I have talked to these men who are mostly dead and gone now over 30 years ago and they do not lie about their past, because they were proudly speaking to me about their lives and their history, something that they were always proud to speak about and I believe their honesty. And in regards to Ellie Mannette, these pan men always held him in the highest regards even though they were on opposing steel bands, I never once heard a bad word about him because they all had so much respect for him that no matter what he was respected by even his most disliked peers back in the day. Now that’s really saying something to you about a person’s integrity!!,

We are continuing what Ellie Mannette started in Buffalo, WY. It is amazing how far the pan disease has spread!

anyone got the answers for number 3 and 4

What's the song playing at the end?

The band is vibing at the end and that's nice to see but woy they missin' the coordination of a true Trini band lol

Ellie left out the Bonaparte brothers who developed the real pan with various notes.

It's sickening to hear that an important part of musical history, the very first steel drum, was stolen by hateful people who will remain faceless and nameless for all eternity.

it's not a drum