‘Pan-Demonium’: Renowned pannist to play with C-M steel drum band
Renowned pannist to play with C-M steel drum band
There are certain things associated with the ocean that you don’t expect to find in Southwestern Pennsylvania: the sound of crashing waves, salty air, warm sand.
And steel drum bands playing Calypso music.
And yet, Canon-McMillan High School Big Mac Band has had a steel drum band – a delightfully good one – since 2013.
On Wednesday, the Canon-McMillan High School and Canon-McMillan Middle School pan and percussion ensembles will present “Pan-Demonium,” a steel drum band concert featuring internationally renowned pannist Tracy Thornton.
Thornton is a former heavy metal drummer-turned-steel-pannist who is renowned for fusing the steel pan instrument – which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1930s – with heavy metal and rock genres.
The ensembles will perform traditional Calypso/island tunes, along with a mix of arrangements of classic hard rock and heavy metal anthems and original songs by Thornton.
“I’m super excited to be here. I love to go into schools and work with kids,” said Thornton, a Greensboro, N.C., native and a drum prodigy who started playing the drums at age 3. “I’m known for giving steel band a different sound, and I think the kids like playing the songs I like to play.”
Thornton began his musical career at age 15 as a heavy metal drummer, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s he performed with bands such as Tipper Ghore, Soul Society, and Toxic Popsickle and opening for top-notch acts including the Ramones, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies, Wrathchild America, and Cinderella.
His career took a turn when Thornton heard Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins use a steel pan drum for the band’s song “Jane Says.”
“I fell in love with the steel pan,” said Thorton, who now works to spread his love of steel drums and heavy metal/rock music internationally. “I wanted to share it and to inspire kids, and to make sure they were having fun with the music.”
He has performed professionally across the continental United States, Hawaii, Japan, China, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, throughout Europe, and Trinidad and Tobago – which he considers his second home.
His music has been featured in popular television shows including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Workaholics,” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
He has shared the stage with renowned artists including Mike Portnoy, John Blackwell and Greg Bissonette.
Steelpans are a relatively new musical instrument, having evolved in the 1930s in the Trinidad and Tobago islands, once a Spanish colony, off the coast of Venezuela. Their origin is a U.S. Navy base, which had 55-gallon oil drums that the island youth turned into drums.
It is a mix of African, Indian and Spanish music.
In Trinidad and Tobago, a standard pan group can involve more than 100 pan players and nine or more varieties of pan instruments played with rubber-tipped sticks.
In the United States, steel bands became popular in Chicago schools in the 1980s and ’90s, and have spread through the upper Midwest – Illinois, Indiana and Ohio – and Pennsylvania and Ohio. Thornton credits Elliot “Ellie” Mannette, who led West Virginia University’s steel drum program and is regarded as the “Father of the Modern Steel Drum,” for playing a role in the instrument’s popularity in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Eric Schrader, director of the C-M High School Pan & Percussion Ensemble, was introduced to steel drums when he was a student at Washington High School, which established its steel ensemble in the 1980s.
“I was like a seventh-grade band kid, and when I heard (the steel ensemble) it blew me away,” said Schrader, who – along with Canon-McMillan marching band and concert band director Mark Falvo – graduated from Wash High. “I fell in love with it and I was hooked.”
Canon-Mac is among a select – but growing – number of schools in the United States that offers a steel band. Canon-Mac’s steel band includes 35 musicians and 29 pans.
Thornton launched Pan Rocks, with the intention to have as many steelpannists as possible on stage performing rock music on steel pans, combining both of his loves.
“This is 100% what I love to do, to travel across the country and the world doing the guest artist thing and working with kids,” said Thornton.
A steelpan has sections on it that look like plates on a turtle’s shell. Each plate, called a tongue, produces a different tone when hit with a mallet.
“I love it; it’s really cool. It’s a lot of fun to play,” said Avery Bosh, a member of the Canon-McMillan High School Pan & Percussion Ensemble. “I like how different the sound is.”
The interesting practices, the time spent learning different parts, and the willingness to step into something new is what has kept student musicians like Bosh engaged.
For Thornton, steel drums provide an opportunity to engage students who might otherwise not be interested in band.
“I wish I had this when I was growing up,” said Thornton, who quit the band in eighth grade, despite his incomparable skills. “I love it because it turns kids onto music who might not want to be in band. It draws in other kids who might like music but who don’t want to play in instrument like a flute or a piccolo. I love working with middle school and high school age kids because they’re open to different kinds of music. I want to keep it fun and light, and hopefully keep kids doing something positive.”
Music has also helped Thornton get through one of the most challenging times of his life: last fall he was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent six weeks of radiation.
Doctors advised him to consider postponing his spring schedule, but Thornton decided to go ahead with his plans.
“This is what I love to do. This is better for my spirit than staying at home,” he said.
On Tuesday morning, Canon-Mac’s steel drum band ran through a rehearsal of songs they’ll play at the concert, including Radiohead’s “Creep,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” and Blink 182’s “All the Small Things.”
The band members swayed to the music and smiled, as Thornton led them through the songs and Schrader oversaw the production.
“Great job,” Thornton told the band. “Find your own voice, believe in it and trust it, and you’ll be fine. It’s hard work, it’s hustle, and you never stop. If you love what you do, that’s what you do. I’ve been traveling all over the world and have friends all over the place, and I’ve had this whole experience of life I never would have gotten if I had never come across the steel band, tea that’s kind of cool.”