T&T ‘steel pan genius’ Bertie Marshall dies

(Trinidad Express) Pan pioneer/innovator Bertie Marshall died on Wednesday evening, succumbing to a longstanding illness that included complications brought on by diabetes and hypertension. He was hospitalised in August when his blood sugar level would not go down.
As word of Marshall’s death began to spread through the steelband fraternity overnight, people began making phone calls and also sending out text messages to substantiate the report, but up to early yesterday morning not even Pan Trinbago could verify the report.
It was not until around mid-morning when Pan Trinbago officially announced that Marshall, who was 76, had indeed passed away.
The Express was told that the organisation’s president, Keith Diaz, was in a meeting all day and could not be accessed for a comment on the life and achievements of Marshall.
However, chairman of the National Carnival Commission and former Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold told the Express that the steelband movement has lost a great mind and a great pannist in every sphere of the art form.
Arnold said from day one of the movement, Marshall had been making innovations and developing the instrument and the fraternity as a whole. Arnold said the world will never again see a panman such as Marshall.
“Bertie came up with new pans and he was the very first person to amplify the steelpan. He was a very special person and a unique tuner. Bertie back in the day created a new sound and he came up with novel designs for steelpans way back in the pioneering days. I am happy to have had the honour of tuning a pan in Berite’s yard,” Arnold said.
Edwin Pouchet, leader of Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, said no one person could ever replace Marshall, who was a genius that never got the rewards he deserved.
“This is such a loss. There will never be any one person to replace Bertie because he did so much for the steelpan. The standards he set and the quality of the work he produced were second to none and to equal his achievements will take us way beyond our lifetime. Bertie never got the recognition he deserved. He was genius just sitting down there without support,” said Pouchet.
Ace pannist and arranger Robbie Greenidge said he had known Marshall since his youth and looked upon him as a mentor from which he learnt much about the steelpan.
“Bertie was the greatest of innovators who came up with good ideas that no one else would have. Along with the other unique designs he came up with, some of them alongside Rudolph Charles in Despers, there was Bertie’s double tenors that up to today are second to none. With his pans you can always clearly tell the difference between a double seconds and a double tenor. The sound is clear and clean. I hope he and the other guys will continue to make great music up in Heaven,” said Greenidge.
Born in 1936 in Laventille, Port of Spain, Marshall’s love affair with pan began in earnest when at 14 years old he got an old ping pong from Tokyo Steelband and tried to retune it, using his harmonica.
By 18 years old he was tuning pans, guided by other tuners such as Carl Greenidge. But he was unimpressed with what he called ping pong’s inferior tone.
When he was 20 years old, Marshall transformed the method of pan tuning, by changing the instrument from the inharmonic style. By tuning the notes by octaves and introducing complex tuning techniques he produced harmonics, giving the steelpan its complex sound.
By discovering and establishing this harmonic tuning method Marshall is singularly responsible for the sound of today’s frontline steelband instruments, brightening the overall sound in the process.
Marshall also applied his knowledge of electronics to developing a method for amplification of the steelpan, culminating in 1971 with the Bertphone. Players could sustain or dampen notes and adjust the tone and volume of each note individually through the hook-up to amplifiers and equalizers connected to a mixing board.
Funeral arrangements for Marshall will be announced shortly.