Steel Drums (Ellie Mannette)

The steel drums are a percussion instrument with a very definitive sound. Traces of the instrument can be traced into almost every genre of music especially in Caribbean music such as calypso. Ellie Mannette, also known as "father of the modern steel pan instrument" was born in the mid 1920's and is credited with inventing the instrument somewhere around the age of 40.
Very early, Mannette developed a passion for metal and tools for metal working. He engaged himself in the evolution of the phenomenon of sounding steel. From the middle of the 1930s, percussion bands of different quarters of Port-of-Spain were in competition with each other. Legend says that Mannette was the first person to use a discarded oil barrel to build a steel pan.In 1951, TASPO (Trinidad All Steel percussion Orchestra) travelled to Great Britain to present the new musical instrument at the Festival of Britain. Mannette was a member and tuner for this orchestra, which consisted of leader figures of different Trinidadian steel bands In 1952, Mannette was formally offered a scholarship to study music in London, which he turned down in order to be able to build more steel drums. In 1991 he was invited to West Virginia University to teach interested students about the steal drums. This was supposed to be a one semester thing but eventually turned into a much longer drawn out partnership which also helped Mannette found his company; Mannette Steel Drums inc.
While the instrument existed before Mannette re-invented it, it was played differently. For example Mannette started using 55 gallon oil pans rather than biscuit tins and soap boxes.
Mannette has been awarded numerous times for his contribution including the Hummingbird Medal Silver of Trinidad and Tobago.He is also and honorary "brother" of the Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity at WVU. His Steel drums have been displayed in many museums and institutes around the world including the Smithsonian and Metropolitan Museum of Art.