Beating from the Heart

It’s kind of hard to believe that anyone in the world is still unfamiliar with the steel pan. The instrument was created in Trinidad and Tobago over seventy years ago. It is the only acoustic instrument to be invented in the Twentieth cCentury. And still pannist Doug Walker gets the...

By Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik

March 15, 2007

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "19274298",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17482312",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482310",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18711090",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17482313",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

It’s kind of hard to believe that anyone in the world is still unfamiliar with the steel pan. The instrument was created in Trinidad and Tobago over seventy years ago. It is the only acoustic instrument to be invented in the Twentieth cCentury. And still pannist Doug Walker gets the most inane questions from curious onlookers. “People ask me at least once a week if I’ve invented this instrument. Or how did I come up with it. I don’t even know how to respond to a question like that,” he says.

Walker spent years playing the kind of music that vacationing tourists expect to hear from the instrument. “I basically sold out for ten years, and I can’t do it anymore. It’s been a slippery slope trying to please tourists and still please myself as a musician,” Walker says. His new CD, Jazz Pan, features original compositions that take the sounds of steel away from the sandy beaches and deep into Walker’s soul. Come out and support the steel tonight at Doug Walker’s CD release party at Jazid.
Fri., March 16, 9 p.m.

KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.