Trinidad Newsday
Allan Joseph, a founding member of the NLCB Buccooneers Steel Orchestra in Buccoo,poses for a photo with his tenor pan at his home in Lowlands. Photo by Emerline Gordon
By Emerline Gordon
“I love my pan music. To me, this is the sweetest music in the whole world. I will not give up playing this instrument for nothing.”
This is the sentiment expressed by Allan “Tonic’ Joseph, a founding member of the NLCB Buccooneers Steel Orchestra in Buccoo
Joseph started playing the steel pan since he was 13 years old, that is 53 years ago. His passion for music started at age six when he was taught by father to play the cuatro. As he grew older, he was introduced to the steel pan and since then, he has never stopped playing it.
“There was something special about the rhythm and the melody of this steel pan instrument that got me hooked and to this day I am still addicted to it. I remember when I was 13 years of age, my friends and I used to run away from home after school and go to the pan tent in Buccoo, which was not too far away from our home, to play on the steel pans,” he said in an interview.
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