The Sun 
California, USA - ....His dad grew up on a farm and listened only to country music before [Joseph] Peck expanded his music appreciation to jazz, the steel drums or pans of Trinidad and Tobago, calypso, reggae and ultimately world music. Peck added Afro-Cuban music to his stylistic choices when he was 11 and the family moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Boca Raton, Florida.
....Peck’s firsthand information on the steel drum was pooled from the brains and musical hearts of mentor Ellie Mannette, considered the father of the modern steel drum and a cultural icon in Trinidad. Mannette, now 89, still playing and producing the Festival of Steel in Morgantown, West Virginia where he now lives.
Peck’s mentors also included Ken “Professor” Philmore, a respected pan player in Trinidad and former Duke Ellington Orchestra musician; Wichita State percussions professor J.C. Combs who encouraged Peck to complete a Bachelor of Music Education in percussion performance and music education and to perform his skills to such a high level he could perform with the 120-member steel-pan orchestra Potential Symphony, directed by Philmore for carnival in Trinidad. Master steel-pan jazz musician Andy Narell rounded out his musical mentoring.
....The root of steel drums is grounded in West Africa, said Peck about the drums carved from trees and topped with cow or goat skin. West African slaves brought the drumming tradition to Trinidad.
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Replies
the best pan recordings have been done over the years by neville aleong who has a serious archive and it has been offered many times to pan trinbago
he is now 91 and still nada
For years I have been reading all these "accomplishment profiles" on WST. And I mean SERIOUS MUSICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS. And, yet, NONE OF THESE PEOPLE are able to produce a DECENT PAN RECORD. I am aghast!!!
One man did enter PAN RECORDING UTOPIA but he was met with such hatred ... it's like where ignorance is bliss it is truly folly to be wise.
Claude you are 1000% correct. These people waking up in the morning and placing the word master in front their name ain't got nothing to show. As for the man who entered "Pan Recording Utopia", I never heard anyone say a bad word about his recordings. Panorama was just not his forte.
Claude I heard you have to wear a caste on your head for the next six months because of what LEBRON did to your boys...
bugs