St. Lucia Voice News
St. Lucia, W.I. - Monty Maxwell, guitarist, composer, steel pan arranger, and jazz and blues musician, was born in the southern town of Vieux Fort, St. Lucia. He grew up next to a pan yard or steel band shed, so from an early age he was constantly suffused in music and musicianship. Unsurprisingly, he credits the steel band as his initiation into the world of music and George Shine, the steel band leader of his next door steel band, as his first musical role model.
Monty's formal initiation into music began at the Vieux Fort Secondary School where, under the tutelage of a Trinidadian pan instructor and a British music tutor. He studied classical music for two years, with the steel pan and piano as the instruments of instruction.
Although still in his teenage years, Monty was thrust into steel pan arrangement, when, upon the departure of the Trinidadian pan instructor, he was designated as the arranger of the Halcyon Days Steel Orchestra.
Monty admits that the thing in music that gives him the greatest pleasure is arranging music for a steel pan orchestra.
read more
Replies
....Another dedicated contributor to the longevity of pan music.