Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
Johann Chuckaree's Indigisounds redefines the national instrument
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - At the age of 29, Johann Chuckaree, runs different businesses and juggles that with a demanding performance schedule. His advice? Surround yourself with the right people and learn from your mistakes.
A well-known panist, Chuckaree does not have a business background but, in addition to his career as a solo musician, he is also the co-founder and business development manager at Indigisounds, and the founder of JC Networking and Security Ltd.
....Chuckaree’s love for music started when he began playing the steelpan at age four. In 2003, he joined Phase II Pan Groove and immediately felt at home. There he learned from the members, including arranger Len “Boogsie” Sharpe.
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blessings and continued success jc
All well and good: BUT WHERE IS THE MUSIC?
Just for the record, The article says "Chuckaree and Chow met on UWI’s Steelpan Initiative Project where they were working on creating realistic sounds for the electronic pan (e-pan). When the company producing the e-pan stopped, Chow continued working on creating that authentic sound."
This is not entirely correct. The Steelpan Initiatives Project worked on the P.H.I. (Percussive Harmonic Instrument) NOT e-PAn (a different electronic pan). It also worked on the GPan. The concept of sampling authentic local tones for synth use originated in the Project after Ken Philmore complained about the authenticity of tones on the off-the-shelf synths we were using with the PHI at the time. David Chow was a development engineer who worked on several aspects of the project, including tone sampling and synth programming. Johann Chuckaree was one of the many endorsers. PHI Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/PHI-PercussiveHarmonicInstrument-52268949383/.