Don Albert
Steel pan player Andy Narell started coming to South Africa in 1999 and discovered that a lot of people enjoyed the music he was playing.
“I loved the vibe of the people and felt there was something very exciting going on. I wanted to be part of it,” he said.
He’s very excited about playing with a South African band, especially as he played with the likes of guitarist Louis Mhlanga and keyboardist Xoli Nkosi before.
“My compositions are fairly complicated, so I try to keep working with the same guys so we can keep building on what we have learnt about the music and each other.”
Is it difficult adapting the steel drums to African music?
He replied: “That’s a funny question, because for the most part we’re not playing African music. We’re playing music I wrote in a jazz context, which has elements of music from all over the world, especially Afro-Caribbean music.
“We also play compositions by Louis and Xoli, so I guess that’s African music.”
To him “jazz is world music as musicians all over the world are playing jazz. I am trying to be part of all that. I love jazz, but I listen to all kinds of music”.
He took up the steel pans at the age of seven when his father was doing social work with street gangs in New York City, working on pilot projects on how to deal with gang warfare. He discovered steel band music, which was created by the kids in gangs in Trinidad. It was a sort of township thing that started when teenagers began playing rhythm on discarded paint cans.
He loves coming here because: “You’re beautiful people, and the greatest audience anybody could hope to play for. Thank you for listening to my music and letting me come and be a part of this beautiful country.”
Andy Narell will be at Jazz by the River. Start: 11am, Dickenson Park, Vereeniging, on Sunday. R200 at Computicket.