This journey starts in St. Vincent back in the 40's.
My mother got me into carnival at age 4 and since
then its been like a disease. I was born on new years
morning and that in itself tells the story. In those
days you had "string" bands going arount the town
and from house to house (and ofcourse rum shop to
rum shop) playing music (night and day).
A "string" band was comprised of all sorts of string
instruments (guitars, banjo's, violins, quatro's etc)
now add the bamboo flute, iron, shack shcak several
drums and anything else that could make music.
Thats the environment into which I was born.
My steel pan involvement came around 1957 when
I bought a "pan" from Sparrow Duncan (a vinci legend)
who taught me how to play and how to build a pan.
My sax playing came by accident sometime around
1963 when Mambo sold me an old beaten up alto
for seven pounds. I was sooo ignorant of the
instrument that for 2 or 3 months I played it with
the mouthpiece upside down. It was Rex Williams
a violinist friend who corrected it. In 3 or 4 years I was
playing with a local band in Stoke Newington (London)
The photo's will tell you the rest.