There is a strong claim made by a certain Lloyd Valentine Williams that the globally adored but once loathed steel frying pan was actually conceived in Curepe and not in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad. Williams also claims that he, during his childhood, was the one who invented the famous instrument as a toy for him and his impoverished siblings to play.

The people of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as all over the planet, have long heard and become accustomed to the frying pan being an invention of Port of Spain that came through the ‘music’ of garbage cans or the ‘ music’ played on cans of paint, milk and putty. This story line claims that a raucous noise during the 1935 ‘Carnival’ forced string bandleader Alexander Forde of Alexander’s Ragtime Band to summon members of his band by banging on a trash can multiple times. His actions, so the story goes, not only had the desired effect of regrouping the band members and bringing them home, but inadvertently gave rise to the ‘garbage can musical craze’ that ‘inundated ‘ the streets the following year. Lloyd Valentine Williams, who was born in Woodford Street, Curepe in 1934, refutes this notion as complete and utter nonsense. ‘Why,’ said Williams, ‘would a string band equipped with established instruments use trash cans for music?’ But there is also more to this story about the famous string band of yesteryear. The Alexander Ragtime Band is known to have taken its name from an American film of the same name, but that film was not released until 1938, three years after the gang leader’s legendary actions on the streets of Port of Spain.

Another claim to the invention of the steel pan was that of George Goddard, who claimed in his book that a Laventille man named Fred Corbin was, in 1937, the first to touch tin pans in the hills overlooking downtown Puerto Rico. Spain. These, of course, were containers used for paint, milk, putty, or other staples and not actual musical instruments with notes tuned by the heat of the fire. These could not have been near what is now known as the steel frying pan because the city’s longstanding ordinance against setting fires was still intact. “Any hint of smoke,” according to Williams, “would have warranted a visit by the fire brigade and the police.” So this eliminated any kind of genuine tuning in Port of Spain. He claims that both drives were one and the same when he was a child.

I won’t consider the story of Winston ‘Spree’ Simon, which is as bogus as it sounds, but during my own research into the origin of the instrument, all I found was short fragmented accounts here or mythical vignettes passed down in 10 different ways there; nothing concrete, substantial or consistently coherent was or is available. Over time many of these stories grew into fact and have been the basis of books, documentaries, speeches and anecdotes. It was only when I came in contact with the experiences of Lloyd Valentine Williams that I inhaled the aroma of the truth about the invention of the only musical instrument of the 20th century. After all, something must come from somewhere; There must be a beginning and surely it wasn’t with garbage cans and paint cans which are ridiculous.

According to Mr. Williams, ping-pong, as it was then called, began with his wish for a squirrel. When his sister told him that one would easily fall unconscious from the guava tree where they regularly romp if they repeatedly hit a can with a piece of wood, young Williams accepted the challenge. Unable to find a can, Williams found a galvanized basin and furiously hit it with a piece of guava branch which produced nothing; no squirrel fell. The only things he got were dents in the sink and an indulgent scolding from his mother, who was told by his mischievous sister that the chores required of him were sloppy.

But it was when Williams’s stepfather, a cruel man who worked in the Public Works department shop in Laventille, began bringing home 25-gallon cut-up steel drums for him to use as troughs to feed the greedy pigs on the farm. family, that the first steel pan or what was then known as ping-pong began to take shape. Williams told me that he had always been fascinated by sounds of all kinds and said that the sound emanating from his mother’s sewing machine was the first that captivated him. This later led him to play with or bang on old pieces of iron from the train tracks, the metal wheelbarrow wheel, and the old sunrise cookie drum, among other things. Williams also made it clear that although he was never a musician, he was always drawn to sound.

He claims that after denting his ‘squirrel basin’, he took a lump of charcoal and marked four dots on the

Sorry piece of galvanized and began to play with it like a toy. The 25-gallon pig trough, according to Williams, was even more attractive as a toy; ‘after all’, she said, ‘we as poor children didn’t have the china doll or the toy soldier to play with, we had to make our toys out of the manure heap in our backyards’. As with the dented sink, he marked four spots based on the wheelbarrow’s wheel segments with a piece of charcoal and grooved them with a piece of an old hammer and the edge of a worn bicycle pedal. This crude ‘instrument’ which he claims was actually the first ping-pong/pan. The first time it was ‘played,’ Williams said, was on Christmas morning 1940. He claims the city’s existing iron bands would gather around Christmas and play music in people’s homes and were intrigued when they saw his little steel toy. An iron gang leader and bicycle repairman named Clebert, but better known as ‘Shanghai’, was the first to adopt his small ping-pong table for use by iron gangs. Williams claims that Clebert then modified his ping-pong by heating it up (or tuning it) and thus transformed it into an instrument worthy of being played along with iron pieces at Christmas. He also states that at this time it was never worn during masquerade or carnival; that party had long had its own musical instruments. The fire ordinance that affected Port of Spain had little effect on Curepe, Williams said, as nearly all areas outside the city were unofficially considered “country.” This is very believable because even today many residents of Port of Spain refer to most places, even built-up areas outside the city, as ‘countryside’. It may sound a bit strange, but this is something I have personally experienced.

Williams said that it was the commuters on the train that passed through Curepe who began to spread knowledge of the instrument after hearing the beautiful music it made. The first place outside of Curepe, he says, to use the steel pan was the southern city of Siparia, which used it during its La Divina Pastora festival. From there it was taken on excursions to the beaches and played every Christmas, but never for masquerade or carnival which had been dominated by white Roman Catholics.

Williams claims that while Port-of-Spain had rhythm sections, tamboo bamboo, brass, and string bands, they knew nothing about ping-pong or bread. He said that the first man to present the new instrument to the city was Mango Rose, owner of the Laventille club (bookmaker), Teddy Kingsale, who frequented Curepe and immediately liked ping-pong. Williams said that Kingsale brought a young man from Curepe named ‘Ratones’ to his club to play the instrument to the delight of onlookers, some of whom may have never seen or heard the instrument played before. It was after World War II, Williams said, that the steel frying pan began to make waves and was included in the VE (Victory in Europe) and VJ (Victory over Japan) day street parades of 1945. Williams said its popularity in Port-of-Spain lit up when a calypsonian whose name he can’t remember sang a song that went “Port-of-Spain nearly caught fire as the steel band crosses the dry river, Ziglee, Pops and Batasby playing a semitone tune, jung-bang -ka-jung-bank-ka-jung-bank-ka”. This song, according to Williams, clearly says that the steel band came from out of town and caused quite a stir upon entering. Existing city bands were also unable to play a full tune due to the instruments they had at the time.

Port of Spain would later dominate and claim the steel pan as its own and little by little a movement developed in the city. But while Williams was an integral part of the developing steel band scene, he never became a pan player or musician. His vocation was mechanics and personal hardships coupled with private ambition forced him to look for daily bread. At the same time, innovators and players such as Ellie Mannette, Neville Jules and Winston ‘Spree’ Simon began to emerge as the 55-gallon oil drum was introduced and fine-tuned in Port of Spain, later released from the fire ordinance. And as Williams’ trials and tribulations increased, his experience at the pig trough and the genius of ‘Shanghai’ were lost in the mist of new fanciful tales that began to emerge in town about the birth of the saucepan. . Williams said he clearly remembers Neville Jules coming to Curepe to learn cymbal tuning.

Today various names are mentioned in connection with the steel frying pan and its origin; Lloyd Valentine Williams is not among them because, according to him, his life took a different course and as mentioned before, he was never a musician; he just a lover of sound and rhythm. Without thinking, everyone who ventures into this subject makes the grave mistake of claiming that a ‘pan man’ invented the steel pan or that it was invented in a ‘pan yard’ somewhere. But this could never be; there could have been no such things before the instrument was invented. And it was called ping-pong long before it was called a steel pan.

Space wouldn’t allow me to include everything Williams passed on, but there is much more to learn about the fascinating experiences of a man who claims he was just trying to create a toy for him and his siblings to play with on Christmas morning from birth. . parents were too poor to buy store-made braces for them. However, Williams stands above the rest when it comes to an authentic story surrounding the origin of the steel pan. He has lived in the United States; he worked for General Motors; owner of his own homes, vehicles, and businesses; and even visited National Invention Services Inc, in New York in 1994. He also tried to get his version of events out to the likes of George Goddard, Kim Johnson, Aldwyn Primus, Rocky McCullen, and JW Lynch, but was either ignored or shut down. But why would such a man want to lie about an instrument whose origins are buried in myth and legend? And worse still is the blatant desire of those at the forefront to keep his genesis cloaked in mysterious and fantastic stories and flimsy pontifications like divine inspiration. As stated above, all things must have an origin; they must come from somewhere, there is always a beginning. And no serious scholar or intellectual would give credence to any ‘divine inspiration’.

Although Lloyd Valentine Williams claims to have invented the original ping-pong/steel frying pan, he always praises the innovation of well-known frying pan exponents who contributed to the development of his little Christmas toy. Interested individuals can follow the link below to get the full enlightening and educational experience as this article doesn’t tell half of it.