Anytime he hears music he arranged being played, Anthony ’Muffman’ Williams gets up to dance or rather sway and shuffle, sometimes subtly playing the notes on an imaginary pan with one of his hands. Seeing Williams so animated and with a smile warms the hearts of onlookers who are aware of his medical challenges that includes diabetes, which has affected his sight and leaves him nearly immobile.
German-born pianist, Frauke Kuehning has hailed Williams as the Pythagoras (Greek mathematician and philosopher) of this nation saying that he is responsible for the greatest innovations to the pan, how it is played and the worldwide popularity it enjoys. Kuehning drew this comparison on August 20 at the National Museum where alongside steelpan researcher, Kim Johnson, she delivered a lecture on Williams’ life and music.
The lecture featured excerpts from a number of interviews with Williams, most of them conducted by Johnson, a few by Kuehning and a couple by other persons through the years. Kuehning shared parts of a thesis on Williams that she is presently working on to complete her MA in Ethnomusicology at the University of Amsterdam. She is also scoring the music Williams arranged for the Pan Am North Stars Steel Orchestra and members of the Silver Stars Steel Orchestra performed a couple of these pieces during the event.
Truth be told, most of what Kuehning spoke
of at the function hosted by the University of Trinidad and Tobago is already known by people with any deep interest in the steelband movement and its history. Researchers such as Johnson who filled in several holes left by Kuehning on the night and in fact provided most if not all of the images and video clips used during the presentation have spoke of this before. Then there are the likes of Keith Diaz, Dennis ’Sprangalang’ Hall, Ray Holman and others who have already explored these facts.
The most interesting element of the evening was the showing of the wonderful black and white photographs of a young, vibrant and rugged Williams alongside his beloved Pan Am North Stars Steel Orchestra. There were video clips of the orchestra performing on the Ed Sullivan Show and Carnegie Hall as well of audio recordings of them playing with the Marionettes Choral and alongside Winifred Atwell at the historical Ivory and Steel concert.
The excerpts from the interviews were also fascinating as they provided new insights into the man that is Anthony Williams who is considered by former members of the now defunct North Stars to be the fairest steelband leader ever. Johnson said that after Carnival whatever monies the band earned during the season was tallied and distributed to every member of the band including the pushers and other non-players. Johnson said Williams employed a percentage method so that the distribution would be even.
’Everything was broken down into percentages so it was not about one person being a better player so he received more than another. If you helped to paint the racks you received a percentage and then if you also came and helped prepare the pans you were given a percentage. Then if you were also a player you were paid in accordance with how many engagements you came out for. So the payment was fair and even the pushers got something,’ Johnson said.
Kuehning said that a reporter once asked Williams how come he did not audition for pannists like some other bands since at that time North Stars was the top steel orchestra touring the world and in great demand. His response was that he had come from nothing and was given the opportunity to work his way up and therefore he believed that he too must give others the chance to start at nothing and become a good musician. Kuehning pointed out that Williams could take anyone regardless of natural ability and make a musician out of them
Through the excerpts from interviews Williams though silent as he sat in the front row of the audience told his story from his birth at the Port of Spain General Hospital on June 24, 1931 and being taken ten days later to #10 Nepal Street, St James, where he grew up and still lives today to the years that followed after the North Stars was no more.
That is also an interesting story. A man who Johnson described as a con artist offered to take the North Stars on tour to Britain, but the band would have to go in two trips. Williams was originally supposed to go in the first trip, but refused to do so because he believed that as captain he should remain with the other members and go when they are able to. The second batch never made it to Britain as the man disappeared leaving even the first batch of players in Britain. The band began to fragment shortly after this and eventually dissolved completely.
Among the inventions and innovations of Williams is the Spider Web Pan (tenor) with its arrangement in fourths and fifths. He introduced the double cello and double strumming pan, which were unique to North Stars in those days. Williams is credited as the first person to put steelpans on wheels and later racks with wheels therefore broadening the possibilities for the instrument. In the 1970’s, Williams began to experiment with the hydroform method of sinking pans as well as using sheet metal instead of oil drums to make pans. He did these alongside Winston ’Spree’ Simon and Bertie Marshall respectively.
Other achievements mentioned at the function was the fact that the North Stars was the first band to win back to back Music Festival titles as well as was the winner of the first Panorama competition and they retained the title the following year. Although a master tuner and arranger, Williams has only one completed composition to his credit, but this lone piece, ’Pan Down Fifth Avenue’ is considered one of the greatest steelpan compositions ever. The North Stars participation in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade of 1964 inspired this work.
Williams was a joiner and house builder by trade and Johnson said he had spoken to people who said that Williams had built their homes 40 years ago and it is still standing sturdy as ever to this day. He was always meticulous in whatever he did and strove to do anything he did to perfection. Kuehning said Williams shared that his dream while leading the North Stars was for the band to acquire its own land and build a soundproof theatre so they would not be a bother to residents when they were rehearsing.
In one quote used in the presentation, Williams spoke of his step grandfather who may have inspired him in both his passions, joining and building.
’My step grandfather was a carpenter-joiner and instrument maker. He used to make bass and guitar. So I learnt to make these things from him. I used to assist planing the wood. they used to call him Bassman, because he used to plan the bass. He was a musician too. He used to play the bass in fetes.’
In another quote, Williams spoke of the birth of the North Stars as well as how he came to create the tenor boom
’After 1950 Casablanca won playing ’Bells of St Mary’s’ and ’Nocturne in E Flat’ and Sonny Roach call up a meeting about two weeks after Carnival and say he was folding up, he was finishing with steelband, so right there the fellas say, ’We young in pan, what to do? We want to keep on.’ And they decide to form Northern Stars. That was 1950. I had to make myself important in the band so that if they dropping anybody they would not think about dropping me, that caused me to introduce the oil drum tenor-boom which produced a better tone.’
’The original tenor booms used in Taspo were made of the biscuit drum, but the biscuit drum was a pan made of a very thin material and the biscuit drum wasn’t suitable for the tenor boom. The maximum amount of notes on a tune boom was five. Griffith wanted seven notes in order to put seven on two drums to get fourteen because a chromatic scale contains thirteen notes. I experimented with oil drums and found they produced a better sound because it was a better quality steel, the oil drum is larger and so we were able to get seven notes in, than the biscuit drum.’
Williams also shared how he came to find the fifths, which were at the time unknown to him and his fellow tuners, on the spider web pan.
’Before the Spider Web we had C F A because the ping pong developed from a tenor kittle beat that was a major chord. Steelband developed on a major chord-Me, Do, So, Me, So, Do, Me. That was the major chord and it develop on that, so on the ping pong you had So, Do, Me there, so I counted the semitones from C to F. C F A is So Do Me too. At that time I didn’t know anything about F or anything like that, I just counted the semitones from C to F and found that there were six. And I counted from F to A and found it was five, so I put B flat there, and I kept counting six all the time and work out in the cycle of fifths. Without knowing the cycle of fifths we discovered the cycle of fifths.’
