CURTIS PIERRE Pan Player, Arranger

[The following profile is a combined synthesis between the writings of Gideon Maxime and {Dr Felix Blake}]

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   Curtis Pierre was born in Port of Spain and lived at upper Henry Street in his childhood days. Later on, his family moved to Belmont where he attended the Belmont Boys Intermediate School and then St Mary's College.

   It was a teacher at St Mary's College, who was later to become a priest, who gave Curtis his first pan and helped him to reach where he is today.

   Jervais Girod got a pan from his gardener who used to play in Casablanca. Having learnt about Curtis' interest in steelband, he gave the pan to him and encouraged his interest in music. {That was in 1949 - and immediately Curtis Pierre felt drawn to steelband music as if by a magic force.}

   The home of the Moyau family on Sackville Street assisted him in increasing his knowledge of pan music.

   Curtis got a lot of objections from his parents, especially his mother, who bitterly opposed his involvement in the steelband movement.

   Curtis can take some credit for encouraging the college boys and girls from all areas including those considered a little above middle class, to join him in the formatting of Dixieland. In an era when pannists and their instruments are treated differently by the society, Curtis certainly made a break through.

   {It was the attraction of opposites, destined to create something of a furore. Pan was considered black and lower-class, a noisy abomination that could only have come from Gonzales or John John; on the other hand Dixieland, the band Curtis Pierre would captain for many years, was made up of light-skinned youths from the upper middle-class; most of them students of the prestigious St Mary's College.}

   {...Parental response was to threaten to ostracise these youngsters.}

   {...Pierre who recalls an experience typical of the time, "I took the instrument home and I got enough flak from my parents." "What the hell you doing with this thing here. I don't care who plays that... is for the underprivileged". This was the typical response, without exception.}

   {Pierre, it should be noted, was actually Dixieland's second leader. The band's first leader and founder was Ernest Ferriera, a youth of Portuguese descent who formed the band, originally called Melody Makers, in 1950 when he was just fifteen years old. In 1951 leadership of the renamed Dixieland passed to Curtis Pierre... "The grouping in my band would be considered a little above middle class ... which (made it) anathema, that kind of thing was just not done by people in that class".}
   {Nevertheless the young people persisted, and gradually their parents came to accept their involvement in the steel pan movement.}

   {It was a complete and totally unexpected turnabout...}

   {In 1951, Dixieland went on the road for the first time. That year the band also was being rated alongside bands like Katzenjammers, Invaders, North Stars, Rising Sun, All Stars, Southern Symphony and Casablanca. It was around this time that Ernest Ferriera is said to have implemented the innovative idea of welding two guitar pans together in an attempt to expand the pan's range.}

   {In 1953 Curtis Pierre was chosen to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) II to Miami. Among its members were Art de Coteau (bass), Coleman Rocke from ESSO steelband, Martin Tate and Block Bonaparte (tenor pan). Curtis himself played the cello pan} ...his favourite pan. {Unfortunately, Hurricane Janet caused this tour to be aborted.}

   {In the years 1956 and 1957, Dixieland carried steelband music into the country clubs, yacht clubs and homes of society's upper strata. The band also made a strong impression on the road at Carnival time when they brought out their own masquerade bands. These included Warriors, C Bees and Sioux Indians among others. Dixieland steelband never lost touch with its 'college boy' beginnings and was always considered a young people's band.}

   Curtis was at the helm of Dixieland in 1960 when the band {...made a clean sweep of the Trinidad Music Festival; winning the preliminaries, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals...} beating such bands as Invaders, Casablanca, Renegades and North Stars. {[That] record still stands. In the same year, Dixieland with ten years of performances behind them, cut their first long-playing album.}

   Curtis Pierre toured England following [their] success; ...the band [members] paid their own fares. The band also toured Italy, Zimbabwe and the United States of America. {And 1961 saw the band undertake an extensive tour of Scandinavia, Amsterdam, Paris, Dusseldorf, Rome, Lusaka and Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia where they were guests of the International Congress of African Culture (ICAC). Here, a 4-day schedule of performances stretched to six weeks, such was the overwhelming acclaim for the band from Trinidad.}⁽¹⁾

   {1974 was Curtis Pierre's last year of active participation with Dixieland. For the next ten years his involvement was with the administration of the steelband movement as a whole. He also served as a judge at Panorama and worked closely with the late Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams for the promotion and general improvement of pan.}

   {Curtis Pierre is a man well liked and respected in steelband circles, a man who is remembered as having given pan his best shot, no matter what. He sums up the experience of years of active participation and service in the steelband movement in this way: "A lot of distance I've covered in my life both in terms of a businessman and a father. As an organiser I can safely say that the experience I have gained I owe completely to my exposure in the steelband world. I've learnt how to deal with people, I've learnt how to give. You know it really is a forge for straightening out your whole approach to life."}

   At present [1996] Curtis carries on a Pan Academy [at] which his first pupil was on 11th October 1993; and has [now] established ...one of the more serious steelband schools in the country. In this way Curtis feels that he can put something back into the art form which has brought him [such] satisfaction and also [allows him to provide a place that addresses] the growing hunger [ in the need for panpeople] to develop [their] skills...

   Curtis Pierre a pannist of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

© 1997 Gideon Maxime: Pg 213; PAN THROUGH THE YEARS (1952 - 1996)
© 1995 Dr Felix Blake: Pgs 208 & 209; THE TRINIDAD & TOBAGO STEEL PAN: History and Evolution
[Blake: Presented without permission; permission being sought.]

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(1) Something seems a bit odd here; although it appears that the band made two tours, there may in fact only have been one; where each writer has a slightly different itinerary.
[This reference is a matter of research for these pages]

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