Andy Narell has been playing steel drums since he was a teenager, having learnt it in Queens, New York, where his father brought it back from Trinidad for social purposes. Since then, the steel pan has never let him go, to the extent that he is one of the few foreigners to have composed for Panorama de Trinidad. He has experimented with fusion between jazz, the Caribbean and Latin groove, and in the West Indies he made a lasting impression with his participation in the Sakésho quartet, with Mario Canonge, Michel Alibo and Jean-Philippe Fanfant. Hidden Treasure, his first record, however, dates back to 1979. It was recorded with a quartet he would keep for several years (Steve Erquiaga – guitar, Kenneth Nash – percussion & Rich Girard – bass) and already sketched the whole range of his influences, a jazz funk with warm tropical colours. And when you ask Andy about it, he smiles and says « ah, but we don’t play steel drums like that any more ».
Hidden Treasure – Andy Narell, 1979
