Nass­er Khan

Hailed as the "Pa­gani­ni of the Steel­pan," 40-year-old Liam Teague cur­rent­ly serves as the head of Steel­pan Stud­ies and as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor of Mu­sic at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty, and he co-di­rects the NIU Steel­band.He has re­ceived many awards, in­clud­ing the Hum­ming Bird Award (Sil­ver) for "loy­al and de­vot­ed ser­vice," and won a num­ber of no­table com­pe­ti­tions such as the T&T Na­tion­al Steel­band Fes­ti­val So­lo Cham­pi­onship and the Saint Louis Sym­pho­ny Vol­un­teers As­so­ci­a­tion Young Artiste Com­pe­ti­tion.

His com­mit­ment to demon­strat­ing the great mu­si­cal pos­si­bil­i­ties of the steel­pan has tak­en Teague to Eu­rope, Asia and Aus­tralia, as well as North and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of oth­er steel­pan lu­mi­nar­ies like Hugh Bor­de, El­lie Man­nette, Bertie Mar­shall, Tony Williams, Boogsie Sharpe, Jit Sama­roo and Dimes Fer­nan­dez.

Teague has per­formed with many di­verse en­sem­bles, in­clud­ing Tai­wan Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny, Czech Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny, Saint Louis Sym­pho­ny, Pana­ma Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny, Chica­go Sin­foni­et­ta, Ver­meer String Quar­tet, Dart­mouth Wind En­sem­ble, Uni­ver­si­ty of Wis­con­sin-Madi­son March­ing Band, Nexus, TCL Group Skif­fle Bunch Steel Or­ches­tra, bpTT Rene­gades Steel­band, Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra, and most re­cent­ly as the arranger for the 2014 Panora­ma for Sil­ver Stars Steel Or­ches­tra.

Teague has col­lab­o­rat­ed with such promi­nent mu­si­cians as Paquito D'Rivera, Dave Samuels, Za­kir Hus­sain, and Eve­lyn Glen­nie. As a per­former and clin­i­cian, Teague has giv­en pre­sen­ta­tions at sev­er­al Per­cus­sive Arts So­ci­ety In­ter­na­tion­al Con­ven­tions (Pa­sic) and at many ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions through­out the world.He is steel­band di­rec­tor at Birch Creek Mu­sic Per­for­mance Cen­ter in Door Coun­ty, Wis­con­sin, and he has al­so taught and per­formed at the Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty Sum­mer Arts Camp and at the In­ter­lochen Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts.

A strong ad­vo­cate for orig­i­nal steel­pan com­po­si­tions, Teague has com­mis­sioned a num­ber of sig­nif­i­cant com­posers to write for the in­stru­ment, in­clud­ing Michael Col­grass, Jan Bach, Lib­by Larsen, Deb­o­rah Fish­er Tea­son, Joey Sell­ers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross and Kevin Bobo.

Many of his own com­po­si­tions are pub­lished with Mau­mau­Mu­sic, Pan­Press and Ra­ma­jay­Mu­sic.To date, Teague has record­ed/pro­duced ten cds, in­clud­ing Hands Like Light­ning (1993), For Lack of Bet­ter Words (2002), Panoram­ic: Rhythm Through an Un­ob­struct­ed View (2005), and Open Win­dow (2010). He was re­cent­ly named the Arts and Let­ters 2014 Lau­re­ate of the An­tho­ny N Sab­ga Caribbean Awards for Ex­cel­lence.

When and how did you get in­to play­ing and teach­ing the steel­pan?

In the late 1980s, my fa­ther, Rus­sell Teague (de­ceased), had a Cub Scout Troop when I was a boy. One of the mem­bers, Dar­ren Shep­pard, brought a steel­pan to a meet­ing. I in­stant­ly fell in love with the sound and asked my fa­ther if I could join a steel­band. He agreed, and I even­tu­al­ly start­ed play­ing with the T&TEC Mo­town Steel Or­ches­tra in San Fer­nan­do. From there, I even­tu­al­ly moved on to Hill­side Sym­pho­ny Steel Or­ches­tra.My first of­fi­cial role as a steel­pan teacher came in the 2000s at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty, short­ly af­ter grad­u­at­ing with a mas­ters de­gree in Mu­sic.

Was it some­thing you had to work hard at or did it come nat­u­ral­ly?

I think that in some ways play­ing the pan came nat­u­ral­ly. How­ev­er, I def­i­nite­ly had an in­sa­tiable thirst for learn­ing mu­sic and was an ex­treme­ly dis­ci­plined prac­ticer.

What was your full-time job?

Head of Steel­band Stud­ies/as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor of mu­sic/co-di­rec­tor North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty Steel­band.

Where were you born, where did you grow up, and where do you cur­rent­ly re­side?

I was born and raised in San Fer­nan­do and cur­rent­ly re­side in DeKalb, Illi­nois, USA (about 60 miles west of Chica­go).

Who were the peo­ple who have in­flu­enced you the most in your ca­reer and in life in gen­er­al, and how did they?

There are nu­mer­ous peo­ple who have helped and/or in­flu­enced me in my life, so it is im­pos­si­ble to men­tion all of them. How­ev­er, I'll men­tion a few: my par­ents–Pearl and Rus­sell Teague; Shirley James–one of the first peo­ple to as­sist with my ear­ly mu­si­cal de­vel­op­ment; Gu­nil­la Tang Kai–my vi­o­lin teacher in Trinidad; Robert Fos­ter–for­mer man­ag­er and pro­duc­er of some of my ear­ly CDs; Joy Cae­sar–for­mer vice pres­i­dent at CitiBank, who made it pos­si­ble for me to get through my first se­mes­ter at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty; Al O'Con­nor–for­mer as­so­ciate dean and founder of the steel­pan pro­gramme at NIU; Cliff Alex­is–one of my best friends in the world and co-di­rec­tor of the NIU Steel­band; Robert Chap­pell–one of my very close friends and mu­si­cal col­leagues at NIU.

Who are your role mod­els/who in­spires you?

Oth­er than my par­ents, I can't re­al­ly say that I have had role mod­els, though I have been in­spired by count­less peo­ple–es­pe­cial­ly mu­si­cians. My ear­ly mu­si­cal he­roes were vi­o­lin­ists like Heifetz and Perl­man. Lat­er on, I start­ed em­u­lat­ing steel­pan mu­si­cians like Ken "Pro­fes­sor" Philmore, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, Robert Greenidge, Rudy "Two Left" Smith, Dr Jit Sama­roo, to name a few. Once I moved to the USA, I start­ed to be en­am­ored with jazz and was deeply moved by the mu­sic of Char­lie Park­er, Chick Corea, Joshua Red­man, etc.

At what schools/in­sti­tu­tions did you re­ceive your ed­u­ca­tion?

Cof­fee Boys' An­gli­can School; San Fer­nan­do East Ju­nior Sec­ondary; Pleas­antville Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive; North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty.

What are your favourite ca­lyp­so/so­ca songs of all time oth­er than your own?

I re­al­ly love the mu­sic of the past and hold mu­si­cians like Lord Shorty (Ras Shorty I) Om Shan­ti, Watch Out My Chil­dren, etc), Lord Kitch­en­er, Spar­row, and peo­ple of that ilk in high es­teem. They knew how to craft a good song as they ac­tu­al­ly un­der­stood melody, har­mo­ny and rhythm. I'm re­al­ly in­to what Bun­ji Gar­lin has been do­ing (loved Dif­fer­en­tol­ogy, Truck on de Road and Car­ni­val Ta­ban­ca). Of course, there are a num­ber of oth­er mu­si­cians out there (fa­mous and not so fa­mous) who are do­ing good work.

What do you still want to ac­com­plish with your steel­pan tal­ent?

I have on­ly skimmed the sur­face. I am still at a very el­e­men­tary stage of my mu­si­cal de­vel­op­ment, and I know that it will prob­a­bly take many life­times be­fore I feel like I have ac­tu­al­ly ar­rived close to what I'd like to achieve. I'd love to be able to spear­head a move­ment which could bring the steel­pan to the mass­es in­ter­na­tion­al­ly on a con­sis­tent ba­sis. It would be made up of stake­hold­ers, all of whom would be con­scious of the big­ger pic­ture, and were dri­ven and in­spired by peace, love and mu­sic–no com­pe­ti­tion nec­es­sary.

What dai­ly mot­to/cre­do do you live by...your recipe for suc­cess?

Be hap­py, peace, love and mu­sic

Would you like to tell our read­ers about your fam­i­ly?

I am a very pri­vate per­son, so I would pre­fer not to di­vulge too much. How­ev­er, my wife Lore­na is from Pana­ma, and she used to play the vi­o­la with the Pana­ma Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny. We met when I was a steel­pan soloist with that or­ches­tra. I im­me­di­ate­ly fell in love with her fan­tas­tic vi­o­la tech­nique–at least, that's what I tell every­one...lol. Our son, Jaden, is six-years old and was born in Pana­ma. He's now in kinder­garten. Our daugh­ter, Jei­da, is one year old and ba­si­cal­ly has me wrapped around her fin­ger. I had heard ru­mors that that would hap­pen, but I didn't be­lieve it– lit­tle did I know how wrong I'd be...lol.

What are your most prized pos­ses­sions: one tan­gi­ble, one in­tan­gi­ble?

Tan­gi­ble: my tenor (so­pra­no) steel­pan. I've had it since I was about 15 and con­tin­ue to play the same in­stru­ment at the ripe old age of 40. In­tan­gi­ble: the love of my moth­er, sis­ters, wife, chil­dren, friends and fam­i­ly.

Of all your shows, con­certs, per­for­mances, which would you like a first time au­di­ence, lis­ten­er or view­er to ex­pe­ri­ence?

Tough ques­tion, but prob­a­bly my per­for­mance a few years ago with the Czech Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny in Prague, Czech Re­pub­lic. I was not pre­pared for the love that the au­di­ence showed as they called me back on stage for at least three en­cores.

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

I trea­sure all of them, but if I had to point out a cou­ple, they would be the Hum­ming Bird Award (Sil­ver) for my con­tri­bu­tions to cul­ture, plus be­ing re­cent­ly recog­nised by the Ansa McAL Caribbean Awards for Ex­cel­lence as one of its lau­re­ates.

If you had to per­form for an au­di­ence who had nev­er heard or seen you be­fore and you had to per­form one song, which would you?

Prob­a­bly my com­po­si­tion A Vis­it to Hell. I feel it demon­strates many facets of the steel­pan's ver­sa­til­i­ty and pro­fun­di­ty.

What goals/am­bi­tions do you still have?

To be­come a bet­ter over­all mu­si­cian and hu­man be­ing. To do more to help the up-and-com­ing gen­er­a­tion of Caribbean mu­si­cians and to do what­ev­er I can to bring hap­pi­ness to the world.

What is an in­ter­est­ing facet of your per­son­al­i­ty that most peo­ple do not know about you?

I can be a bit of a clown. Most peo­ple would not know that about me as I gen­er­al­ly ap­pear to be very se­ri­ous and/or shy. How­ev­er, once I get com­fort­able around peo­ple, I tend to light­en up. Al­so, I'm a huge wrestling and ul­ti­mate fight­er fan (please don't judge me). I know it seems at odds with my non-vi­o­lent per­son­al­i­ty, but I think that I've al­ways had com­pe­ti­tion in my blood and the soap opera that is wrestling has been hard to let go.

What is the best com­pli­ment you have ever re­ceived?

I am ac­tu­al­ly a very self crit­i­cal per­son, and while I am al­ways grate­ful for com­pli­ments, I tend not to al­ways take them to heart as I am al­ways striv­ing to be bet­ter. How­ev­er, I love to laugh and love peo­ple's sens­es of hu­mour, so one of the "com­pli­ments" that was giv­ing to me, hap­pened at a con­cert where a mu­si­cian I was per­form­ing with said to the au­di­ence, "Of all the steel­pan play­ers that I have worked with, Liam Teague is def­i­nite­ly...ONE of them." Lol. I nev­er for­got that as I re­al­ly re­spect­ed this mu­si­cian and thought that he was go­ing to pay me the ul­ti­mate com­pli­ment (though I know it would not have been de­served).

I am al­ways most ap­pre­cia­tive when peo­ple tell me just how much my mu­sic has im­pact­ed them emo­tion­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly, though.

What are your plans for the rest of 2014?

The NIU Steel­band has a num­ber of per­for­mances for the rest of the se­mes­ter, in­clud­ing its 40th an­niver­sary con­cert on April 13. I have to pre­miere a new steel­pan con­cer­to with wind en­sem­ble by Kevin Bobo in April, plus a new com­po­si­tion for steel­pan and vi­o­lin by Jan Bach. In ad­di­tion, I have sev­er­al oth­er per­for­mances with steel­bands in the USA. Af­ter that, I'll be re­turn­ing to Trinidad for the Ansa McAL Caribbean Awards for Ex­cel­lence, and then teach­ing at the Birch Creek Mu­sic and Per­for­mance Cen­ter in Wis­con­sin. I'm look­ing for­ward to a bit of down time with my fam­i­ly dur­ing the sum­mer, and then it's back to liv­ing my life as a mu­si­cal chameleon.

What ad­vice would you give to the coun­try's lead­ers to cre­ate a bet­ter so­ci­ety?

Lead with hon­esty, com­pas­sion, sen­si­tiv­i­ty, dig­ni­ty, and with a vi­sion for the fu­ture.

What ad­vice would you give to the young peo­ple of T&T?

First and fore­most, re­mem­ber to live life with re­spect and dig­ni­ty and to ho­n­our the sanc­ti­ty of life. I feel that one of the rea­sons why crime has been so ram­pant and dev­as­tat­ing is that many in our so­ci­ety have no fear of God and, as a re­sult, are un­con­cerned with reper­cus­sions. Fi­nal­ly, I would say that the young peo­ple of T&T should strive for hap­pi­ness. I be­lieve that at the end of the day, this is the one thing that we all want.

How can we find out more about you and keep up to date with your lat­est news?

liamteague.com; niu.edu/mu­sic; Face­book

De­scribe your­self in two words; one be­gin­ning with L, the oth­er with T, your ini­tials.

Lov­ing and Thank­ful.

�2 See Liam Teague in ac­tion: http://ow.ly/uAWlL