Winston Simon Explained

Winston "Spree" Simon (1930 – 18 April 1976) was a Trinidadian inventor, pioneer and musician of the steelpan.

Life

Simon was born in Laventille, Trinidad. He is credited with the invention of the Ping Pong steelpan instrument.Simon also was part of TASPO, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra and visited Great Britain in 1951.^[1]

Winston "Spree" Simon worked closely with Anthony Williams, who later invented the fourth and fifth soprano pan. Simon also gave Bertie Marshall significant impulses for his work in developing harmonical tuning.

The American musician and composer Van Dyke Parks celebrated the life of Winston Simon in the song "Tribute to Spree" on his album Clang of the Yankee Reaper written and first recorded by the late great Lord Kitchener.^[2]

Simon is said to have invented the 8-note ping pong in 1943 and the 14-note ping pong in 1946.

Further reading

• Felix I. R. Blake, The Trinidad and Tobago Steel Pan. History and Evolution.
• Stephen Stuempfle, The Steelband Movement: The Forging of a National Art in Trinidad and Tobago, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995
• Cy Grant, Ring of Steel: Pan Sound and Symbol, Macmillan Caribbean, 1999,

See also

• Steelpan
• Ellie Mannette

External links

• http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Biography/history_PanPioneers_WinstonSimonEllieMannette.htm
• Terry Joseph, "Remembering 'Spree' Simon", TriniSoca.com, 18 April 2001

Notes and References

1. Web site: TASPO. SR00024 . www.tobago.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090106195729/http://www.tobago.org/trinidad/pan/sr/sr00024.htm . 2009-01-06.
2. Web site: Tribute to Spree . YouTube . 2 January 2022.