Bertram Lloyd Marshall

Berite 'Pan Scientist' Marshall was born 6 February 1936, 16 St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

His first attempt at tuning was at the age of 14 when he was given an old ping pong from Tokyo Steelband.  He tried to retune it using his harmonica and at 18 he began tuning pans.

By the age of 30 he modernized the method of tuning, introduced the double tenor and improved the soprano pan. Following on, he introduced the six bass on the road, the use of canopies, the use of steelpan in the Church and popularising classical music played on pan.

In 1970 he became the tuner for the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra and along with the band’s leader Rudolph Charles they developed the chariot pan, quadrophonic, 12 bass, and the Marshall Tone - a 6-pan one-man band.

His knowledge of electronics led him to create the Bertphone in 1971 (possibly a fore- runner of the E-pan). He also endorsed the use of the strobe tuner for tuning steelpans.

In 1982 he went to Sweden to oversee the acquisition of a machine that could be adapted to sinking pans.

The Bertie Marshal J’ourvet Pan Contest was created in 2003 for steelbands to play songs that he had made popular with Highlanders.

In 2008 he received the Order of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

Bertie Marshall passed away on 17 October 2012. In 2013, Panorama was dedicated to his memory.

On 17 October 2013, the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure unveiled a new street sign after changing the name of Old St. Joseph Road to Bertie Marshall Boulevard in his memory. The street chosen was where Bertie lived and the original home of the Highlanders.