Othello Molineaux
Othello Molineaux (* 1939 in Longdenville, Trinidad ) is a steel drum player, who has emerged especially in the field of jazz. The beginning of his international career connected him with Jaco Pastorius. He then worked as a sideman and gefeaturter artists with musicians like Monty Alexander, Ahmad Jamal, Chicago, and David Johanson. He is considered a master of the steel drum.
Life and work
His mother taught him early to play the piano, his father played the violin. At age eleven he began playing steel drum, at 15 he was able to build the instrument and tune. In the same age he formed his first band, which Winder Harps. He received further training at the Fatima College and Queen's Royal College. He left Trinidad in 1967 to pursue a career as a piano player in Saint Thomas. He devoted himself during which further the Steel Drum.
In the jazz scene in 1976 you aware of him when he appeared on Jaco ' Grammy -nominated debut album. Since then, he was represented at the world in concerts with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Monty Alexander, Weather Report, Joe Zawinul, Carles Benavent and Ahmad Jamal. Over the years, he arranged for further steel bands in Trinidad, the Laventille Serenaders, Valley Harps, Tripoli, East Side Symphony, Nevados, Tobago Star lift and for the Pamberi Steel Band for the Panorama competition.
As awards he received in 1987 the commendation from the Ohio House of Representatives and the 1991 Vanguard Award for Outstanding Leadership Among Black Musicians
His solo album It's About Time unfolds a wide range of styles with horn arrangements by Gil Goldstein. Molineaux is a distinctive improviser, and the improvisations are often of simple beauty and Liedhaftigkeit. But on his solo album, he also knows how to use the similar peculiar sound of the steel drum as a synthesizer.
Swell
- Percussionist
- Jazz Musician
- Arranger
- Citizen of Trinidad and Tobago
- Born in 1939
- Man