Othello Molineaux (born 1939) is a jazz

steelpan The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descriptio ...

player who spent much of his early career with

Jaco Pastorius John Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987) was an American jazz bass guitar, bassist, composer and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of Weather Report from 1 ...

. He was among the earliest musicians to adapt the steelpan to jazz. He has worked with

Monty Alexander Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander (born 6 June 1944) is a Jamaican jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop jazz and blues rooted melodies. He was influenced by Louis ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and

David Johansen David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under ...

Career

Born in a family of musicians, his mother being a piano teacher and his father playing the violin, he learned the piano very young, and at the age of eleven began to play the steelpan. He left Trinidad in 1969 and began a career as a pianist, while continuing to play the steelpan. It is with his group mixing steelpan and conventional instruments that he moved to Miami in 1971. There he met bassist

and played in 1976 on his first album, which allowed him to appear on the jazz-rock scene. From then on, he would go on to concerts around the world, collaborating with big names in jazz including

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

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. Othello Molineaux is recognized as having revealed steelpan to jazz as a solo instrument and improvisation, like the piano. He has mainly been an accompanist, notably of Jaco Pastorius, participating in almost all of his albums, and in the tour with the big band Word of Mouth. The latter which will also devote a record to steelpan, Holiday for Pans (1982). Othello Molineaux began his solo career in 1993 with the album It's About Time, on the Big World Music label. He also collaborated with Habana Abierta on the album Boomerang (2006).

Discography

As leader

* ''It's About Time'' (Big World Music, 1993)

As sideman

With

* ''Ivory & Steel'' (Concord Picante, 1980) * ''Jamboree'' (Concord Picante, 1988) * ''Caribbean Circle'' (Chesky, 1992) With

Randy Bernsen Randy Bernsen (born July 15, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist. Career Bernsen was born in Needham, Massachusetts and grew up in Florida. He attended high school in Plantation and was active in the clubs of South Florida, starting at age 1 ...

* ''Music for Planets, People & Washing Machines'' (Zebra, 1985) * ''Mo' Wasabi'' (Zebra, 1986) * ''Paradise Citizens'' (Zebra, 1988) * ''Calling Me Back Home'' (101 South, 1993) With

* ''Jaco Pastorius'' (Epic, 1976) * ''Word of Mouth'' (Warner Bros., 1981) * ''Twins I Aurex Jazz Festival '82'' (Warner Bros., 1982) * ''Twins II Aurex Jazz Festival '82'' (Warner Bros., 1982) * ''Invitation'' (Warner Bros., 1983) * ''Holiday for Pans'' (Sound Hills, 1993) * ''The Birthday Concert'' (Warner Bros., 1995) * ''Twins I & II: Live in Japan 1982'' (Warner Bros., 1999) * ''Holiday for Pans: Full Complete Sessions'' (Sound Hills, 1999) * ''Word of Mouth Band 1983 Japan Tour'' (Rhino, 2012) * ''Modern American Music...Period! The Criteria Sessions'' (Omnivore, 2014) * ''Then & Now'' (Rhino/Warner, 2016) * ''Truth, Liberty & Soul'' (Resonance, 2017) With others *

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, ''Fenix'' (Nuevos Medios, 1997) *

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, ''Be with Me'' (BMG/Ricochet/RCA Victor, 1996) *

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, ''Chicago X'' (Columbia, 1976) *

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, '' A Long Story'' (Manhattan, 1991) *

, ''Nature: The Essence Part III'' (Birdology/Atlantic, 1998) *

, ''Here Comes the Night'' (Blue Sky, 1981) *

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, ''Huellas'' (Cabra Road, 2012) *

Roberto Perera Roberto Perera (born 1952) is an Uruguayan jazz harpist, in the smooth jazz and fusion styles. Born in 1952 in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, Perera was barely 12 years old when his mother enrolled him in a music conservatory where he se ...

, ''Passions, Illusions & Fantasies'' (101 South, 1993) *

Michal Urbaniak Michal (; he, מיכל , gr, Μιχάλ) was, according to the first Book of Samuel, a princess of the United Kingdom of Israel; the younger daughter of King Saul, she was the first wife of David (), who later became king, first of Juda ...

, ''Ecstasy'' (Marlin, 1978)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molineaux, Othello Living people Jazz drummers Steelpan musicians 1939 births