In 1968, inspired by a performance by the U.S. Navy Steel band at a parade in his birthplace of Wichita, Kansas, USA, eight-year-old Gary Gibson sacrificed his rusty old round metal "Flying Saucer" sled in order to hammer out his own four-note steel [+]In 1968, inspired by a performance by the U.S. Navy Steel band at a parade in his birthplace of Wichita, Kansas, USA, eight-year-old Gary Gibson sacrificed his rusty old round metal "Flying Saucer" sled in order to hammer out his own four-note steel drum. Thirty-five years later, he would live in Trinidad, West Indies, the birthplace of the steel pan, and become a national champion as a member of the 120-player strong "Exodus Steel Orchestra" in the 2004 Panorama competition.
Though his early musical training and education through graduate school was in the classical realm as a percussionist, he shifted his attention as a teenager to jazz and Caribbean music styles. While still keeping one foot firmly planted in his classical roots as a composer and performer, and another firmly planted as a jazz vibraphonist, he has embraced the steel pan as his primary vehicle for jazz improvisation.
Gary began seriously playing the steel pan as a college music student in 1979. A drummer, vibraphonist, and keyboardist since the age of five, he holds a Master's degree in Music Performance from Wichita State University. As a graduate student there, he led his own 16-piece pan group, the "Pan America Steel Orchestra." The group recorded "Inland Evolution" in 1985, a collection of Gibson's original, experimental works for steel pan ensemble.
Gibson has recorded feature movie sound tracks as an orchestral section percussionist, played both drums and vibraphone in jazz performances with his quartet (as well as with numerous other groups), and been the pit drummer/percussionist for numerous shows at Seattle's premier Broadway-style theater. As a composer and orchestrator, he has created numerous works on commission for various ensembles ranging from steel drum band to symphony orchestra, jazz ensemble to pit orchestra. He was on the jazz faculty at Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts for eight years, and taught previously at Chicago State University and North Texas State University (now University of North Texas), where he was the first director of the school's steel drum band. He currently leads two steadily-gigging local steel drum groups, "Calypso Blue" and "Panduo," (the latter of which played at the New Year's 2000 Millennium Celebration in Hong Kong), and is pre
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