Their Music Is Rooted in the Caribbean : Steel pan: American Andy Narell may be dedicated to the Trinidadian tradition, but purists have banned his works from the Panorama Festival.

Andy Narell doesn’t look like a controversial guy. If anything, the soft-spoken, thirtysomething ex-New Yorker, with his receding hairline and quiet smile, has the gentle appearance of a college professor or an easygoing family counselor.

But Narell, who performs tonight at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, is embroiled in a contentious dispute in the small Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The problem lies in the fact that Narell has become a world-class artist on the steel drums--nowadays usually referred to as steel pans, or just pans.

Why should that be a difficulty for anyone?

Because Narell is not a native Trinidadian and as the country’s national newspaper, the Daily Express, described it, “a white American is not supposed to be elevating pan to new levels.”

Speaking by phone from his home near Berkeley last week, Narell described the situation with a characteristic mixture of whimsical humor and mild irascibility.

“I guess I’m sort of an enigma to the people in Trinidad,” he said. “People are into what I’m doing, my music is on the radio all the time, and I’m actually far better known there than I am here” in the United States.

“But the one thing I’d really like to do--that they won’t let me do--is compose music for the Panorama Steel Festival,” he said.

The annual Panoramas are the Super Bowl events of Trinidad, musical festivals in which steel-band ensembles with more than 100 instrumentalists compete with each other. The pieces they play are complex blends of classical techniques, Caribbean rhythms and symphonic-like instrumentation using the steel pans.

Although Narell has performed a number of times at the Panoramas as a player, last year Tobago’s Our Boys Steel Orchestra was banned from playing Narell’s “We Kinda Music” in the competition.

The reason offered was a play-it-by-the-letter rule stating that any composition included in Panorama must be written by a citizen or permanent resident of Trinidad and Tobago.

“The steel-band organization that runs Panorama is called Pan Trinbago, and they’re very bureaucratic,” said Narell. “So I’m caught in the middle of it all.

“The real problem, I think, is that Pan Trinbago wants to advance the interests of steel-pan music. But they also represent people who are very fearful of seeing this child of theirs go out in the world and ultimately get in the hand of people who are not Trinidadians. They’re afraid other people will embrace the art form, and it’ll come back in a different way. So there’s a certain amount of protectionism mentality about the whole thing.”

The irony of the controversy is that the 38-year-old Narell (who was a New York youngster when he was first turned on to steel pans by his father) is deeply dedicated to including traditional Trinidadian elements in much of his music.

“When I get together to play shows with guys like Robert Greenidge”--one of the Caribbean’s finest steel-pan artists--”I play more Caribbean things than they do. Most of them will step out and play tunes like ‘Misty,’ while I’m playing tunes with Caribbean-like soca and Afro-Cuban stuff.”

The music on Narell’s current tour provides a good example of the broad eclecticism and essential authenticity of his work. Tonight’s concert will include selections from his new album, “Down the Road,” which blends jazz, Afro-Caribbean and symphonic steel-pan music. Joining him on the bill will be David Rudder, one of the reigning monarchs of soca, or “soul calypso.”

“We’ll do our own thing for our part of the program,” said Narell. “Then, when David comes out we’ll play his songs--we’ll become a backup band. And it’s a good chemistry, because we have enough of the right instrumentation and a feeling for the style to play his tunes.”

Narell would be delighted if his Trinidadian controversy could be handled so easily. But the question of whether he can be an active participant in next year’s Panorama remains on hold. One thing’s for sure, as one of the few players on his instrument with worldwide impact, Narell will be in demand for any steel-pan events--and thus, a difficult person to exclude permanently.

“For me,” he said, “it’s less about where your chops are than what’s your musical concept. The main reason I’m part of the conversation at all, when it comes to steel pan, is that with seven albums, I’ve produced a pretty extensive body of works.

“Pan music, in a way, is like jazz and basketball; neither has been able to remain a strictly American thing. And pan music’s reaching out into the world, I think, is inevitable, whether Pan Trinbago believes it or not.”

“All I really want is the chance to have my compositions be heard in a fair competition. There have been plenty of times,” added Narell, “when I’ve been the only white face in a 100-piece steel-pan ensemble, but I’ll guarantee you that nobody loves the music any more than I do.”

* Andy Narell and David Rudder play tonight at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $14 to $18. (714) 854-4646.