[3] An educator as well as a pannist, a percussionist and drummer, he is credited with bringing about the teaching of steelpan playing throughout the UK.
[6] A gifted musician, he started a course studying music at Dartington College of Arts but, according to cultural activist Ra Hendricks, Baptiste "became disenchanted with the set-up in the educational institution and found his way to Ladbroke Grove".
[7] Baptiste soon became involved in community educational work in the area, and began teaching children to play the steel pan at the Wornington Road adventure playground (now the Venture Centre) off Golborne Road in North Kensington, joining forces with community worker Rhaune Laslett.
As noted in one tribute to him: "Those who recall the Sundays in the Tabernacle during the run-up to the Bank Holiday weekend in the mid- to late-70s – with Metronomes and Ebony Steelbands, DJs Shadow, Lord Sam and the young Freddie - will remember that it was a nondescript community hall.
[11] In the words of Alex Pascall, a former chair of the Carnival and Arts Committee: "Baptiste put his heart and soul into educating young people about Caribbean culture using the steel band.