MercuryNew.com
EL CERRITO -- While its setting and mild climate may not resemble a Caribbean island in any way, the city has become a center for steel drum music, a style that originated in Trinidad and Tobago, islands off the coast of Venezuela.
Steel drum musician Harry Best, a fixture at local weddings, parties and receptions with his band Shabang, opened Panwest Caribbean Steelpan Music Center on San Pablo Avenue in August.
The studio provides a central location for the steel drum lessons that Best, an El Sobrante resident, was teaching in Walnut Creek and Richmond. Best also teaches in San Rafael.
Steel drums, which produce a sound associated with calypso music, originated at the end of World War II, but the whole tradition goes back to African slaves, Best said.
"In Trinidad and Tobago, the colonial power was British," he said. "Traditional African drums were suppressed because it was thought they were used to foster runaways and rebellions."
Thus, the residents began a tradition of fashioning drums from whatever they could find.
The U.S. Navy brought steel oil drums to Trinidad after oil was discovered on the island. Eventually, an enterprising musician found that discarded drums could be made into instruments that created an original sound.
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