By Lisann Ramos -- WLRN - Miami - South Florida
Henry Potter was a 10-year-old in the Virgin Islands when he was first captivated by a noise from a churchyard.
“I’m like, ‘What is that ting ting ting?’ so I looked in and I saw kids playing and I watched them. The next day I went back. And probably about the third day, the guy who was in charge of the band, he asked me, ‘Do you wanna play?’ I’m like scared but I said yes. He said, “Well no problem, you can come, you can come and learn to play,’” Potter says.
These days Potter is the conductor of his own steel band in South Florida called Tamboo Bamboo. The name is based on an old-time bamboo dance in Trinidad.
And the band is a family affair. Potter’s wife and daughter are also in Tamboo Bamboo.
This Caribbean family is surrounded by steel pan music, a genre they wish was more commonplace.
“Down here we’ve got so many island people and we don’t have that much interest. There is some but I would like it to be more,” Potter says.
Tamboo Bamboo won the Miami Broward Carnival “Panorama” steel band competition last year. The band also competes in Canada and Virginia. But Potter's wife, Sharon, says it’s not just about the competition.
“We like to perform. We like, we enjoy the music. We like, we enjoy what we do,” she says.
Sharon is also from the Virgin Islands. She says she wants to see more West Indians playing pan in South Florida.
“Whether it’s my band or whichever band, just taking part and just coming together the way it used to be. I mean, it has faded a little and now we’re trying to bring it back,” she says.
The Potters' daughter, Julia, was born in New Orleans but spent most of her childhood in the Virgin Islands before coming to South Florida.
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nice.