South Florida Caribbean News
The Melo Groove Steele Orchestra
by Jason Walker
SOUTH FLORIDA – Steel Pan or steel drums were created in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1930s. The Steel Pan is a unique form of musical expression, but the origin of steel pan started centuries before in Africa.
Africans brought the concepts of drumming and festival which would eventually evolve into Carnival when the Spanish and then British-ruled Trinidad & Tobago.
There was even a period in 1877 where the British government tried to ban aspects of the Carnival. They found parts of Carnival offensive including the drumming. Drumming was mainly done by instruments made out of bamboo with stamping tubes and some metal containers and some scrap metal.
Replies
Greetings Jason (Skywalker). Good story about Melo Groove. It wonderful to see that you are still pushing the cultural scene. You need to beef up your understanding of the history of the steelpan. There are several publications out there.
... and everybody has a DIFFERENT HISTORY!!!