United Kingdom - On a bright and warm summer’s evening on Saturday May 30th the premises of the UKCCA in Luton was filled with the sweet strains of steelband music emitted from the seven steelbands dotted around their grounds running their last pract
Read more…Caribbean Steel International was originally formed in 2004 with three members. After obtaining invaluable experience from working with some of the top steel bands in the UK, Trinidad and Japan, they decided it would be a great idea to form a small g
Read more…Global - Exactly eleven years ago (June 7, 2008) the steelpan music community lost one its finest musicians. Frank “Crawl” Findley of Desperadoes in Trinidad and D'Radoes in New York was simply poetry in motion. When Steel Talks remembers and salutes
Read more…
Global - Ray Holman is one of the pivotal figures in the history of the steelpan movement. This legendary stalwart has left his extraordinary mark as an arranger, writer, and performing and recording artist. When Steel Talks had the pleasure of inter
New York -As daylight dimmed, on Saturday May 30, the half-moon showered a bright silver glow over the Premier Baptist Church (PBC) at the corner of Tilden and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn, where the Rev. Robert Watler pastors. Inside, parishioners wait
New York - It was the power of Praise, right alongside the Power of Pan at the Premier Baptist Church (PBC) in Brooklyn last Friday. Music director and arranger Khuent Rose on steelpans joined with a couple other musicians to give those already comfo
New York - It appears that the future of Steelpan music at Lincoln Center may be nothing more than "Dead Man Walking." In what has to be one of the most glaring acts of total disregard and one of the ugliest insults the instrument has suffered in its
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Neville Jules turned 82 (91 in 2018) last week. At the Duke Street panyard, even the young players call him Cap. They see him around Hell Yard, a shrine to pan, but can’t fully fathom his weight. Founder of Trinidad All Star
Maryland, USA - Holiday weekend - check; great weather - check; spacious venue - check; dedicated steelband event organizers - check; eager and talented groups of steelpan musicians, anxious to unveil their repertoire - check; delicious and irresisti
Read more…North Brentwood Steelband Organization’s Got it Goin’ on - sets the 2009 Bar Real High Maryland, USA - When Steel Talks (WST) departed Brooklyn at 5:40 a.m. to catch the 8:05 Washington-bound Amtrak train stopping off at 11:04 a.m. in Maryland - the
Read more…
Global - The time period is whenever - the setting and place is wherever - and the agenda is good music. That’s pretty much all you need to know about producer, performer, composer and recording artist Andy Narell's latest project called the “Univers
Hamilton, Bermuda, W.I. - Very much in the belief that “you have to know where you come from in order to know where you are going,” as Bermuda celebrates its 400th Anniversary, they have chosen to include African traditions during the Bermuda Day Par
Happy Birthday Neville Jules - Steelpan Titan revisited in WST Interview
There are a collective few who bear the distinction of being universally recognized as members of that unique, and special fraternity we at When Steel Talks refer to as Giants a
New York, New York - The NYU Steel Pan Ensemble, under the direction of Josh Quillen, recently took the stage of New York University’s Loewe Theatre to present an evening full of music for steel band. In addition to his work with So Percussion, Quill
Read more…The Annual Spring Concert of Boston Steelbands - Hope for the future of Pan in Boston
Massachusetts, USA - Over the most recent decade Boston has experienced fluctuations in steelpan musicianship. In the last year there have been two heartening deve
Denmark - His bio states that the sound of Trinidadian steel drums are reinvented and combined with contemporary pop music to create the global fusion that is the outcome of his approach - and that he is an accomplished steel panist, singer and songw
Denmark - In an exclusive interview with When Steel Talks (WST), Danish recording/artist/panist/arranger/composer Sune Borregaard speaks on the Hollywood film “Finder of Lost Children” which features his original pan score.
Sune shares how he became
France - Many times in the arts you come across talent and work that are so compelling that words are not needed, and language is not a barrier. Indeed such is the case with the work of François Lachèze.
François, who is a steelpan lover and former
Composer Jan Bach
and the Steelpan
The first concerto ever written for steelpan and orchestra
Illinois, USA - “Concerto for Steelpan and Orchestra” - the work of composer and educator Dr. Jan Bach of Northern Illinois University (NIU) - was most rec
