As many people know, Trinidad is where “steel drums” originated, using left over 55 gallon oil drums just after WWII. Actually, these drums aren’t drums at all, since that would imply a stretched membrane of some sort. The term “pan” is the more accurate term for these instruments (think frying pan), and the people of Trinidad and Tobago remain unrivaled in the art of building and tuning steel pans. They are also the most accomplished in playing these instruments, with young children learning from the early grades in school. There aren’t many symphonic bands, traditional marching bands, or jazz bands in schools in Trinidad. If you see an orchestra in Trinidad, it’s made up of pans – sometimes more than one hundred. When we got word from a fellow cruiser that Jesse James, the native tour guide, taxi driver, and uber cruiser resource, was setting up a Friday night “Lime and Pan Yard crawl”, we had to check it out. You might ask, “what is Lime?”, or “what is a pan yard“. Lime, or liming is kicking back and relaxing with friends over conversation and a few cold refreshments. Trinidadians do a lot of liming - we call it “chilling”. A pan yard is an open air space where orchestras build, tune, and practice steel pan. There are pan yards all over Trinidad, especially in the capitol city of Port of Spain.
So many notes in each pan pic by Walter sv Flying Cloud
The big ones
Jesse picked up our group of nine cruisers around six o’clock and our first stop was for dinner at a local fast food buffet that really hit the spot. We then drove to a major pan yard that was not revved up yet. Jesse was told it might be another half hour before anything would be happening. He took that cue to drive by the Renegade pan yard where a crowd was starting to form outside. We learned that there was a special event with a total of four pan bands, with the Renegades as the “headliner”. The entry fee was $100tt per couple or $16US. When fellow cruiser Mark, who happens to be a Trinidad veteran and student of all things pan, said “this is a no-brainer”, we were all in. Each band was set up under tents with about 40 or so players. To the side there were bleachers plus a concession stand with $10tt cold refreshments (about $1.50US). The first band started and we just stood in amazement. We had no idea there were so many different sizes and configurations - from soprano pans with up to 30 different notes to bass pans with sometimes only three notes, with the player using up to six pans. Each band had a drum set and other assorted percussion instruments such as congas and timbales. The first band had a player with a brake hub which is actually an instrument used widely in Trinidad before the advent of steel pan. I even got a quick brake lesson after the first set was over. If you didn’t know you were listening to pan music, you might think you were hearing a pop music instrumental. The tunes were mostly familiar and arranged to showcase each section in the band. The sound was simply amazing and if you didn’t know better, you thought you were hearing strings, horns, and even guitars. The big pan orchestras are starting to gear up for the Trinidad Carnival, which essentially takes up the whole month of February. The big competition is called Panorama, and the orchestras will be in full force with their entire lineup of 100+ players. I’m told there is nothing else like it in the world. Tom
Learning to play the "iron" aka brake hub pic by Walter sv Flying Cloud
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